UNM Press will fire three employees on April 30, citing budgetary shortfalls and the economic downturn.
The Provost's Office has asked UNM Press, a publishing and distribution company for New Mexico publications, to consider outsourcing to prevent further financial problems, which could threaten other jobs.
President David Schmidly said in his December financial forum that he would avoid firings at all costs when the UNM administration addressed the economic crisis.
UNM spokeswoman Carolyn Gonzales said UNM Press is a "self-sustaining entity" that receives no University funding and is therefore independent of UNM's fiscal policies.
"This is something that's happening systemically across publishing," Gonzales said. "There are a number of presses that have closed altogether and others have cut back far more substantially, and so (UNM Press director) Luther Wilson . is trying to minimize the impact on UNM Press and remain viable."
Luther Wilson did not return phone calls Tuesday.
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In a letter dated Monday, Wilson informed Glenda Madden, one of the three employees to be fired, that the global economic crisis motivated the firings.
Madden is the manager of marketing and sales at UNM Press.
In addition to Madden, acquisitions editor Lisa Pacheco and one of two employees from UNM Press' publicity department will be fired, Madden said. The two publicity employees have to decide between themselves who is going to stay, Madden said.
"Although this has been a difficult decision, after reviewing the needs of the department in light of the current economic downturn and budget deficit, it has become necessary to restructure the University of New Mexico Press.." Wilson said in the letter.
Madden, who has been at UNM Press for about six years, said she was disappointed when her 33-year career at university presses ended so abruptly. She said Schmidly went back on his commitment to prevent firings across the University.
"Last week, the customer service and shipping staff were told there would be no layoffs, and Schmidly, of course, has said there will be no layoffs," she said. "Well, I got news for him - I got a letter right here."
Pacheco said UNM functions as UNM Press' banker and, therefore, the press is a department of the University.
"A lot of other university presses get some type of endowment or some type of funding from their parent universities, whereas we don't," Pacheco said. "So it's like we're expected to operate independently, but we're still a department within the University."
Wynn Goering, vice provost for Academic Affairs, said entities within the University that draw funding only from money they earned within their organization are therefore independent of Schmidly's promise.
"(Auxiliaries) operate on a different budget model," he said. "The president has done everything he can to protect jobs that fall in the Instructional and General category . and that's the part that's funded by state funds and student tuition dollars."
Goering said the Provost's Office recommended the press try to save money by outsourcing warehousing and distribution.
"The provost did ask UNM Press to explore the option of outsourcing, and that's a process that involves publishing a request for proposals where you solicit interest bids from people who do warehousing and distribution," he said.
Goering said UNM Press, which reports to the provost as a department of Academic Affairs, will compare costs of outsourcing warehousing and distribution before making the decision.
Outsourcing those departments could jeopardize the positions of nine full- and part-time university employees and three student employees.
"When you're doing (warehousing and distribution) yourself, it's largely a fixed-market enterprise," he said. "You're paying for the warehouse space, and you're paying for the staff to do this, and that works great when business is good and not so great when business is poor."
Pacheco started at UNM Press as an intern after she graduated in 2004 before being promoted to acquisitions editor. She said she doesn't know what she will do after she's fired.
"I'd really rather stick with what I'm doing, which is acquisitions for the University Press," she said. "I was pretty shocked and upset, because I've always believed in the press, and I loved my job."
