President Schmidly and his administration received their latest “no-confidence vote” in a town hall meeting UNM-Gallup students held Friday.
Student Senate President Josephine Brown said she hopes the vote brings ongoing issues to light.
“Now we are waiting to see what happens next,” she said. “Hopefully, we can work as a team to meet the needs of the students here at UNM-Gallup and UNM-Zuni.”
This latest no-confidence resolution marks Schmidly’s fourth. UNM faculty voted no confidence in him Feb. 25, 2009 followed by GPSA on March 3, 2009 and the KUNM volunteers Aug. 26, 2009.
The resolution said Schmidly and his staff repeatedly ignored meeting requests, provided improper leadership to assist the school’s executive director, ignored complaints of racial discrimination by his staff and expressed a general disregard for issues important to Gallup students.
A panel that included Breda Bova, the president’s chief of staff, discussed the grievances listed in the Aug. 25 resolution on Schmidly’s behalf.
Bova said that the University has taken steps to improve Gallup’s campus climate.
“The success of all of the students on the Gallup and Zuni campuses is our top priority and substantive steps have been taken to address the many issues they feel impede that success,” Bova said in a memo addressed to Gallup student leadership.
Since Joan Green replaced former Student Services Director Paul Kraft, things have began to improve, Brown said. She said under Kraft’s leadership, students lacked basic resources, such as tutoring.
Nearly 350 UNM-G students participated in a Student Senate-conducted survey about what resources they’d like have on campus.
Brown said they plan to use the data to track the University’s progress at handling the grievances listed in the resolution. She said she wants the curriculum committee to add more evening and weekend classes to accommodate students who work full time.
Bova said Green has taken measures to ensure student success, like the development of a veteran’s center. She said Green also plans to hire a program manager for the child-care facility.
“Green has been working with students on a regular basis and developed a protocol within the office to work with students, as well as developing a database of names of students who have requested accommodation letters for fall 2010,” Bova said.
CORRECTION:
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Contrary to what was printed, the no-confidence vote was taken by the leadership of the Gallup Student Senate as part of the Aug. 25 list of grievances, not in Friday’s student town hall.
