President David Schmidly’s five-year career at UNM will come to an end in July when President-select Robert Frank takes office.
A retirement reception was held in Schmidly’s honor on the lawn of the University House Thursday afternoon. Schmidly said he plans to return to UNM during the fall of 2013 as a faculty member in the biology department.
“What I’m really excited about is getting back with the students,” he said. “I like to teach. I like to be around people, so I consider myself very fortunate that I get to end my career this way,” he said.
Looking back on his time as president, Schmidly said he feels his time at UNM has been productive.
“I think we’ve gotten a lot done. There have been a lot of challenges, particularly financial, but I feel good about it,” Schmidly said.
While many higher education institutions, such as the University of California school system, have had to increase tuition rates by nearly 20 percent over the last five years, UNM has kept tuition increases at about 1 percent above the rate of inflation, according to a report by the president’s office outlining major achievements from the past five years. But tuition and fees at UNM still rose to $5,809 from $4,109, or by about 41 percent, according to UNM Fact Book. Student fees also increased under his administration, and $50 per student of the increase next year will go to the Athletics Department.
Schmidly said that during his administration, an increase in student enrollment helped offset budget problems because it brought in more tuition, allowing the school to make smaller increases in tuition rate.
Some of the accomplishments achieved during Schmidly’s presidency include an increase in number of national scholars who attend UNM, and more students are attending UNM than ever before. Enrollment for fall 2011 at all campuses was 36,742, up from 32,086 in fall 2007.
In 2008, Schmidly was troubled with concerns over the salaries of administration versus those of faculty. He was accused of favoring part-time instructors over tenure-track professors because of their lower cost.
Schmidly says he has no regrets about his term, despite making some changes that students did not favor.
“You can’t make everybody happy; that’s never going to happen,” he said. “That’s one of things you have to learn about being in this role. I don’t think students were happy about the increase in the student athletic fee and I can understand that.”
As his five-year term comes to an end, Schmidly said he has tried to make student success a priority. He said one initiative he thinks improves students’ experiences is the way academic advising is structured, although one of the concerns students brought up at a forum early March with Frank was that there were too few advisers.
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Schmidly was treated for pancreatic cancer in 2010, but he told the Daily Lobo earlier this year that health was not a factor in his decision not to renew his contract.
“My health is much better, and it’s really heading in the right direction,” he said. “For 40 years all I have done is higher education work. Now I’ve got more books to write, more papers to write, and I like teaching. I always said I would not finish my career as a college president.”
Since he has not taught as a college professor in nearly 25 years, UNM’s 20th president said he is interested in seeing how students have changed in regard to learning styles.
Before he returns to the classroom, he said he will continue his research in zoology. He plans on continuing his extensive study of mammals in the Southwest and Mexico, particularly deer mice.
One honor that Schmidly is fond of is having a species of deer mice, Peromyscus schmidlyi, named after him by a former student.
David J. Schmidly was selected as the 20th president of the University of New Mexico on Oct. 7, 2007. Prior to taking office at UNM, Schmidly served as the system CEO and president of at Oklahoma State University from 2002-2007. Schmidly has also served as president of Texas Tech University, and spent 25 years in various positions at Texas A&M, according to the president’s website.
