Opinion

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Children's Campus employees not valued or paid enough

Editor, According to the payroll directory on reserve in Zimmerman Library, President David Schmidly makes almost $400,000 annually. David Harris, his executive vice president, makes almost $300,000 a year. While these cats speak of saving money in this time of economic strife, child care providers at the UNM Children's Campus make less than $20,000 a year.

Baby boomer administrators are ruining public education

Editor, Bravo! Richard M. Berthold's criticism of President David Schmidly was right on. Unfortunately, Schmidly is just a peon in the scope of mediocre, pit-bull administrators who have been put in place to forward the "new world order" agenda of oppression and fraud.

Staff raises should take priority over renovation of The Pit

Editor, President David Schmidly, I am extremely pissed and disillusioned to hear that The Pit will be renovated to a tune of $60 million when you have been sending us all these e-mails about how there are going to be budget cuts and, more importantly, you have asked staff to forego raises this year.

Regents need to use common sense for hiring, spending

Editor, Despite a spending and hiring freeze across the University and the distinct possibility that once again staff and faculty will receive no salary increase, the regents and President David Schmidly's overpaid administration feel it's OK to go ahead with the renovation of The Pit because the money comes from a different source.

Schmidly's actions won't give professors a reason to stay

Editor, As a UNM student, I am appalled and disappointed in President David Schmidly's decision to, among other things, halt the hiring and pay increases of professors. There are alternative ways of saving money. Other universities, like Florida International University, are successfully exploring a four-day college week.

Freeze should be placed on VPs' salaries, not professors'

Editor, Freezing hiring and salaries is just great. I wonder why it is always this way. Why would you freeze salaries just months after UNM hired so many vice presidents? President David Schmidly, why don't you tell the new VPs they shouldn't come to work because we don't have money for their salaries? Couldn't you tell them that with their salaries a good number of professors could get a little increase in theirs? What's next - increasing tuition? Increasing the football coach's salary? Or maybe what's next is a millionaire investment to renovate The Pit.

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UNM needs to solve problems by addressing them directly

Editor, President David Schmidly, you've been the man in charge of keeping this University running for more than a year now, and I don't have to tell you how important first impressions are for such a big job. Since last October, you have begun running UNM less like a university and more like a corporation.

Column: Abortion a modern-day injustice

I have often asked myself this question: If I lived during the time of legalized slavery, would I have recognized that slavery was unjust and opposed it, or would I have accepted it as part of normal, everyday life? As the saying goes, hindsight is 20-20. Americans recognize that slavery was unjust.

Schrader's lifestyle teaches responsible global citizenship

Editor, Why is it that so many people are threatened by Don Schrader's way of life? Is it because it points to the hypocrisy in our own lives? In Jason Graves' letter, he complains of judgmental criticism and then proceeds to do exactly that regarding Schrader.

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Obama must stand firm to address America's challenges

Editor, I was extremely disappointed at John McCain's and Sarah Palin's epic-scale loss on Tuesday, because I voted for them and wanted them to win this presidential election, and I believe they represent my basic moral values better than the Democrats. Joe Biden recently said that it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama and that there would be an international crisis to test the "mettle of this guy.

UNM needs to take measures to ensure pedestrian safety

Editor, I am excited about the University's declared commitment to a green initiative. I would hope this includes pedestrians. As I make my way from G Lot to the hospital and back, I encounter a sidewalk barricaded now for several weeks. University shuttles, work trucks and private cars and trucks all ignore the posted 20 mph speed limit.

Ask Dr. Peg

Dear Dr. Peg, If you are feeling sick, is there a way to determine if you have a bacterial versus viral infection without going to the clinic? For example, can you determine this by taking your temperature, observing swollen glands, having green snot or coughing up stuff? The short answer is no.

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Election has changed history, demolished internal barrier

Editor, I had my skepticisms about the way the country would act once in the privacy of the voting booth. This was a long time overdue. The election of Barack Obama has just rewritten our history books. This is the story of America: the underdog. We have constantly fought the barriers and criticisms of countries of the world, and now, within this election, we have demolished a barrier within our own border.

Obama victory a rejection of neoconservative ideology

Editor, Tuesday's election was more than simply a sweeping mandate for massive change in this country. It was a total and resounding rejection of the entire neoconservative ideology. No more will truly patriotic citizens like me have to endure being called un-American for simply disagreeing with an extremist fringe element of the minority party.

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Schmidly UNM's worst president

I have been hassling UNM presidents since Ferrel Heady in the early 1970s, and I must say that President David Schmidly appears to be setting new records for maladministration. I used to believe that Richard Peck was the worst CEO the University has had in the last 36 years, but after only a year, Schmidly looks to be leaving him in the dust.