DAILY LOBO new mexico
Reach for the arts
summer
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June 11-17 2012
The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
New president still has a lot to learn
WHY SO SERIOUS?
by Svetlana Ozden sozden@unm.edu
Adria Malcolm / Daily Lobo The three-day Albuquerque Comic Expo was held at the Albuquerque Convention Center last weekend, attracting comic and sci-fi enthusiasts and industry professionals alike. Max Maclennan, manager of Astro Zombies Comics, said comic conventions have grown in popularity since the release of movies such as “The Dark Knight” and “Avengers.” The expo included booths for video gaming, magic card games, panels featuring comic legends and hundreds of spectators dressed as characters, such as Danny Casillas (pictured above) who posed for a portrait as the Joker.
UNM President Robert Frank began his first week as president June 4. In President Frank’s Weekly Perspective, Frank said the first 120 days of his presidency will include a listening campaign aimed at improving all aspects of UNM by including the voice of UNM staff, students and faculty. He said the process is called UNM 2020, and he will turn to UNM to become better acquainted with the University. “I will look to you to learn about the University’s history, culture, people, programs, areas of excellence and your vision for the future,” he said in his weekly address. “I will be learning about our existing areas of distinction as well as identifying opportunities that will help us enhance educational quality, drive research and build national visibility.” In his weekly address, Frank said he will learn what sets the University apart from its peers and focus on quality education and research in order to increase national visibility. Frank said he plans to listen to students’ concerns and hopes to foster a community
where students are encouraged to participate, but added that some decisions cannot wait. “In a business as large and complex as UNM, we cannot simply stop everything to think about our future,” he said. “We will make decisions that require immediate attention. When possible, we will delay strategic decisions until our UNM 2020 vision is completed.” According to the Office of the President website, Frank is the 21st president of UNM and his presidency began June 1. On the website, Frank said the opportunity to be president at UNM “is the most exciting opportunity (he) can imagine.” Director of University Communication and Marketing Cinnamon Blair said former president David Schmidly will be on sabbatical for the next year and intends to work on three different books that he is writing during that time. Blair said Schmidly will return to UNM as a full-time biology professor after his sabbatical. Frank was unavailable for comment as of Sunday. ~Avicra Luckey contributed to this report.
Provost seeks money for faculty retention by Elizabeth Cleary and Svetlana Ozden
right problem,” he said. “It will send the right message that, to our faculty, that the administranews@dailylobo.com tion and Board of Regents are UNM is millions of dollars behind aware of the importance and urits peers in terms of faculty pay and gency of these issues.” He said other universities are as a result is at risk of losing faculty recruiting UNM’s faculty memmembers, administrators say. Provost Chaouki Abdallah said he bers and offering them more was allocated $100,000 last semes- money. “I just got an email yesterter to boost faculty pay. At the June 7 day from one Board of Regents dean where we Finance and Fahave two faculty cilities Committee members, a coumeeting, Abdallah ple, and they’re said this amount being recruited is proving to be by universities insufficient and who are not betrequested an adter than UNM ditional $500,000 necessarily, but for be allocated tothe retention ofward boosting facfer would cost us ulty pay. ~Bernd Bassalleck He said that physics and astronomy about $40,000 to keep these two,” last year, UNM chairman he said. was $8 million on He said one average behind its peers in total faculty pay, and this faculty member, who has brought year it is $10 million on average be- in $27 million in funded research, is making only $120,000 annuhind its peers. The provost isn’t asking for more ally when his market value is money. He’s asking that a portion $180,000. Abdallah said it’s more useful of the $2 million allocated toward hiring new faculty members as part to retain successful faculty memof his academic plan be instead bers than hire new ones. “A majority opinion was that used to pay more to existing faculty members. The committee passed a it’s more efficient to retain and reward approvably good faculty motion to reallocate the funds. “This (money) will not be suf- members than to hire new ones at ficient to completely address the market value,” he said.
“Over the last year, we failed twice in attracting new, toprated experimental faculty members,”
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 116
issue 156
Brittney King / Daily Lobo Board of Regents member James Koch talks during the Regent’s Finance and Facilities Committee meeting. The committee discussed re-allocating funding for the provost’s academic plan to improve faculty retention. He did cite one downside to his proposed reallocation of funds: to reallocate funds away from hiring new faculty and toward retaining existing faculty won’t lower UNM’s high student-to-faculty ratio. Bernd Bassalleck, chairman of the physics and astronomy department, stood up during the meeting and said his department has a hard time recruiting quality faculty due to inadequate facilities in the physics building on north campus.
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He said the labs in the building are out of date and that the building has sewage problems. “Over the last year, we failed twice in attracting new, top-rated experimental faculty members,” Bassalleck said in an email. “And in both cases our completely inadequate building infrastructure played an important role.” Abdallah did not return an email request for further comment. The regents Finance and
Facilities Committee Chairman Don Chalmers said administrators need to be proactive and, as a preventative measure, make contracts with faculty they’re in danger of losing. “I think we need to send that message to the faculty that we’re behind this,” he said. “We just don’t have all the money. We do not have all the money to do all the things we want to do, so we’re going to have to prioritize.”
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