DAILY LOBO new mexico
December 7, 2011
You voted, here it is. Lo Mejor! see pages 7-18
wednesday The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
The candidates UNM needs and deserves Editor’s Note: It’s down to the final five in the search for UNM’s next president. The Board of Regents announced the finalists during a closed meeting Monday morning and will conduct in-
person inter views with each finalist as well as review feedback from students and staff before officially select ing the University’s next president by Jan. 5. Public forums will be held
during finals week, where staff and students can meet the finalists and ask them questions. Today’s Daily Lobo features a brief biographical background on each candidate’s educational careers
and professional appointments, as well as an expression of their top three goals should they acquire the presidency. Look in tomorrow’s Daily Lobo for a continued question and answer session
with each candidate as well as demographical comparisons between UNM and the university’s from which each finalist comes.
Douglas D. Baker
Robert G. Frank
Meredith Hay
Elizabeth Hoffman
Elsa A. Murano
provost and executive vice president, University of Idaho
provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, Kent State University
special adviser to the chair for strategic initiatives, Arizona State University
executive vice president and provost, Iowa State University
professor and president emeritus, Texas A&M University
Bio
Bio
Bio
Bio
Bio
My first goal is to listen. During my first 100 days I would undertake a listening campaign to meet with critical UNM stakeholders
Meredith Hay has served as the special adviser to the chair for strategic initiatives for the Arizona Board of Regents since August of this year. From 2008 to August 2011, she served as executive vice president and provost of the University of Arizona. Hay was removed from her University of Arizona provost position last summer and reappointed as an adviser to the state’s university board of regents following mixed reviews of her controversial “Transformation Plan,” which saved funds for the university, but upset some faculty, according to the Tucson Sentinel. She received her Ph.D in cardiovascular pharmacology from the University of Texas. According to her résumé, Hay helped secure more than $1
Elizabeth Hoffman has been the executive vice president and provost at Iowa State University since 2007. From 2000 to 2005 she served as the president of the University of Colorado system, but resigned in 2005 amid controversy over former professor Ward Churchill’s comments comparing Sept. 11, 2001 victims to Nazis. Hoffman refused to fire Churchill and took fire from the state’s governor, after struggling with accusations that the university recruited high school football players with offers of alcohol and sex, according to the New York Times. She received a Ph.D. in economics from California Institute of Technology. She said she has helped raise retention and graduation rates at Iowa State and said she believes she can make similar changes at UNM by creating
Elsa Murano resigned from her position as Texas A&M University president after serving for only one year. The Texas university system gave Murano some of the lowest scores possible on a one-year performance evaluation. In March 2009, Texas A&M’s student newspaper, The Anthem, accused Murano of lying to the student body and student body president after she appointed a vice president of student affairs before receiving input on the selection from student forums. Murano refuted the claims in an open letter to the university. In her year as president, Murano says she developed an academic Master Plan for the university, jump-started the university’s international program by developing the
see Baker PAGE 3
see Frank PAGE 3
see Hay PAGE 3
see HoffmanPAGE 3
see Murano PAGE 6
by Luke Holmen and Charlie Shipley
our academic mission?’ ” he said. “Are we the University of New Mexico? Are we a university that happens to be in New Mexico? Are we a university that’s going to have open access, or be more selective and strive for excellence in fewer programs? Before we decide anything we need to answer the question of our identity first.” Abdallah said UNM faces a future in which state support for higher education is decreasing while tuition costs are rising. He said one of his short-term goals is to eliminate the state’s tuition credit. Abdallah said planning meetings for the academic plan are in early stages, but the UNM community will have the opportunity to weigh in on the plan in an electronic forum. He said the community’s response will help
determine the allocation of resources for years to come, and could even eliminate existing programs at UNM that aren’t part of its core mission. “Let’s say we decide we’re going to be a high-level research university with excellent undergraduate teaching, multi-discipline programs — we can put a price tag on it,” he said. “We can say ‘this is what it’s going to take, here’s how many faculty we should have, here’s how many students we should have per class.’ Those are the things the academic plan will start to ask and answer.”
he is waiting for a final report from the group in charge of the decision. “Personally, as a faculty (member) … I think this will allow us to provide a very nice opportunity for students from New Mexico who otherwise might not consider UNM and attract students from outside,” he said. “I think it would be a good place to have challenging and experimental type instructions that we would not have in a regular college.”
said. “What are your academic values? Do you believe UNM should be a flagship university? Will you fight for the academic side of the mission of the university? Are you pro-students, pro-big research? Those are value questions.” Abdallah said examining who each candidate has hired and how he or she has interacted with the community at the university he or she currently serves will provide clues about how they will fit in at UNM. “I’m very interested in seeing how they operate in an environment with regents and the community,” he said. “Are they fundraisers? Are they hands-on, do they get involved in the gritty details? Do they delegate?”
Douglas Baker has served as the provost and executive vicepresident of the University of Idaho since 2005. Before going to the University of Idaho, he served as the vice-provost for academic affairs and director of the Office of Undergraduate Education at Washington State University. Baker also taught courses in management, organizational behavior, organizational design, strategic planning and human resource management at WSU. He earned a Ph.D. in business from the University of Nebraska, a M.S. in management and B.S. in business from Colorado State University. 1. If you are selected as the next UNM president, what are your top three goals for improving the University? I think it’s really important
Robert Frank has been the provost and senior vice-president for academic affairs at Kent State University since 2007. According to his résumé, Frank increased student retention rates by more than 6 percent, streamlined promotion and tenure rules and improved tracking of students to ensure graduation. Frank graduated from Mayfield High School in Las Cruces and received three degrees from UNM including a Ph.D in clinical psychology. 1. If you are selected as the next UNM president, what are your top three goals for improving the University?
Provost expresses demand for academic plan news@dailylobo.com
UNM Interim Provost Chaouki Abdallah said that while the University has a long-term real estate Master Plan, the University has lacked a longterm plan for academics until now. “This is not something that the administration is doing,” he said. “This is something that I asked for, for a variety of reasons.” Abdallah said a key question facing UNM is whether to raise the bar on entrance standards and specialize in a select number of academic programs, or open the University’s doors to even more students. “The intent of this is to first answer the question, as a University, ‘what is
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 116
issue 74
Honors College Abdallah said he would like to see the Honors department become a full-fledged college at UNM, but
Orange chair exhibit
Fashion Q&A
See page 19
See page 20
The Presidential Search Abdallah said as the search for UNM’s next president reaches its final stages he will, above all else, be looking for candidates with strong moral character. “What do you believe in?” he
TODAY
36 |14