Good morning.

It has been great seeing the population of this campus swell with new and returning students. Thanks to everyone from Student Affairs, Student Activities, Student Health and the departments and student groups that organized a memorable week of Welcome Back Days. I’d like to also thank all of the alumni who returned to UNM to serve hot dogs both on our main and north campuses.

There’s nothing better than starting the semester with a week of free food. Now that Welcome Back Days are done, you’ll have to make your own food choices. Thanks to our campus wellness initiative, many of those choices will actually be good for you. There are dietician-approved healthy food options offered by several of our vendors at the Student Union. They are signified by a big red stylized heart, so you can easily recognize them.

I strongly recommend that everyone who has yet to sign onto the campus-wide emergency notification system to please do so. When there are true emergencies that impact the entire campus, we want to be able to notify you quickly through email alerts, text messages and other avenues. UNM’s notification system also allows you to sign up parents for the instant alerts. So please sign up. It’s important. Go to the Emergency Notification System link on the UNM home page (www.unm.edu), log-in using your NetID and follow the prompts from there.

As you may have seen in the news, there were several recent incidents involving three of our fraternities that led to their emergency suspensions. The kind of behavior that warranted these suspensions cannot and will not be tolerated on this campus. I also don’t want to see the entire Greek system condemned by the actions of a few. So I’ve directed a task force of high-level members of the UNM family as well as from the community to look into the recent history of incidents involving these houses and determine how best to ensure they are not repeated. I also want the group to determine how best to strengthen the values of service and community that are really what the Greek system is all about.

A couple of major dedications for campus facilities are coming up this week. Tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11 a.m., we will be honored to welcome Senator Pete Domenici for the dedication of the Domenici Center for Health Sciences Education at 1001 Stanford NE on our north campus. It’s quite a magnificent structure and we’d like to invite all of you to come by, greet our senior Senator and tour the building.

On Wednesday, we’ll be dedicating the Indoor Practice Facility next to University Stadium. If you haven’t seen it, just drive south on University past the Pit and football stadium. Look to the east. You can’t miss it.

The Lobo football team travels to El Paso at the end of the week to open their season against UTEP. Let’s wish them well. And I’m happy to report that more than 3,000 of our students have signed up for the free city bus rides.

Have a good week. Go Lobos!
David J. Schmidly

Good morning and welcome back!

I’m looking forward to joining everyone for Welcome Back Days activities all week. We kicked it off in grand style yesterday with the Freshman Family Day event. Today, my team and I will be dishing up ice cream out by the Duck Pond. Come by between 11:45 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. I’ll look forward to meeting as many of you as I can.

This is my 81st day on the job and there are several documents my leadership team and I have been working on since day one. Now they are ready to share with the entire University community. You can find them on the President’s page on the UNM website at www.unm.edu/president.

One is a vision document for UNM, which we’re calling “UNM in the 21st Century – A New President’s Vision.” You can see what my team and I view as the future of this great university and how we’re going to get there.

At their regular meeting last week, the UNM Regents approved an ambitious set of goals and major milestones for my first year. We’ve already made progress on some of these goals, such as last week’s signing of the new partnership with CNM. It’s important to note that the work plan imbedded in this document will be the basis for my annual evaluation and in turn the evaluations of the leadership team and their staffs. When it comes to the goals and deliverables for the university, we are all in this together.

With the data and expertise of the office of Institutional Research, we’ve developed a five-year academic ledger for the university, which gives everyone direct access to information about how UNM is doing in key areas. A similar one is currently being developed for the Health Sciences Center. We’re also posting the President’s Report that is prepared for each meeting of the UNM Regents. It’s my update for them on the operations and activities of this university.

I encourage everyone to take a look at these documents and offer your comments and suggestions by emailing me at unmpres@unm.edu. I look forward to learning your take on the promises and challenges of this coming year.

I’m developing a good working relationship with the UNM Retiree Association and have recommended that the Regents add the retirees’ president to their list of advisors. The Regents agreed that this addition will bring a wealth of institutional knowledge to their meetings.

Finally, it was wonderful joining the students Friday night when we turned on the lights at Johnson Field. Congratulations to our student leaders past and present for their work and perseverance.

Have a great week.
David J. Schmidly

Good morning.

I’d like to welcome back our entire faculty, and I look forward to joining you for a successful and productive academic year.

This will be a remarkably busy week. Today, the Regents are meeting with me and the executive vice presidents to discuss the vision, goals and working plan for the university that we’ve been crafting over the summer. Following their input, we’ll be ready to roll that plan out.

Tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday), CNM President Cathy Winograd and I will be making a joint announcement about our partnership to provide for the academic success of students on both of our campuses in Albuquerque as well as for the higher education needs in Rio Rancho. This signals a strengthened working relationship between UNM and CNM. Our Regents will be considering that new memorandum of understanding during their regular meeting tomorrow, as will CNM’s governing board.

I’ve been impressed with all of the “wellness” initiatives on this campus. They’re good for health and for morale. This week, HR and the Employee Health Promotion team will be launching a pilot “mini-grants” program – providing grants to departments that come up with creative wellness initiatives. There will be an information session for department reps from 10 a.m. – noon Wednesday in the SUB Lobo Room. I encourage campus-wide participation in this exciting endeavor.

On Wednesday and Thursday, a number of us from UNM will be traveling to our branch campus and the community of Taos. We’ve got a packed schedule, with live radio remotes with students, a tour of the branch campus and a tour of the wonderful Harwood Museum. We’ll be meeting with the town council, state legislators and the editorial staff of the Taos News. We’ll also be driving out to the D.H. Lawrence Ranch, as well as visiting Governor Suazo and the Taos Pueblo. UNM has so many ties to this area. I look forward to a productive visit.

Finally this week, we’ll also be dedicating the new home of the Albuquerque Institute of Mathematics and Science @ UNM, which is the charter school UNM helps sponsor. AIMS’ new home is the old Social Security Building next to our research park. In its third year of existence, this school is a dynamic resource for our university.

Enjoy your week.

David J. Schmidly

Good morning.

A few weeks ago, I told you about my visit in Rio Rancho with business and community leaders. There is a real hunger for higher education in that city and their leaders have made it clear they want UNM to play a major role in providing it.

Over the summer, I’ve had several meetings with CNM President Cathy Winograd and her leadership team about Rio Rancho. More are scheduled this week. What we are working on is an ambitious higher education plan for this fast growing area, one that combines the best services from both institutions on one campus. Working together, we can also share resources and save taxpayers’ money. I believe this will be an innovative collaboration that will serve as a model throughout the state.

I will also begin to have regular meetings with Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez. UNM has been called “the city within the city,” so it makes a lot of sense to work closely with Albuquerque’s leadership to develop city/university partnerships. Our service learning projects are already working within a number of Albuquerque neighborhoods. In my conversations with Mayor Chávez, I will be discussing his exciting new initiatives that focus on China, and we will determine the roles UNM can play in furthering those initiatives.

Meanwhile, another project that will directly benefit our students is going into effect this month. Thanks to NM State Rep. Gail Chasey, UNM received a legislative appropriation that allows UNM students to ride city buses free of charge. It will be a great way for them to save money on gas and avoid parking lot congestion. The details will be worked out in time for the fall semester, and we’re planning a big media event to get the word out.

Finally, we’ll be hosting U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman on campus tomorrow (Tuesday). He wants to discuss the Higher Education Act reauthorization with graduate students who will have a special stake in the legislation. He’d also like to talk to Pell Grant recipients about proposed changes in funding levels. If you’d like to share your views with Senator Bingaman, join us tomorrow at 2 p.m. in the Willard Reading Room of Zimmerman Library.

I hope you enjoy the last of the summer break. Have a good week.

David J. Schmidly