Good morning.

We start with hearty congratulations to the five UNM professors who have been promoted to the rank of UNM Distinguished Professor – the highest faculty rank at the university.  These are the teachers and scholars who have achieved renown on a national and international scale, who bring recognition to our outstanding faculty, and who are instrumental to UNM achieving greatness.  Please join me in honoring Jeff Brinker, Chemical and Nuclear Engineering; Patricia Crown, Anthropology; Suleiman Kassicieh, Management of Technology at the Anderson School of Management; Barbara McCrady, Psychology; and Gerald Vizenor, American Studies. Congratulations to you all.

Last week, student and faculty leaders joined a number of department heads to understand and tackle the challenges the current spike in energy costs has created for students, faculty and staff.  They brainstormed several fast-track initiatives, some of which could be in place as early as this coming semester.  Among the initiatives are common sense approaches, but also other ideas that definitely reflect out of the box thinking.  I’ll be reviewing the group’s report in the next few days and will share with you the recommendations we will implement quickly and evaluate during the fall semester.

I hope you’ve read my letter to the UNM community about proposed policy revisions dealing with public records.  These revisions, which I will recommend be adopted, represent a compromise - one that provides the maximum protection to employees while in my view keeping us compliant with both the letter and spirit of the law. I invite you to review the revisions at http://www.unm.edu/~ubppm/  They will be discussed at the August 12 Board of Regents meeting.

Tomorrow, I will join CNM President Kathy Winograd and Rio Rancho leaders for the signing of an important memorandum of understanding.  This MOU is the direct result of master planning activities that have been going on for several months, and it promises cooperative work on all issues to be addressed during the planning and development of the Rio Rancho City Center, the CNM campus and the UNM campus.  It also defines the responsibilities for a Joint Master Planning Task Force.  Bottom line, this MOU will help get things done in Rio Rancho.

Finally, this is good time to remind you of several of the great benefits that come with working at UNM. Faculty and staff can save up to 50% on tickets to Popejoy shows and now you have until August 30 to order your tickets.   I invite you to visit http://popejoypresents.com/unm.htm for more details, or call Popejoy at 277-8010 for a brochure.

Also, faculty/staff season tickets for Lobo football are now on sale.  Tickets are 1/2 price for the six home games that will feature TCU, Texas A & M, Arizona, Wyoming, San Diego State and Utah. That’s an impressive lineup.  For more information, call the ticket office at 925-LOBO.

Have a great week.

David J. Schmidly

Good morning.

For the past year, this university’s theme has been to “Connect.” We got to know one another, we established partnerships with CNM and other institutions, we secured our presence in Rio Rancho and we connected with communities all across New Mexico.

This coming year, I propose that UNM focus on the theme “Communicate.”  Failure to communicate has been our greatest weakness this past year.  Embracing open and honest communication will prove to be our greatest strength.

UNM’s executive team spent a day communicating last week.  We focused our thoughts around the following challenge:  The greatest opportunity for excellence at UNM is to produce from the unique mix of New Mexico’s diverse population the workforce, leaders, health care providers and scholars that will contribute to the social and economic vitality of our state, region and nation.  I’d like you all to think about this goal in the coming days, weeks and months.  It is one that is worth pursing, but we’ll be successful only if everyone pulls together in that pursuit.

The Advance (remember, we don’t have “retreats”) discussion was enlivened with the views of the new members of the executive team, including our new Provost, Chief Information Officer and Vice Presidents for Enrollment Management and for Equity and Inclusion.  It was great to see everyone join together – new and veteran faces alike – with a vitality that promises greatness for the future of UNM.

You may have heard that our student-athletes achieved a combined GPA of 3.11 for the 2008 spring semester. Not only is that a school record, but also it was the biggest improvement in GPA from semester to semester in the past 20 years.  This is an academic achievement we all can celebrate, because it shows that the hard work of the faculty, students, coaches, advisors and mentors has paid off.  Congratulations to you all.

This coming Saturday, approximately 3,000 APS students will descend on the Pit to pick up new backpacks filled with school supplies.  You’ll recall UNM students and student-athletes joined students from Highland High and Albuquerque High in stuffing the backpacks as part of a research service-learning project.  It’s been a great experience and grand collaboration for everyone involved.

I’ll be spending the next few days with family.  I hope you too take the opportunity to rest and refresh for the coming year.

Have a great week.

David J. Schmidly

Good morning.

Last Monday, President Bush signed into law the most sweeping change in the GI Bill since the program was begun in the days following World War II. Under the revisions, veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan will be eligible for nearly twice the tuition and housing funds they are presently getting.  It’s long overdue, and it will have a profound and favorable impact on life here at the University of New Mexico.

Although the new provisions won’t go into effect until August of next year, veterans currently enrolled will get an interim 20 percent bump in benefits.  Beginning in the fall semester of 2009, veterans will be able to get a four-year degree at no cost.  For the first time ever, they can transfer benefits to their spouses and children. New benefits are also included for National Guard members and reservists.

The original GI Bill gave an entire generation of World War II veterans the chance to secure a college education, and in so doing, it helped shape the nation we live in today.  It also transformed academia, changing the face of colleges and universities across the nation.

Here at UNM, I want to make it a priority for us to meet the challenge of serving the brave young men and women who will soon be trading combat fatigues for jeans and Lobos T-shirts.  The adjustment from military to civilian student life isn’t always an easy one, and we want to provide these veterans – and their families – with all the counseling and special assistance they need and desire.  We’re already working to ensure that they fully avail themselves of all the resources our grateful nation and generous community has to offer.

This past week, UNM and CNM started formalizing details of their “2+2” program with the signing of a transfer agreement that allows CNM students who earn an associate degree in liberal arts to transfer into UNM’s College of Arts and Sciences.  They will be able to apply credits and courses from CNM directly
toward graduation requirements in A&S and can come in as juniors.  This will be a tremendous potential pool for UNM as CNM has 3,600 declared associate of arts students.  This also creates that student success pipeline we’ve been talking about – the one we believe will motivate students to complete their degrees.  I join interim Provost Vi Florez in commending A&S Dean Brenda Claiborne and her team for believing in the value of this agreement and doing the work to get it done.

This coming week, my leadership team and I will spend a long day off campus beginning to chart our next year of work for the university.  I think it’s important to remember that we are always moving forward at UNM.  So we don’t hold retreats.  This will be our second annual “Advance.”  I’m looking forward to some lively discussions.

Have a good week.

David J. Schmidly

Good morning.

I hope you had a fine 4th of July holiday weekend.  We’re back in full stride and anticipating some major initiatives for the remainder of the summer.

With gasoline hitting $4 a gallon in New Mexico, our main priority will be addressing the immediate transportation challenges our students, faculty and staff are facing.  As you know, we launched the four-day compressed work week so that UNM employees could save 20 percent on their commute costs.  We’ll be evaluating this energy-saving tactic to determine if it worked well enough to extend through the fall.

Now we have to expand our thinking and actually re-think how all of you get to campus each day.  With gas prices continuing to rise, there is a real threat that some of our students will have to put off their education. There is real hardship for faculty and staff who are paying a great deal more just to get to work.

We’ll do this in two steps.  First, we’ve scheduled a fast-track solution assessment on July 24.   Its goal will be to identify transportation and other solutions that can be quickly implemented and evaluated through the fall semester, and it will involve representatives from city and regional transit.  This assessment will be looking at tactics like streamlined bus service and expanded use of the Rail Runner.

Later this fall, the second phase of this initiative will feature a “rapid redesign” of processes, systems and infrastructures that will address UNM’s energy challenges with an eye toward long-term sustainability.  Along with transportation, we’ll be looking at issues pertaining to work and class schedules, distance education, housing and telecommuting.

Just as we’re being asked to change our behavior when it comes to using energy at work, we’ll have to consider changing the ways we get to campus.  There will be a number of options from which to choose in order to make this a successful endeavor.

I’m pleased with the excellent attention UNM is giving one of its most important constituencies – parents. Our Parent Association and Parent Relations Office are providing wonderful services - keeping parents informed and involved.  Now we’re hosting a boot camp of sorts for parents of high school students, immersing them in the college experience during a two-day, one night program July 18 – 19.  This will give them the information they need to support their student’s goal of going to college.

Finally, some great news about the continued success of our student-athletes.  UNM placed 94 individuals on the Spring 2008 All-Mountain West Conference team, second only to BYU.  These student-athletes maintain a 3.0 GPA or better and contribute significantly to their teams. Also, special congratulations go to the Lobo women’s tennis team and their head coach, Kathy Kolankiewicz, for winning the NCAA Public Recognition Award.  Their academic progress report placed in the top 10 percent of all NCAA women’s tennis teams, which is a credit to their dedication to the classroom as well as the court.

Some of you have asked how to reply to my messages.  Simply e-mail me at unmpres@unm.edu.  I welcome all feedback.

Have a good week.

David J. Schmidly