Faculty: No savior needed at UNM-Gallup

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — “We don’t need a savior ... ”That was the comment made by Ken Roberts, head of the faculty senate at the University of New Mexico-Gallup Friday as he talked about plans to replace Beth Miller as executive director of the campus.

Faculty members said they were stunned to hear of Miller’s decision to step down on Wednesday to take another position within UNM, helping to create a new campus in Rio Rancho.

Robert’s remarks stemmed from a history at the branch of directors being thoroughly disliked by most of the faculty and staff at the time they leave the college.

That’s the situation that occurred when Miller stepped in as interim director six years ago, when Robert Carlson stepped down. At that time, it would have been hard to find anyone on campus who was upset at his leaving and who didn’t welcome Miller as someone who would end the dissension that plagued the college for several years.

By about the third year of Miller’s tenure, things began to change as more faculty and staff began complaining that she was becoming uncommunicative and that her decisions were being increasingly arbitrary. Factions began developing, and eventually the anti-Miller faction started gaining dominance to the point where last spring the faculty senate passed a resolution, giving her a vote of no confidence.

The situation then improved somewhat, with Miller vowing to communicate with the faculty and to solicit more input from faculty members before making major policy decisions.

Roberts referred to this situation when he began Friday’s faculty senate meeting by saying, “this is not a time for celebrations or recriminations.”

Instead, he and others are now looking forward to a new era at the branch and are hoping the new director will manage to sidestep many of the land mines that the other directors failed to avoid.

Richard Holder is deputy provost of the main campus in Albuquerque and is in charge until an acting director is appointed. While addressing teachers Friday, he said the decision of who will be named acting director will be made by the provost on the main campus, Vi Florez. Holder indicated earlier in the week that he was aware of tensions that still existed on campus and felt that this would be taken into consideration in any appointment.

Holder plans to meet with the campus’ advisory committee on Wednesday to get their input into the selection of an acting director.

He also said that UNM plans to conduct a nationwide search for a permanent director. College officials said that a branch college director makes between $110,000 to $125,000 a year. That compares to the $125,000 contract that the Gallup-McKinley Public School Board recently agreed to give to its new superintendent.

The good thing about the situation today, said Roberts, is in the last several months, changes have been made which give faculty members more of a role in college affairs than ever before.

Miller created a college cabinet, and five representatives of the faculty serve on it and are able to voice their opinions on many policy decisions.

“This is an extremely positive experience,” Roberts said, adding that this has set a different kind of atmosphere on the campus for teachers. “We don’t need a savior to come in and run our daily lives,” he said. “We are quite capable of doing that ourselves.”