COLUMN: Ideas for future president

Published: Friday, November 15, 2002

Dear future president of UNM,

Salutations. Although you have yet to be hired, I'd like to be the first to welcome you to the UNM.

As with all universities, UNM is a community marked by culture and diversity. It is also a community in dire need of your help. As our next president, we hope that you are capable, assertive and willing to make sacrifices for our sake.

But before you get too comfortable, let me remind you of several things. Despite what the Board of Regents may have told you, your job will not be easy. As our figurehead, you are accepting a dangerous amount of responsibility. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will involve some serious forethought and even some risky decision-making as what you do here will affect the lives of faculty members and students alike. Many of the changes you make will directly alter the trajectory of students' lives.

The most imminent of your problems will most assuredly involve the Communications and Journalism Department. Not to flog a dead horse, but it appears as though the loss of accreditation has proven more of a detriment than originally thought. Perhaps the importance of accreditation was not communicated to the higher-ups in this department!

But the accreditation has been lost and solutions and proposals, rather than more complaining, are next on the agenda. A modest proposal to the C & J department would be more student involvement in a true college radio station. While KUNM-FM is an amazing news source, does it really reflect the University's voice? Are there any student-run radio shows? Is KUNM a University radio station simply because it bears our name?

In the six years that I've been listening to KUNM, not once have I heard a program directed towards students by students.

I'm not suggesting that we abolish the KUNM resource; that would be headstrong. However, there must be some way to incorporate those students who are interested in radio aside from the one C & J class offered. As you look at the budget for your first year, maybe you can borrow a small amount, perhaps a million dollars, from the Athletics Department and jumpstart another radio station, one that caters to the university.

But a more pressing, global issue exists. You, as president of the university, should focus on making UNM less of a functionalist school. This would involve some radical restructuring, and it might make a lot of people upset, but historically, presidents who do more are remembered. It's up to you.

While everyone complains about core curriculum classes, they are very necessary for without them, UNM is nothing more than a richer TVI. What UNM needs are smaller classes directed towards teaching more theoretical thought and less utility. The system UNM is operating now allows people to focus on studying one subject for four to six years with minimal branching out. This creates very narrow students.

Many colleges justify being functional by saying that students are uniquely specialized in their fields. Well, I think that people should know how to cook an egg as well as eat it. Personally, I'm inclined to say that many UNM programs create idiot savants out of perfectly capable minds. Is it any wonder that the majority of the UNM population doesn't even listen to KUNM?

When the University was realized, one could receive a degree in either religion or medicine. While this appears narrower than the modern university it's really far superior because when one graduated with a religion degree, it was expected that one be a master of several languages, well read in the ancient texts, a historical wizard, knowledgeable of enough science to condemn it, and a holy man. Nowadays colleges produce students who can do open heart surgery but don't know all 50 states.

If you take the time to investigate these considerations, I'm sure that you will see the benefits.



Sincerely,

Eric Howerton



P.S. It would also be great it every bus driver wore a big black wig, headphones and was referred to as "Otto." Thanks.