Letter: Professor's dismissal shows UNM doesn't value education

Originally published: Wednesday, September 21, 2005


Editor,

It is shocking and disappointing that Richard Berthold's request to teach an Honors seminar was shot down by UNM's terror squad of bureaucracy. I have to say, though, it's not surprising.
While no one is willing to provide legitimate answers as to why, UNM student and Chairman of the Reagan Freedom Society of New Mexico Bob Cornelius speculated in the Daily Lobo that the University is a business and Berthold is a liability. Though I doubt Cornelius was speaking on the behalf of the University, his presumptuousness raises an interesting question: Is UNM an enclave of education, or is it primarily a business? Is UNM an institution of higher learning, or TVI's older, more expensive brother?

While I served on the editorial board of the Daily Lobo a few years ago, I remember Berthold using his columns to attack the board of regents and Louis Caldera, describing Caldera as a joke thoroughly disconnected from the academe and well-practiced in the arts of deception.

Perhaps in 1999, when Berthold won his Teacher of the Year award and Bill Gordon was presiding over UNM, professors who spoke their minds were valued. But it's 2005, and sadly, knowledge for knowledge's sake is dwindling. College administrators are so dispassionate about erudition they would rather keep Berthold out of the mix if it means not offending students and not embarrassing administrators.

By denying Berthold his seminar, UNM is sending the message that in lieu of productive debates and increased brain activity, they'd rather have their students' preconceptions go unchallenged. Maybe UNM's goal is not to educate, but to produce, in assembly-line fashion, computer-programming automatons and MBA drones who don't question authority.
If Berthold is controversial, good. If he's UNM's resident iconoclast, even better. And if the University is still interested in broadening frontiers, it should allow Berthold to speak with younger students.
UNM should applaud someone who will cut through the rhetoric and propaganda and speak the truth. Students come to college to be awakened from their comas of stigma and stereotype, and Berthold could be UNM's smelling salts, should they choose to use him.

Eric Howerton
UNM alumnus