© 2016 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. Many people were surprised at the recent
controversy about New Mexico State University needing to save $12 million because
of a budget shortfall. There are many hard feelings by people being cut and the
push back is enormous to any cuts.
What the administration of NMSU
wanted was to make no cuts and force the students to cover the budget shortfall
by another tuition increase even though enrollment is dropping. That’s because
of the tuition increases over twenty years which increased tuition and fees
from $600 a semester to over $4,000 a semester.
The NMSU Regents would not go for
another increase so the budget axe has fallen on several programs with the
resultant howls of outrage. Budget problems have been a continuing problem at
NMSU starting with the institution’s first classes in January 1890 clear up to
today. Often something was done to shrink the budget.
In June 1997 here is part of what I
wrote in my column:
There is a
battle going on at New Mexico State University - not a noisy battle with clanking
swords, it is a battle of wills. As with most battles there’s winners and
losers. Some employees will gain, some will lose. It was started by a June 18,
1997 report from the NMSU Strategic Planning Academic Programs subcommittee which
rated academic programs and recommended some academic programs be eliminated.
What
effect will this have on the citizens of New Mexico? I don’t know but this
scuffling is good for NMSU and New Mexico. It forces the NMSU leaders to accept
they cannot be all things to all people. A priority must be established for the
NMSU core programs.
Three perceptions:
First, it’s good someone started the process of aligning the academic programs
to NMSU’s mission; secondly, the committee members are going to be flamed
vigorously by employees who stand to lose; and this is just a report, the NMSU
Administration and Regents will make the decisions.
The
mission of NMSU is to benefit the citizens of New Mexico. The output of NMSU is
graduates, research done and the service that NMSU’s faculty, staff and
students provide New Mexico’s citizens.
One of the
recommendations was that the Philosophy Department be eliminated. Those
professors did not take that recommendation philosophically. There was a call to
eliminate the Engineering Technology Department. The people in these
departments will be injured by these decisions, if they are made.
Still,
there comes a time when the injury to a few must be accepted. NMSU is not some employment
agency that seeks to employ the most people possible regardless of need - even
if that is what it seems.
NMSU has a
job to do in this time of declining budgets. They must insure NMSU is of
benefit to the citizens of New Mexico above any personal interests of NMSU’s
employees.
It is a
battle of priorities - personal and professional. There will be winners and
losers. Hopefully, the losers won’t be the citizens of New Mexico.
Amazingly the issues today in August
2016 are much the same as in 1997 while the NMSU Philosophy Department remains
with seven professors. Nineteen years after they were identified as not a priority
they remain nor were they cut this time.
The University of New Mexico has
thirteen faculty members in their Philosophy Department. In good financial
times both NMSU and UNM can duplicate each other’s programs to no harm. But
when money is tight, as was noted in 1997, this is one place to cut.
The notion is once a program is
started using public money, once the first person is hired by the government in
some form or another, there can be no shrinkage of the size of government. In
fact, there is a notion that all government must cost more every year, even
with money becoming tight.
Having worked at both UNM and NMSU
at different times over the last forty years I have experienced the budget
crunch syndrome at both institutions. In every case I have said, “Guess now we
will see what our core priorities are at this institution.”
Often the priorities are the
employees rather than the citizens of New Mexico. We should change that.
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