President Frank’s Weekly Perspective – 12.17.2012

President’s Weekly Per­spec­tive – 12.17.2012

Good morn­ing.

I know we are all breath­ing a sigh of relief as our hol­i­day break comes into sight. I hope that you all have a joy­ful time with your fam­i­lies. Regard­less of your per­sonal beliefs, this is a time to reflect on how we can cre­ate a bet­ter world as we look ahead. This year has been full of many changes for all of us. As we greet 2013, our hopes for the New Year are great, and our expec­ta­tions for UNM are bright. As you return in 2013, be ready to excel.

Retiree Health­care Plan
At the Board of Regents meet­ing last week we heard dis­cus­sion about the sol­vency chal­lenges fac­ing the Retiree Health plan. Costs are far out­strip­ping rev­enues and we are fac­ing a sig­nif­i­cant short­fall. The cur­rent model is unsus­tain­able and we must find a way to address this issue. I am aware that this is a sen­si­tive issue with many ram­i­fi­ca­tions. I have asked the Staff Coun­cil and Fac­ulty Sen­ate to take a lead role in iden­ti­fy­ing a solution.

I have cre­ated a web­page that pro­vides a time­line and his­tory of this ben­e­fit, as well as rel­e­vant doc­u­ments such as the res­o­lu­tion passed by the Regents last week. We will update this site with infor­ma­tion and mate­ri­als about the on-going dia­logue. You can link to the web­page from Office of the Pres­i­dent site, or by click­ing UNM Retiree Health­care Infor­ma­tion.

Look­ing Ahead
We have a big agenda for UNM as we look to imple­ment the UNM2020 vision. As I have reviewed and pon­dered all the com­ments, I have noticed a con­sis­tent con­trast between com­ments that envi­sion the future and those that bemoan the pains of the past. I appre­ci­ate both kinds of com­ments because in order to embrace a vital future, it is impor­tant to acknowl­edge, and even for­give, the past. An insti­tu­tion, even one as large and diverse as UNM, is like any­one of us – some things we do well, and some things fail. We all hope that we can build on our suc­cess as well as learn from, and then let go of, the failures.

Recently, I have been read­ing the book, “How,” by Dov Sei­d­man. He writes of the three pri­mary goals that peo­ple seek from their work: equity, achieve­ment and cama­raderie. When those break down, a cul­ture of cyn­i­cism arises. My inten­tion in 2013 is that we will address these goals through­out UNM so that we can reduce any lin­ger­ing crit­icsm and strengthen our inher­ent cul­ture of excel­lence and opti­mism. As we do this, we will indeed be stronger together.

In order to achieve these goals, I have realigned some roles in the Office of the Pres­i­dent. Breda Bova, whose insti­tu­tional knowl­edge and rela­tion­ship man­age­ment skills are essen­tial to UNM, is now serv­ing as Spe­cial Coun­sel to the Pres­i­dent, focus­ing specif­i­cally on those vital areas. In addi­tion, I would like to wel­come Dorothy (Duffy) Rodriguez who has joined UNM in the role of Exec­u­tive Assis­tant and Chief Admin­is­tra­tor to the Pres­i­dent. Duffy will be respon­si­ble for the oper­a­tions man­age­ment and strate­gic imple­men­ta­tion func­tions of the Office of the Pres­i­dent. Please make her welcome.

Thanks
Finally, thank you to all of you who par­tic­i­pated in the UNM United Way cam­paign. The final tally is still in process, but we are well on our way to meet­ing our goal of $1 mil­lion to sup­port our com­mu­nity. Although our cam­paign is end­ing, remem­ber that you can always make a con­tri­bu­tion any time dur­ing the year.

This is our last Mon­day mes­sage for 2012. Happy Hol­i­days all of you. And, as always, GO LOBOS!

Bob