Photo by Mark Sebastian/Flickr

Photo by Mark Sebastian/Flickr

ALBUQUERQUE — A group of volunteers at the University of New Mexico’s nonprofit, listener-supported public radio station, KUNM, has delivered a letter of “no confidence” to UNM President David Schmidly.

KUNM has about 175 volunteers who largely run the station’s local programming, with a smaller contingent of paid news employees. The letter, delivered on August 21, details three issues that the almost 40 signers of the letter think are sufficient to declare “no confidence” in UNM’s administration.

“This is the third vote of no confidence in the [UNM] administration this year,” 27-year public affairs producer Kent Paterson told the Independent. “There’s obviously a big problem with the administration at UNM.”

But Deputy Provost Richard Holder said he wasn’t concerned.

“I don’t think any of these [issues] rise to the level of the disputes in the ’80s,” he said. “They seem quite minor and basically non-important.”

Holder was referring to a dispute between the station and volunteers in 1987 that resulted in a legal agreement about how programming changes would be made at the station. The deal also created a number of seats on a radio board for community representatives.

That conflict is prominently referenced in the letter to Schmidly:

Collectively, the individuals listed below have hundreds of years experience dee-jaying, producing and reporting for KUNM. Many of them were involved in the historic 1987-88 strike and litigation against UNM…

As the result of a legal settlement, a diverse music format was preserved, volunteers were returned to the airwaves, a volunteer grievance procedure was put in place, new by-laws were established, and a community radio board, with elected representation from listeners, was formed…

Now, a mere 21 years later, UNM seems to have forgotten the lessons of history… Specifically, we cite the following as reasons that force us to declare NO CONFIDENCE in UNM administrators and lawyers with responsibilities over the management of KUNM.

The conflict

Partly at issue is a new “volunteer performance management” document has been developed that volunteers are required to sign by August 31 in order to continue working at KUNM.

KUNM volunteer Henry Gonzalez, who is part of the “Raices Collective,” said the volunteers have no problem with the document as a whole, but a clause inserted by the administration against the wishes of the radio board should be taken out.

The clause exempts the university from having to adhere to the guidelines in the document, ending with this language:

… except as expressly provided otherwise KUNM and the university make no representation concerning adherence to any policy or procedure set forth herein.

Holder said the clause was necessary to ensure that volunteers aren’t legally considered employees.

“Under employment law, there’s an implied contract unless you stipulate that there is no contract,” he said.

However, the radio board was advised earlier in the year that the clause “comes close” to being in conflict both with state law and with legal agreements in place between volunteers and the university since 1988 that guarantee due process.

According to minutes from the February radio board meeting, attorney John Walker said he “could see” that UNM’s attorney’s wanted to make clear there was no contract between volunteers and the university. But that point has never been an issue before because it’s already explicitly stated in all documents under which volunteers work, he advised the board.

The real issue, he said, is that state agencies — like UNM — are required to adhere to any policy or procedure they choose to implement, such as the 1988 agreement and the current document should the volunteers sign it, which means the insertion of such a clause could violate state law.

For this reason, the radio board asked the administration to not insert the clause in the agreement.

“We’re not asking for a whole lot,” Gonzalez said. “We want them to take that clause out, we’re fine with the rest, it’s standard for evaluation. That clause sends a double message to us, though. Plus, there’s the way they did it — simply ignoring the advice of the radio board and doing what the UNM council told them to do. If we allow this, what’s the next thing they’re going to do?”

The volunteers also take issue with the cancellation this year of the scheduled election for three community representatives to the radio board.

Holder said he canceled the election because there wasn’t any competition for the seats, and he didn’t think it was “wise” to waste the resources for no outcome.

“I didn’t see any reason to hold the election when there was no doubt about the outcome,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like there is great interest, and it’s not wise to spend resources for no outcome. We saved $10,000.”

But Gonzalez said that logic is “absurd” and that volunteers think it’s important to have the elections as scheduled.

“It’s like saying let’s not have democracy because it costs $10,000 — it’s absurd,” he said. “There should be an election regardless, because that’s what they agreed to [when they wrote the 1988 radio board by-laws].”

Volunteers are demanding that an election be held within 60 days of receipt of the letter.

Holder finds fault with that demand.

“To do that would violate the by-laws,” he said, “which specify exactly when the election should be held — two years from now.”

In addition to the performance clause and the radio board election, the volunteers are asking the university to explain the intention behind a survey being conducted of volunteers and KUNM staff.

This was one issue Holder didn’t seem to think was difficult to comply with.

“I wouldn’t have any problem with that,” he said. “We put it out everywhere else — announced to the radio board, and the volunteer representative on the board announced it at the volunteer general meeting.”