Although Schmidly claims there are no violations of policy involved in hiring his son at UNM (which may be true), it was a bad decision for several reasons. I have to wonder whether this administration considered the consequences of this decision before allowing this hire to go through. The appearance of nepotism and fraud will undoubtedly have a detrimental effect on the University's reputation and will likely have a negative impact on donations to the University (would you donate money to UNM so that it can be used to pay top dollar salaries for the President's friends and family?) – and, it will further deteriorate the morale of faculty and staff, who are on average paid far less than the President's son (which may not matter to this administration). The media will likely have a field day with this and the reputation of the University “brand” will suffer. I would guess the total annual losses in donations will probably outweigh the $94,000 the President's son will be paid. Not worth hiring the son by any measure, even if he was hands down the best candidate as was indicated by the search committee. Any reasonable person would recognize this and avoid the problems this will raise for the University by doing the right thing and hiring someone else. Too bad for UNM this degree of judgment wasn't used.

But, since I make less than $55,000 per year, I am sicked by Schmidley's son hired for so much to do so little. Its one in a long line of non-academics hired by him at outrageous sums. Frankly, the very mission of UNM is threatened by paying so much for so many new administrative positions that Schmidley has created. Morale at UNM is low, not without reason. I hate to think that I may face the day when my pay is so less than competitive that I consider leaving New Mexico for at least market wages. But many of my colleagues already have.

Although Schmidly claims there are no violations of policy involved in hiring his son at UNM (which may be true), it was a bad decision for several reasons. I have to wonder whether this administration considered the consequences of this decision before allowing this hire to go through. The appearance of nepotism and fraud will undoubtedly have a detrimental effect on the University's reputation and will likely have a negative impact on donations to the University (would you donate money to UNM so that it can be used to pay top dollar salaries for the President's friends and family?) – and, it will further deteriorate the morale of faculty and staff, who are on average paid far less than the President's son (which may not matter to this administration). The media will likely have a field day with this and the reputation of the University “brand” will suffer. I would guess the total annual losses in donations will probably outweigh the $94,000 the President's son will be paid. Not worth hiring the son by any measure, even if he was hands down the best candidate as was indicated by the search committee. Any reasonable person would recognize this and avoid the problems this will raise for the University by doing the right thing and hiring someone else. Too bad for UNM this degree of judgment wasn't used.

Although Schmidly claims there are no violations of policy involved in hiring his son at UNM (which may be true), it was a bad decision for several reasons. I have to wonder whether this administration considered the consequences of this decision before allowing this hire to go through. The appearance of nepotism and fraud will undoubtedly have a detrimental effect on the University's reputation and will likely have a negative impact on donations to the University (would you donate money to UNM so that it can be used to pay top dollar salaries for the President's friends and family?) – and, it will further deteriorate the morale of faculty and staff, who are on average paid far less than the President's son (which may not matter to this administration). The media will likely have a field day with this and the reputation of the University “brand” will suffer. I would guess the total annual losses in donations will probably outweigh the $94,000 the President's son will be paid. Not worth hiring the son by any measure, even if he was hands down the best candidate as was indicated by the search committee. Any reasonable person would recognize this and avoid the problems this will raise for the University by doing the right thing and hiring someone else. Too bad for UNM this degree of judgment wasn't used.

Although Schmidly claims there are no violations of policy involved in hiring his son at UNM (which may be true), it was a bad decision for several reasons. I have to wonder whether this administration considered the consequences of this decision before allowing this hire to go through. The appearance of nepotism and fraud will undoubtedly have a detrimental effect on the University's reputation and will likely have a negative impact on donations to the University (would you donate money to UNM so that it can be used to pay top dollar salaries for the President's friends and family?) – and, it will further deteriorate the morale of faculty and staff, who are on average paid far less than the President's son (which may not matter to this administration). The media will likely have a field day with this and the reputation of the University “brand” will suffer. I would guess the total annual losses in donations will probably outweigh the $94,000 the President's son will be paid. Not worth hiring the son by any measure, even if he was hands down the best candidate as was indicated by the search committee. Any reasonable person would recognize this and avoid the problems this will raise for the University by doing the right thing and hiring someone else. Too bad for UNM this degree of judgment wasn't used.

But, since I make less than $55,000 per year, I am sicked by Schmidley's son hired for so much to do so little. Its one in a long line of non-academics hired by him at outrageous sums. Frankly, the very mission of UNM is threatened by paying so much for so many new administrative positions that Schmidley has created. Morale at UNM is low, not without reason. I hate to think that I may face the day when my pay is so less than competitive that I consider leaving New Mexico for at least market wages. But many of my colleagues already have.