UNM president won’t seek new term
Bob Frank would move to Health Sciences faculty for $350K a year under agreement with regents
Bob Frank won’t serve another term as president of the University of New Mexico, but he would stay on as a $350,000-a-year tenured faculty member at the Health Sciences Center beginning next June under terms of an exit agreement.
Frank said Friday that he would not seek a second fiveyear term as president.
“By announcing my decision now, we can gear up to move vigorously ahead to finish what we’ve started,” he said in a statement to the Journal. “It will allow for a thoughtful, well-planned transition that will keep UNM making steady progress. I am pleased with what we have accomplished during my presidency, and it will be with great pride that I hand over the reins to the next president, who can build upon our successes.”
Frank would become the director of the Center of Innovation in Health and Education, a position in the Health Sciences Center, at an annual salary of $350,000, in addition to standard university benefits.
The position is a new one and regents said Health Sciences Chancellor Paul Roth would determine the responsibilities of Frank’s position. The regents, in their own statement to the
Journal, praised Frank’s time as the lead-
er of New Mexico’s largest university.
“The UNM Board of Regents is grateful to President Frank for the work he has done to move the university forward over the past four years,” board President Rob Doughty said.
The Board of Regents will now have eight months to choose the 22nd president of UNM and Doughty said the search should start no later than spring of 2017. “The Board of Regents will conduct a strategic review of the roles and responsibilities of the position, in order to refine the expectations that will be set for the University of New Mexico’s next president,” Doughty said in a statement.
An interim president would be appointed if a new president isn’t found in a timely manner, he said.
The board of regents met at 4 p.m. Friday and immediately voted to go into closed session. Five regents, Ryan Berryman, Tom Clifford, Doughty, Brad Hosmer and Marron Lee, attended the meeting in person, while regents Jack Fortner and Suzanne Quillen called in.
At about 4:30 p.m. Friday, the regents returned to public session. Doughty then signed the exit agreement. Frank did not attend, but signed the exit agreement on Monday.
Frank declined to comment beyond his statement.
UNM employs about 1,250 full-time faculty and about 3,000 staff members, serving about 27,150 students on its main campus. In its entirety, UNM employs a combination of roughly 10,000 full- and part-time faculty and staff members, serving about 34,440 on the main and branch campuses, and has a budget of about $2.8 billion.
Unfinished agenda
Frank said he still has plenty to do in his remaining months as president. He outlined five goals, which included moving forward as one university, which likely is a reference to recent efforts to align the Health Sciences Center, home to the hospital and medical school, and the main campus.
In a bit of irony, one of the most intensely criticized initiatives of Frank’s tenure has been the move to bring Health Sciences and Roth under the president’s office. In the face of bitter opposition from many in Health Sciences, regents approved the move on a vote of 4-2. Doughty was a leading architect of the change.
In the new arrangement, it would be Frank reporting to Roth.
“We are pleased that President Frank will be able to apply his unique combination of executive skills in clinical health care and innovative applications to advance the mission of the HSC and the University of New Mexico,” the Board of Regents said in a statement to the Journal.
Other goals include financial responsibility for the university — the school is anticipating a $22.5 million cut in the current budget, tied to the state of New Mexico’s budget woes. On Thursday, Frank announced a hiring freeze for staff positions and a university-wide review in an attempt to reduce the university’s financial footprint, which could mean program cuts.
Frank also mentioned a focus on campus climate and safety, likely tied to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that found UNM failed to fully comply with federal anti-discrimination gender laws. An agreement between those two agencies is pending.
Frank’s impending departure also makes him the sixth consecutive president who has served five years or less as the head of UNM. The last president to serve longer was Richard Peck, who was UNM’s president from 1990 to 1998.
The board selected Frank as the university’s 21st president in January 2012 following the sometimes contentious presidency of David Schimdly, whose five-year presidency was marked by faculty vote of no confidence in 2009.
Frank, then the provost of Kent State, assumed the UNM presidency in January 2012, with a contract that entitled him to salary of $355,000 and $100,000 in deferred compensation for retirement. His current annual salary is $362,136.
Frank, who earned three degrees from UNM, including a doctorate in clinical psychology, said in his statement he looks forward to his future opportunities as a faculty member at the school.
Frank will also be entitled to six months’ paid leave for professional development. He’ll be free of teaching and administrative duties at that time. He’ll get to keep his university computers and the university will pay for Frank to move from his home at University House.