David J. Schmidly

David J. Schmidly is the current president of the University of New Mexico. He was installed October 7, 2007, becoming the 20th president of the university.

Before UNM, Schmidly was CEO of the OSU System and 17th president of the Oklahoma State University System beginning on November 25, 2002. Before coming to OSU, he was the President of Texas Tech University, where he also served as Vice President for Research and Dean of the graduate school.

An accomplished zoologist, he earned his B.S. and M.S. in zoology at Texas Tech University as a member of 

the Sigma Nu fraternity and his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Illinois. He has been inducted into the Texas Hall of Fame for Science, Mathematics and Technology and has a species of deer mouse named for him, Peromyscus schmidlyi. President Schmidly is a native of Levelland, Texas.

 While at Oklahoma State, Schmidly came under withering criticism for OSU's decision to raze a neighborhood in
Stillwater in order to build a new athletic village funded by the oil and gas 

magnate, T. Boone Pickens. The controversy revolved around the decision on the part of the Schmidly and OSU's Board of Regents to invoke the right eminent domain, if the homeowners resisted. For some in the OSU community, the emphasis that Schmidly placed on athletics far outweighed his concern about academics. This perception was fueled by the creation of the comic strip "Boone State" by two OSU students Chris Stellman and Garrett Hellman which lampooned the OSU. administration.

  In addition to his handling of the issues surrounding the athletic village, Dr. Schmidly was also criticized for 

cronyism at OSU when he brought along staffers from TTU to be part of his new administration. Of particular note was the appointment of Brandon LaBonte to be OSU's director of software services and his assistant, Michael Hewett, who were found to be using software licensed by TTU's without authorization. The severance packages to both employees prompted the OSU Faculty Senate to call for his resignation, provided he knew of the payments, and that of Wiggins, who oversaw the resignations.

 Accusations of cronyism arose in his 18 months at UNM, when he hired long time friend, John Stropp, a senior 

executive at the Texas A&M Foundation. Stropp's compensation package is worth $325,000. According to the Albuquerque Journal, Schmidly acknowledged he has known Stropp for years but said he wasn't hired because of their friendship. "This is not a crony hire," Schmidly said. . . . According to Stropp, "Our sons are the same age. . . We met on the bloody Little League battlefields."[1]

In Fall 2008, UNM offered a $94,000 job to the president's son, Brian Schmidly, in Fall 2008 to be the new director for campus sustainability whose first duty was to write his own job duties. The announcement came weeks before UNM announced a hiring freeze and reductions of 5% in all campus budgets.  The younger Schmidly decided not to take the job.    

 On January 31, 2009, the Albuquerque Journal reported that at least 233 of the approximately 

1,800 eligible university faculty had signed a petition of no confidence in President Schmidly's leadership. The petition cites "a crisis of confidence" and an "extreme concern about the diversion of instructional funds to pay excessive administrative compensation, as well as cronyism and other irregular hiring practices by the administration" as its central argument against Schmidly. The petition also calls for a vote of no confidence in regents President Jamie Koch and Executive Vice President for Administration David Harris. According to University Secretary Vivian Valencia, only "89 signatures — representing 5 percent of UNM faculty — are required to force a general faculty meeting. To proceed with the meeting, 10 percent of the UNM faculty, or 178 people, would have to show up. Those at the meeting would then vote on the no confidence issue."

External links

• Dr. David J. Schmidly official biography