A week
in the life of a president
By Michael
Padilla
 |
| President
Gordon's day planner and a sampling of the numerous invitations
he receives each week. |
Running
New Mexicos largest public University is no nine to five
job. Rewind to the week of Aug. 20, 2001 the first week
of fall semester and take a glance at William C. Gordons
schedule.
That week
Gordon met various staff, faculty, media, elected officials,
potential donors, members of his executive cabinet, attended
lunches and served up thousands of scoops of ice cream to the
University community. Gordons schedule is maintained both
by computer and hard copy as backup.
The week
began with a 7:30 a.m. off-campus meeting Monday morning with
an Albuquerque Business Education Compact (ABEC) management
committee. At 9 a.m., he had back-to-back meetings in his office.
At noon, Gordon served ice cream as part of Welcome Back Days
at the Duck Pond. Soon after, he met with the president of the
Commission of Higher Education. Then he participated at a Hispanic
Roundtable. After 5:30 p.m., he attended an Athletics
barbecue on the south side of Lobo Stadium.
On Tuesday
he had seven scheduled meetings, which included meeting with
the president of the UNM Board of Regents. He also met with
the director of the graduation project, director of the Ortiz
Center and several UNM vice presidents.
Wednesday
would be another long day for the President. His day began before
8 a.m. and would close at 8 p.m. Among his appointments were
the Secretary of State and attending an economic forum in uptown
Albuquerque.
Thursday
saw lots of traffic in and out of his office with several meetings
scheduled throughout the day.
Friday
may have been his busiest day of the week. Beginning with an
8 a.m. meeting, he then traveled to the Journal Center to meet
with the editorial board of the Albuquerque Tribune together
with VP of Advancement and the director of Public Affairs. In
the afternoon he spoke at an undergraduate research symposium.
The day ended with a 6:30 p.m. meeting.
Amid the
flurry of appointments Gordon managed to respond to hundreds
of e-mail and telephone messages. He also made time to talk
to students, faculty and staff.