April 15, 2008
Daily Lobo
The word 'schmidly' best defines UNM's president
Editor,
The philosophy department has become curious about the meaning of the word "Schmidly," which has entered current usage at UNM.
We have researched dictionaries and etymologies in several languages and come up with the following definition: Schmidly (shmid.lee), adverb: rashly or precipitously, without sufficient reflection, causing undue turmoil without achieving any concrete results except to draw attention to oneself.
The UNM president has, interestingly, provided us with several examples of the use of this word.
Consider, for instance, "The first official act of the president was schmidly to dismiss the Provost," "One of the next acts of the president was schmidly to announce the abolition of university college," "The president schmidly declared that the North Golf Course would be sold off for development," and "At the end of the fall term, shortly before finals week, the president schmidly ordered a performance review of all colleges to be held during intersession."
And now, most recently, "At the end of spring term, as faculty and students are preparing for examinations, graduation, and annual evaluations - and in the midst of completing budgets, job searches and academic program reviews - the president has schmidly called upon faculty in all departments across the University to drop everything and craft a strategic plan in three weeks."
Indeed, almost everything the president has done since coming to UNM he has done schmidly, except obtain a raise for faculty and staff that exceeds the cost of living index, for which he recently offered the excuse, "Money does not grow on trees."
We are in suspense about the next thing the president will schmidly do: Perhaps convene all the faculty in the middle of summer to work on outcomes assessment?
The philosophy department actually likes the new president, especially his energy and enthusiasm and many of his ideas for the University, and understands that he faces difficult challenges.
We are prepared to help him. But we wish he would slow down and take some time to get to know what we're doing before he tries to fix everything. That is to say, we - and I think we speak for all the faculty - wish he would not do everything quite so schmidly.
John Taber
Chairman,
philosophy department