Second Century; 201; UNM President Dr. Richard Peck; Center for Southwest Research; First Lady of UNM Donna Peck

Good evening and welcome to the season premiere of Second Century, a monthly program that brings you ideas and events taking place at the University of New Mexico. I'm Chris Garcia. The University of New Mexico is one of our largest and oldest institutions. It affects nearly all the citizens of the state through its libraries, hospitals, museums and instructional programs. At the helm of all these activities is our new president, Dr. Richard Peck. Tonight we will have with us Dr. Peck and his wife Donna is our featured guest. In addition we will preview a new and special program at the University, the Center for Southwest Research. So stay tuned. UNM's 15th president Dr. Richard Peck has had a successful career in higher education.

He has been an administrator and a professor of English throughout the nation over the past 25 years. He is also a successful novelist and playwright. Dr. Peck's novel, Something for Joey, is in its 17th printing. His play, The Cubs Are in Fourth Place and Fading, was a finalist in the American playwright's competition. Welcome Dr. Peck to Second Century. Hello, Chris, how are you? The Dr. Peck, before we get started asking some questions about your role as president of UNM, I'd like to have you tell us a little bit about your background. I hear, for example, that you were the first one ever to attend college in your family. Yes, although my mother might argue with that, she reminds me that she went to a short course in dental technology at Marquette years ago, but the fact is on the first one to graduate from college. Not the most recent, interestingly enough to me, I have a sister who graduated two years ago at age 50, and I have a brother who's 53 who just started college this year. So there'll eventually be three of us who have had a college degree, but at the time

I went, I was the only one. My father had never finished high school, and no one in my family had gone to college, so it was an adventure for me that the rest weren't able to help me with very much. What made you decide on a career in education, was there a particular person that influenced you? Probably. I didn't know I was going to do that. I went to college, partly I thought to become a writer, partly for the interest sake, partly because when I spent five years in the Marine Corps, all the people I was associated with pilots in the helicopter squadron where I flew, had a college education, and I decided I wanted some of whatever it was they had in common. So I went to school, and I went probably as a theater major, and by the time the smoke cleared, I found myself in graduate school in English because of two faculty members, a man named Gordon Folsom who is still on the faculty at the small school outside of Milwaukee I attended, and a professor of philosophy, Jack Vantinan who died some years ago, and I was able to see the pleasure they took in their own lives, and the satisfaction they

took out of teaching undergraduates, and before I knew quite what had happened, I was imitating them, and I've been very glad ever since that I did. We're very glad also, I think higher education is much better for that decision. I understand while you've been here, you've been meeting hundreds, if not thousands of people. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Don and I decided to go on out around the state and make clear our recognition that we're at the University of New Mexico, rather than the University of Albuquerque or the University of Bernalillo County. There's a feeling abroad in the state that the university looks inward too much, and so we went out to try to correct that, and also to try to find out how the university has perceived around the rest of the state. So we've had ten trips, ranging from half day to two and a half days, to all corners of the state, and met with a number of alumni and supporters. We've met with scholarship students and their parents, and most particularly with administrators and faculty at our branch campuses, and at any of the other universities and colleges

around the state, from which we draw all our transfer students. So it's been a kind of fact-fading trip, and as I admit, it's been a tour of the state on company time, and that's been very nice. What kind of a reaction are you getting to the University of New Mexico and the far-flung reaches of our huge state? It's very encouraging. It's nice to go out. Some of this is the effect of preaching to the choir, the alumni command, and we meet people who are second and third generation at UNM. Most interesting, we meet people who are successful in their professions, in their communities, and are sending their own youngsters to us. And that's as high a vote of confidence as I can imagine. But we've also met people who have complaints or questions, who have concerns about the way the university has perceived, and that's been as valuable, although not as much fun, as meeting people who only want to be cheerleaders. Let's talk about being the university for all of New Mexico. Is it perceived as threatening by any of the other institutions?

I don't know. You obviously have to talk with the other institutions about it, but I think we're in partnership with them. Next year for the second time, we have more transfer students than we do first-time freshmen. We had 1,811 freshmen this year, and nearly 1,900 transfer students, who started elsewhere. Most of them at campuses around the state, whether our own branch campuses, or Highlands, or New Mexico State. I don't have any figures on how many of our students transferred to their campuses. But we're in a kind of common enterprise here, and to have the students going back and forth, among institutions, is probably more healthy than not. They can find their way to degree programs that they like best, and find their own niche in the state system. I don't think we compete except for the very best students, and then I will claw scratch and kill to try to get them here. Well, let me pursue that a little bit. It is known that some, not all certainly, but some of our very best and brightest high school graduates go outside of state, and not to the University of New Mexico.

Are you planning anything that will keep some of those students here, or at least the greater proportion of them here? A couple of things. A generation ago, we had 20% of our undergraduates from out of state. We're down to about half that right now. And it is a concern that if we can't attract, or don't attract, the very best students from Texas and Colorado and Utah, to come to us, then the best students from New Mexico mainly the state as well. So a couple of initiatives are underway. We need to attract the best and brightest, and that means national merit scholars, valedictorians, school leaders from high schools around the Southwest to come here. But we need also to keep our own. And toward that end, the regions have come up with a new scholarship plan that begins this next year. We will have 15 the first year, adding 15 a year until we have reached 60 scholarships, particularly for the best students in New Mexico. And these are young people we expect to be national merit finalists, or somehow the top

student in their class. And this is a scholarship much richer than anything we've given before. This will be room and board tuition, $5,000 a year for four years. And that's one way of keeping the very good students home. Because right now they're being lured away by Stanford, or Trinity, or Brown, or who knows where, with offers of scholarships that we haven't in the past been able to match. Now we're able to know, and we're going to do something to keep those good students right here. Those are very nice new scholarships, given the economy of the state and the budgetary plight of the university. Where will the money be forthcoming for these additional scholarships? We've reallocated. We've reorganized this scholarship money that we've had available. In the past, we've had scholarships that would go to students with a particular interest, and they wouldn't be awarded from year to year. We've also had to trim some of the funds off the general scholarships that we've had. One of the things that I think UNM ought to be most proud of, nearly 40% of our freshman

class is on some kind of merit scholarship. Most institutions have need-based scholarships. We really are trying to attract the best students we can get. And that means students in the top 10% of their high school class around the state can depend upon an award of one kind or another from UNM. I know that among these best students are minority students. Do you have any special plans to increase the number of minority students at the University of New Mexico and enhance the cultural diversity of this place? It's a major concern and an obvious intention that we have. This year, though, I have to say that 32.5% of our freshman class are Hispanic. We have the highest number of Indian students, Native American students, both in headcount and percentage of any public university in the country. And so a lot of good things have been happening here for several years. We need to make more students aware of that possibility, and we need to double our efforts. One of the places where we can stand to improve is after we've recruited these young people

to be certainly graduate. So we need to focus more on retention than on recruitment. I just had lunch with 20 students recently. I've been doing that this semester, and I've done it a couple of times now. And it was fun to hear them talking about having come here from Illinois and Texas because they already knew about the diverse cultures that are represented in our student body. And when that becomes a selling point that people across the country know about, we're going to have less trouble than people might guess in attracting very good students from a wide ethnic mix. That's a very good thing to hear. I know also that in addition to the cultural diversity in New Mexico, you also are thinking about the University of New Mexico having a special role as a university for the Americas. Can you say a little bit about that idea? We have 168 faculty who identify their research interests as being in Latin America or a Southwestern history.

We have a cadre, a group of people here probably unmatched in the country. Our law school, for instance, offers summer courses in Guanajuato and Mexico. We've arranged exchanges not only for law faculty and students but for jurists as well to come and occupy the New Mexico bench and for our own judges to go to Mexico and be helpful. We're working in a variety of ways in border medicine and border law. And just recently I met with 75 alumni of a bilingual dual program that we have at the graduate level. We now have 75 alumni of the institution who took one degree in Spanish and one degree in English and are in middle management positions in Central and South American countries. They are assistant secretary of this or assistant minister of that. And within 10 years they're going to be the secretary of and the minister of. And New Mexico is building a network of friends throughout this hemisphere that will eventually do us a great deal of good and recruiting students from those countries to come to us.

Yes. It's very much on my mind. I want to do what every president here since 1912 I said we ought to be doing and that's take advantage of our opportunities. The fact that we are by law and definition as well as in fact a bilingual state and make more people south of us aware of their opportunities here. Are there any other special plans or embassies that you have in mind for the University of New Mexico? I'd also like us to be known as the best undergraduate education in the Southwest. Our honors program has been around for a long time. It's very highly regarded. It's regarded as friendly as well as intellectually challenging. We need to extend that feeling throughout the undergraduate curriculum so that more and more students know they're welcome here. One of the things we face is a concern about our size. And so people will say well you're 25,000 how can you possibly be friendly. My argument has been that if you're in a freshman English class with 23 year 24 students, it doesn't matter that there are 25,000 other people outside that building walking around

somewhere. The classes themselves are small enough. We have a concern for being the smallest large institution in the country. And in fact we have a tradition. We are not some big monolithic general motors. We may look like that 25,000 on the outside. Inside we're about 150 mom and pop stores and students I think can get individual attention in almost any department here. We need to increase that fact and we need to make it better known everywhere. Okay. Let's shift back a little bit and talk about your role other than as the university president and simply ask you if you have any plans to do any additional writing. You have any plans for any plays or are you working on such or some of yours going to be produced here in Albuquerque? I always have plans. I don't have the time. Or I haven't had so far. I have a book on my desk that was half done when I got here and it remains half done. As a scholar you know how that goes.

You get involved in your classes and other activities and it's hard to get back to it. I'd like to finish that. I started a book elsewhere on the character of interim administrators. Almost every place I know and that includes UNM has got up to 20% of its administrators who are interim or acting or temporary. It's a strange phenomenon and no one has done a study of that so I'd like to. I've got a play that's partly done. I've got the start of half dozen stories and they sit there. I don't know when I'll have the time. I hope to get back to it. We'll see. Thank you. We know your official inauguration is coming up on November 8. Can you give us a little preview of your inauguration and tell us is this going to be open to the public? Absolutely. It's three in the afternoon at the pit. Everyone is invited to that. In addition, I have to say that that morning my wife will be hosting an open house at University House, the president's residence there, which is under God's substantial renovation and remodeling and we'd like people to come by and see it.

We probably won't be living there yet because the work has taken longer than we thought it might but Donna has asked that the painters were clean coveralls that day and as long as it's safe in the building, people are invited to come in and take a look at things. Well, thank you very much, Dr. Peck. We appreciate it. Your conversation with us today. Thank you, Chris. Enjoy it. We are going to be talking with Donna in just a minute. First I'd like to tell you about a significant new program at the University which will advance our position as a leader in Southwestern studies. One of UNM's newest projects is the Center for Southwest Research, a program for scholars and community members studying the multicultural environment of the Southwest. The University's Native American and Hispanic programs are already recognized nationwide and it's predicted that the new Center's collections will draw even more attention to UNM. In 1988, Congress appropriated $5 million to establish the Center in the historic West

Wing of Zimmerman Library. Last June, the University Regents promised to add another $2 million. This money is earmarked for building expansion and renovations. Other fundraising efforts will finance the Center's collections and programming. The Spanish Colonial Research Center, the Vargas Project, and Southwest Institute are programs already underway at the Center. The papers of New Mexico's political figures and the archives of such writers as EH Lawrence, Urna Ferguson and Rudolfo Anaya are also part of the Center's permanent collection. Most recently, the Center required the papers of Dennis Banks, founder of the American Indian Movement. Formal dedication of the Center for Southwest Research takes place on Friday, October 26th, 10 a.m. in the West Wing of Zimmerman Library. The public is invited, Senator Pete Domenici is the featured speaker. If you'd like more information on the Center for Southwest Research, call 277-7171. We're here at UNM's Visitors Center and with us is Donna Peck.

Donna, we're glad to have you here with us. Thank you for asking me. You have made a public address recently and you entitled it the Silent Partner. Why that particular title, what do you perceive as your role at the university? The first question was I'll answer. We were at various cities throughout New Mexico and I had been attending a number of functions with Dick, a number of news broadcasts and television shows and after one show, I had not said a word and someone would have been with me and said, how do you like being the Silent Partner? And that bothered me because of all the events we had been to, I thought I had done my share of talking and of making a positive response to their questions but I hadn't always been asked to opinion like I have been today. So my address to the Women and Communications Group was, will I be a Silent Partner or not?

I do perceive my role as being a support to Dick to maintain good relationships within university community as well as outside the university and sometimes it will be quiet. Sometimes I will sit and smile but hopefully I can be more than that and hope I can help him in some ways that he wants me to. One of your major concerns right now is overseeing the renovation of the President's House. There's been a little controversy on campus about this renovation given the fact that there is about 300,000 I believe there will be spent on it and of course there are other needs on campus. What do you think about the renovation of the House and what is going on there? That I will not be silent about. I think the people in the House right now I wish I was but I'm not. I think it's very important that we have a good house that's called now the President's House or the University House. It's our chance to help the University, to show the University in a good way. If they come into a house that is dilapidated and not kept up I think they'll think the

University is the same way. We perform many functions there, entertain many people and the House also has a history. It has 60 years of history in it. You know we've talked to different alums, they are so excited that we're going to restore the House and going to live in it because they remember some of the wonderful things that happen there. We are restoring it back to the 19th and I think they're getting a bargain for what they're paying for it. I understand you've been doing some research on the House. What are some of the things you found out about the President's House or the University House? I've had more fun with doing that. We've tried to talk to some of the people who have lived in the House. One of my first talks was to Mrs. Zimmerman's daughter, President Zimmerman was the first President that lived in the House. His daughter was married in the House and had lived there and she remembered the first day that her father went fishing was the day that the people moved in the House. Lena Colve I talked to, she remembers helping Mrs. Zimmerman that day moving in the House because Mrs. Zimmerman was off fishing.

So both stories were the very same. We talked to a number of people and I'm trying to do a brochure on the House and then do a history of the House later on because so much happened in it. We look forward to reading more about it. I understand that you have been in the past to teacher and also that you ran your own Italian restaurant. How did you go from being a teacher to running what I hear was very successful in a very good Italian restaurant? Everyone has a middle-life crisis, right? Running the restaurant was mine. I was a teacher up to the time that Dick went to Rome as a director of a Rome abroad program at Temple University. That was the first year I did not teach and my children were in school for the first time. And after being a tourist for about a month or two, you really want to do something else. I was at the right place at the right time and the chef from Alfredo's in Rome was taking on some students and I was there and said, yes, I'd love to be one. So I learned Italian cooking and when I went back, rather than going back to teaching, I started working in the food industry and there went back to Alabama and started a restaurant.

Are you thinking about doing any teaching while you're here or perhaps preparing some Italian cuisine for us some time? Sure. When I have time, come on over. I think my husband would rather not have me start a restaurant in this point of my life. I never saw him when I did the restaurant and I think it was something I was very proud of but now it's kind of fun to have that in my past. You are a new member of a community here, the university and the state which many people see as very distinctive. What are your impressions of this new community of which you are a member and a very visible member? I am having a wonderful time in Albuquerque. The people we've talked who seem to be very concerned about what we're going to be doing for you and I think most of them are very positive and I think are ready for some positive steps. And so I've just found a lot of support in the community for us. So I hope that I can help in some way also.

Well, for a better or for worse, the University of New Mexico is a major news item in the media. How do you see yourself portrayed or how would you like to be portrayed in the media? So far out of about 75 of our articles that have been written about Dick, I have received two sentences and because he's so much better at talking than I am, maybe it's better being that way. Of all the TV shows Dick has been and I think I've had about three words except this one. This will determine if they really want me to say something more or not. I hope I can be a positive influence because I think that this community is a very positive community and it does disappoint me when they are perceived in a negative fashion. I think the UNM is much more positive than people perceive it. So hopefully I can help promote that. I'm sure you will be promoting it. What are some of the special things you see at the University that you yourself are personally interested in? I've given myself about two years to learn about the community in the UNM before I really take my steps in what I want to be.

But so far some of the things that interest me is one is helping the students under the college level and high school and an elementary education where I'm my expertise with is it really disappoints me to see the dropout rates so much in the high schools. So if I can work in the schools and get them prepared till Dick gets, it might be just thrilled to death. So I probably will do something along those lines. Great. Thank you very much. We appreciate it having you here and we look forward to your further visibility in the university community. Thank you. . .

. . . . . Thank you for joining Second Century. Next time, on November 21st, we'll feature writer Bill DeBleese and photographer Alex Harris, co-authors of River of Traps. This book, published by UNM Press, is a sensitive portrait of rural life in northern New Mexico.

We'll see you then.