Oct. 12, 2006
As UNM enters a new academic year and a new athletic year, it’s also the start of a new athletic era. Former Athletics Director Rudy Davalos provided a strong, viable foundation for our program. With our new leadership team in place, we will build on this foundation by bringing high energy, renewed community commitment, a business-oriented entrepreneurial attitude, and a strategic new vision to Lobo Athletics.
We have a good athletics program. Our goal is to be GREAT. To quote Jim Collins, author of the book Good to Great, “Good is the enemy of great.” We cannot afford to be satisfied with being a good athletics program. Our student-athletes, our university, our community and our state deserve better. Having spent the last three months learning about our strengths and weaknesses as an Athletics Department, it is evident that Lobo fans are our biggest assets. We have a large base of fans who care passionately about Lobo Athletics, consistently supporting our teams and programs. Their support is unique in college athletics as evidenced by our consistent ranking in the top 5 in women’s basketball attendance, in the top 20 in men’s basketball attendance, and last year, leading the country in attendance for men’s soccer.
Another obvious strength of our program is the incredible support we receive from Governor Richardson, the New Mexico legislature, UNM’s President and the Board of Regents. There have been many facility improvements made in the last few years, thanks to the support of the Governor and our state legislators. Locally, we have benefited from outstanding support from the business community. Their continued support is critical to our long-term success.
Our goal and vision for UNM Athletics is quite simple – we want to be the best program in the Mountain West Conference. To reach that level, all of our teams must consistently compete for conference championships. We must be a regional and national power recognized by ranking in the top 25-50 programs nationally. Our student-athletes’ graduation rate must climb above 50%. We need to actively engage the community. In addition to having top-notch facilities, we must holistically develop our student-athletes, be fiscally sound, and be a significant contributor to the mission of the University of New Mexico.
To achieve these lofty goals, we will develop a strategic plan that will spell out specific action steps and measurements that will serve as our road map. To quote Helen Keller, “Worse than being blind is having no vision.” We have a vision-to be the best.
So, how do we get there? How does UNM go from good to great? Over the next year, our staff will create the specific vision, goals and objectives for Lobo Athletics that will chart our course for the next five years. While we look forward to creating this future vision of Lobo athletics, we will take short-term actions to move forward. To that end we are already working on improving the academic performance of our student-athletes, most notably graduation rates.
Our student-athletes do a great job in the classroom, as evidenced by our cumulative GPA of 3.08. But they are not graduating in a timely fashion. The most recent figures show UNM finished last in the Mountain West Conference in graduation rates. A task force is already researching this situation and will submit recommendations by December 1.
Other academic initiatives already underway include looking closely at increased summer school funding, increasing financial aid after student-athletes exhaust their eligibility, mandatory participation by freshmen student-athletes in the university’s research service-learning program, and an improved academic services area as part of a larger university initiative.Philosophically we are committed to mainstreaming our student-athletes into services that exist on campus for all students. We are providing additional support for at-risk student-athletes with mentoring and leadership training programs and life skills and social development programs. An additional priority that touches the athletic, academic and social aspects of student-athletes’ lives is the development of a common code of conduct for all.
The University of New Mexico Department of Athletics is committed to doing our very best to make citizens of New Mexico proud of their flagship university. Lobo athletics owes a great deal to state leadership and the citizens of this state. We plan to provide great teams, outstanding student-athletes and enthusiastic pride for New Mexico with an athletics program of which you can be proud.