UNM's Frank gets earful on listening tour

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - When University of New Mexico President Bob Frank took the reins on June 1, he decided his first 120 days in office would be spent listening.

Now he has some thoughts on what he's heard so far about changes that need to be made and on some changes he's already making.

While he was there to listen, he found most meetings his first four months were spent with people wanting to hear his new ideas.

"It's a back and forth process, but at the end of the day what we have to do is I talk a little, they talk a little, and we just keep going on and on," Frank told KRQE News 13.

Frank has top priorities. Among them first help students graduate.

"The more we can reach out and support our students, the better they could do," he said. "The better students are prepared, the better they will do once they come here."

And after that?

"Focus on raising the salaries for our faculty here at the university," Frank continued. "And we need to focus on reaching out to the community not only here in Albuquerque but all of New Mexico, embracing them and letting them know the University of New Mexico is here to serve them.

"I am not sure we have always told the best story about what is here."

He also wants to make the university more prestigious and recently added an Honors College to the mix.

"We are growing an Honors College," he said. "We have a dorm for them, and we are going to have a special curriculum for them. We think it's going to be a great choice for them."

He's hoping the Honors College, with some of the state's next bright minds, will put UNM on the map nationally for the higher education the university can provide.

"You can get a great education at UNM," Frank said. "I got a great education here, and I have been off at the best universities in the country."

Something else Frank wants to change at UNM: bring back men's swimming, a sport he competed in when he attended UNM in the 1970s.