University of New Mexico President Bob Frank has halted plans to change the email addresses of all Health Sciences Center employees, students and faculty.
The controversial plan, which was to have dropped the word “salud” from their “@salud.unm.edu” address, simplifying it to “@unm.edu,” proved unpopular among faculty and others.
The delay comes after outcry that included a survey found 319 of 325 faculty members were opposed to the idea. The email change would have affected more than 15,000 people.
“After carefully considering these concerns, it has become apparent to me that an effort meant to unify our campus has instead had the opposite effect, growing into something that risks moving us further apart,” Frank wrote in an email to university students, faculty and employees, according to the Albuquerque Journal. “As such, I have decided not to move forward with the transition at this time.”
The plan was a part of efforts from Frank and regents to closer align the Health Sciences Center, which includes the medical school, the nursing school and the adult and children’s’ hospitals, with main campus.
These efforts included other controversial decisions, such as the regents’ elimination of the HSC board of directors and, most recently, possible job cuts and consolidations of positions between HSC and main campus.
