Aggies must be exhausted.
After some high-profile troubles for New Mexico State University’s administration — including, notably, the fatal shooting of a University of New Mexico student by an NMSU men’s basketball player and hazing allegations that resulted in an $8 million settlement with members of the men’s basketball team — the institution has spent nearly two years searching for its next president.
The university announced in December 2022, the month after the shooting, its chancellor at the time, Dan Arvizu, would not seek an extension to his contract.
The search for his successor might be approaching its end. The university’s second round of presidential finalists — regents rejected the first group of candidates in March — are scheduled to visit the Las Cruces campus this week, and the selection of the institution’s next leader is expected later in the month.
But New Mexico Higher Education Cabinet Secretary Stephanie Rodriguez called last week for the university to dismiss those applicants and start the search over again — despite that the process is a “source of frustration for many.”
In an opinion piece published Wednesday in The New Mexican, Rodriguez argued none of the five recently named finalists had the leadership, academic or personal credentials necessary to lead New Mexico’s second-largest public university.
The school has a student population of more than 14,000 at its main campus and nearly 22,000 systemwide, compared with 23,000 at UNM, according to fall 2023 data.
“This job is not a stepping stone, and leading a large public college is not a job you learn on the fly,” Rodriguez wrote.
For New Mexicans, the most recognizable name on the current list of finalists is Arsenio Romero, the former Cabinet secretary of the state Public Education Department, who is a two-time NMSU grad and also served on the school’s board of regents in recent years. Romero is a longtime K-12 educator but has no experience in higher education.
He was the fourth education secretary in Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration, stepping into the role in March 2023 and leaving abruptly in late August.
The Governor’s Office said Lujan Grisham had given him a choice: Step down or withdraw his NMSU candidacy.
In a statement released Aug. 29, NMSU Board of Regents Chair Ammu Devasthali said Romero’s resignation from the Cabinet position “will have no bearing” in the regents’ selection.
“All five candidates are still in the running for this position,” she said.
The other four finalists:
- Valerio Ferme, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost of the University of Cincinnati.
- Brian L. Haynes, vice chancellor of student affairs at the University of California, Riverside.
- Monica Lounsbery, dean of the College of Health and Human Services at California State University, Long Beach.
- Neil MacKinnon, a professor at the School of Public Health at Georgia’s Augusta University and former executive vice president of academic affairs and provost for the school.
Devasthali declined to comment on Rodriguez’s op-ed.
Rodriguez, too, declined to be interviewed. Higher Education Department spokesperson Tripp Stelnicki wrote in an email “she feels that everything she wants to say on the matter at the moment is contained in the op-ed.”
Arvizu’s contract was set to expire in June 2023, but he stepped down in April of that year after the hazing scandal erupted.
He was hired in 2018 at another tumultuous time for the school, succeeding president and chancellor Garrey Carruthers, who essentially was ousted after five years in the position. Enrollment was declining at NMSU — and at colleges and universities across the state and nation.
His ouster prompted student protests and calls by staff, students and state lawmakers for regents to retain him.
Carruthers, a former Republican governor of New Mexico, had been a critic of then-GOP Gov. Susana Martinez.
He was an NMSU alum with degrees in agriculture and economics who had served in high-level positions in Washington, D.C., including deputy secretary of the Interior Department. He also had worked as dean of NMSU’s College of Business.
Arvizu, a mechanical engineer, also was an NMSU grad. He initially was named chancellor, while John Floros was hired as president to lead the school alongside him. But Floros resigned in early 2022 amid a vote of no confidence by faculty and student leaders and questions about high salaries for those in the school’s top jobs.
Floros’ departure left Arvizu as the sole leader at the helm — for just over a year.
More than a year after launching a search for NMSU’s new president, the board of regents announced five finalists for the job, but ultimately selected none of them. In a March meeting, the board said it would begin the search anew.
The finalists it rejected:
- Michael Galyean, a professor in the Department of Veterinary Sciences at Texas Tech University.
- Wayne Jones Jr., provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of New Hampshire.
- Austin Lane, chancellor of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
- John Volin, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Maine.
- Richard Williams, former president of Utah Tech University.
Two of the candidates were Aggies: Galyean received his bachelor’s degree in agriculture from NMSU — and returned as a professor from 1977 to 1996 — while Williams earned his doctorate in curriculum and instruction from the university, according to their résumés.
Several of the candidates had backgrounds in the sciences, consistent with NMSU’s history as a college of agriculture.
The second time around, the board moved more quickly, announcing another slate of five finalists within six months of its decision to restart the search.
The regents appear to be getting closer to selecting the university’s next president. Starting Monday, the five top candidates will participate in forums with students, faculty, staff and community members in Las Cruces and will be interviewed by the regents in special, closed meetings.
Rodriguez argued in her op-ed none of the five finalists is sufficiently suited to run the NMSU system.
It’s not easy to fill vacancies in university leadership, nor does any one background automatically make a candidate the best fit for a job, Rodriguez noted.
However, she argued, the best candidate should have experience similar to that of the university’s students and faculty. They should have a substantial background in science, technology, engineering and mathematics or agriculture; experience in the day-to-day leadership of a university; and the diverse perspective befitting the head of a longtime Hispanic Serving Institution.
No one in the latest batch of finalists meets that high bar, Rodriguez wrote.
“Unfortunately,” she wrote, “the search as conducted by the Board of Regents has produced two slates of finalists without the background or experience befitting the unique character and history of NMSU.”
