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Friday, January 21, 2011
Panel Would Improve Regent Picks
By Richard L. Wood / President, UNM Faculty Senate
Associated Press
With several appointments to the boards of regents of our state universities, Gov. Susana Martinez has the opportunity to shape higher education in New Mexico immediately. How she fills those positions is critical.
Despite the Journal's concerns in a recent editorial about the outgoing governor's executive order on the subject, the regent selection proposal — put together by the faculty leadership at New Mexico State University, the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and the University of New Mexico — stands on its own merits: It is precisely what higher education in New Mexico needs in order to thrive and to help New Mexico thrive.
The new executive order, unless it is rescinded by Martinez, will create a committee of eminent community leaders and faculty members that would advise governors each time they face openings on the boards of regents at the three research universities.
The proposal is simple and sensible: The committee sifts (through applications from) potential regents, suggests to the governor which three appear to be the strongest candidates, and explains why. The governor then nominates one of these three or someone else, presumably with a public explanation of why that person is the right choice — this in order to avoid infringing on the governor's constitutional authority.
The result: A broader selection process, better informed by people with advanced knowledge of higher education. This process, or something like it, would give future governors the tools they need to consider first the state's higher education needs and challenges when appointing regents.
Martinez will soon need to decide how to proceed in filling the immediate vacancies on the boards of regents. The faculty understand that she has to balance a variety of pressures as she fills those slots, and we look forward to continuing conversations with her team as they decide how to proceed.
The bottom line is clear: Her oft-stated aspiration to be the "education governor," her obligations under the state Constitution, and the state's urgent needs all must lead her to fill these slots in the best interests of higher education. Doing so in a consultative and publicly transparent process — fully under her authority as governor — can be a win for her, for our research universities and for all New Mexicans.
As we enter 2011, our state faces a host of critical challenges: unemployment, a struggling private sector, falling tax revenues, crumbling social infrastructure, scant funds for social services or economic infrastructure, public schools struggling to educate our youth and a system of higher education on the precipice.
As we address these challenges, we will sometimes disagree. But let us do so with transparency and the will to find the best in each other and in our institutions.
A transparent selection process for regents is an excellent place to start.
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