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Friday, November 20, 2009
NMSU Board of Regents Picks Couture As President
By Rene Romo
Journal Southern Bureau
LAS CRUCES — Barbara Couture donned a crimson Aggies cap and joked that mascot Pistol Pete said "he's got my back" after the New Mexico State University Board of Regents on Thursday appointed her as the school's 25th president.
Couture, the 61-year-old senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will start at NMSU on Jan. 1 with a salary of $385,000 per year. She will receive a $500,000 "retention bonus," to be paid by the NMSU Foundation, if she completes her five-year contract.
Board of Regents Chairman Blake Curtis said that of the five finalists for the position, Couture was "the most complete package."
Regent Javier Gonzales said Couture, NMSU's first permanent female president, has shown "proven leadership in academics," is a "skilled executive," and possesses "great charm and lots of intelligence."
"I believe that today marks a new day here at New Mexico State University. It's a new day that brings promise, it's a new day that I believe brings stability, and it's a day that ensures continued excellence in academics," Gonzales said.
Before becoming chief academic officer of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2004, Couture, who holds a doctorate of arts degree in English language and literature from the University of Michigan, was dean of the liberal arts college at Washington State University.
"... I want this university to be the absolute best it can be," Couture told a packed room where the regents met Thursday morning. "We're just so absolutely proud to be at a university that stresses access to students across the state and beyond, that is building very strong partnerships with all of our campuses across the state, and that always and evermore honors cultural diversity in all of its aspects."
NMSU has had two interim presidents since July 2008 when former president Michael Martin, after a four-year tenure, left for the chancellor's post at Louisiana State University. In the 10 years before Martin's hiring, NMSU was headed by four presidents, one of whom served only in an interim capacity.
Manal Hamzeh, assistant professor of women's studies, was one of several women to shout, "All right," when Couture's name was announced as the regents' pick. In 2006, women made up 23 percent of university presidents nationwide, according to a 2007 report of the American Council on Education.
"I've been waiting for this for a long time," Hamzah said.
Justin McHorse, director of American Indian Programs, also said he welcomed Couture's selection. At Washington State University, Couture helped lay the foundation for a center for Indian studies.
NMSU has begun construction on a Native American cultural center aimed in part at boosting enrollment of Native American students, now about 3 percent of the student body in a state where about 10 percent of the population is Native American.
"We look forward to her leadership and her support of our ethnic programs," McHorse said.
Couture's selection marks the end of a turbulent period at NMSU touched off by former president Martin's departure last year.
Outgoing Provost Waded Cruzado was named interim president, but relinquished the title in May. The initial search for Martin's replacement was canceled after finalists withdrew, according to former regents' chairman Bob Gallagher, because they believed Cruzado was going to get the job.
Manuel Pacheco was named interim president as the second search got under way in the spring. Cruzado will leave NMSU on Dec. 31 to start a new job as president of Montana State University.
The second search was not without controversy. Two of the five presidential finalists — Richard Herman, former chancellor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and James Oblinger, former chancellor at North Carolina State University — had both resigned their posts since June in the wake of controversies.
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