WNMU board member resigns amid state outcry over president's contract

A member of the Western New Mexico University Board of Regents announced her resignation Tuesday ahead of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s letter to the board asking them all to resign amid a flurry of state ethics investigations into both university president Joe Shepard’s alleged wasteful spending and his multimillion severance contract.

Nonprofit executive Lyndon Haviland issued a letter to Board Chair Mary Hotvedt touting the accomplishments of the five-member board during her three-year tenure and said she decided to step down because the university programs she wanted are in place.

Lujan Grisham on Tuesday asked for the immediate resignation of all of WNMU’s regents “to help ensure that Western New Mexico University will be able to regain its equilibrium and once again serve its students first and foremost.”

The governor acknowledged she had already received Haviland’s resignation letter. In addition to Haviland and Hotvedt, the board is comprised of former Cabinet secretary Daniel H. Lopez; private attorney Dal Moellenberg; and WNMU student Trent Jones.

The university was not able to issue a response to Lujan Grisham’s letter before press time on Tuesday.

The university's board has been under fire from state officials and the campus community following a Dec. 20 meeting in which it threw out Shepard's old contract and replaced it with a severance agreement that entitles him to a $1.9 million payout as university president and a full professorship in the School of Business, making $200,000 a year. At that same meeting, Shepard issued a lengthy statement disputing the November findings from State Auditor Joe Maestas that alleged board members, Shepard, and his wife, ex-CIA Agent Valerie Plame, spent more than $360,000 on lavish foreign business trips and furniture for the president’s residence from 2018-23. The alleged wasteful spending has prompted questions from lawmakers, an inquiry from the state Ethics Commission and audits from the state Higher Education Department and the university itself.

During the Dec. 20 board meeting, Shepard also said he was being defamed and had no been afforded due process, but was nevertheless resigning to avoid being a distraction to the university.

Shepard's separation agreement prompted a renewed outcry, including from New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who announced on Dec. 21 that he would launch an inquiry into Shepard’s "golden parachute."

On Dec. 24, Assistant Professor Jorge Romero-Habeych issued a letter to the Faculty Senate on behalf of his colleagues in the School of Business alleging that they were not consulted in the drafting of Shepard's separation agreement. He also called on the presidential search to be halted until investigations into the board are complete. The university responded no consultation was given for legal reasons and a presidential search has not yet started.

Romero-Habeych's letter prompted Faculty Senate President Phil Scoenberg to issue a statement on Dec. 27 for a Faculty Senate meeting on Jan. 2 to consider a vote of no confidence in the board. If approved, the declaration would would ask all board members to resign or have lawmakers remove them. The declaration would also ask lawmakers to halt Shepard’s new contract before it goes into effect.

If approved, the Faculty Senate's vote of no confidence would go to the Faculty General Assembly for consideration on Jan. 16, Schoenberg said.

In response to the public outcry over the separation agreement, Hotvedt announced on Dec. 29 that the board would hold a special meeting on Jan. 7 to explain the contract. The notice for that meeting, however, has not been posted to the board's website.

In previous statements, Shepard and Hotvedt, speaking on behalf of the board, have denied wrongdoing, asserting they have made university policy reforms, and saying they are being treated unfairly in the court of public opinion.

Haviland, who is the chief executive officer of a child sex abuse prevention organization called Darkness to Light, did not mention in her resignation letter to Hotvedt the allegations of wasteful spending against the board or Shepard's severance agreement.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to state that Jan. 16 is the correct date of the upcoming Faculty General Assembly meeting. Faculty Senate President Phil Scoenberg's letter listed an incorrect date.