As a new semester kicks off, we have plenty to look forward to in addition to a new schedule of classes. This semester will mark an important transition period for the University.

This week begins the legislative session in Santa Fe, where a new funding formula for New Mexico’s universities will be tested — a budgetary mechanism that rewards higher graduation rates, improvements in student success and academic achievement in minority populations.

This spring, the University community will begin to benefit from the provost’s academic strategic planning initiative, which will help all of us to identify our strengths, and the paths by which we can continue to enhance the higher education of New Mexico.

As the semester concludes, we will have an opportunity to celebrate and appreciate the new heights and frontiers that UNM has reached in the last five years, thanks to President David Schmidly’s leadership. And beginning June 1st, we will welcome our 21st President, Robert Frank, back home with high hopes and helping hands. Aside from an unsavory cartoon, campus and Albuquerque media outlets have worked hard to introduce Dr. Frank to our community.

We will all spend substantial time this spring learning more about our incoming leader. To start, I’d like to briefly touch on how Dr. Frank became the president-elect of our state’s flagship research institution.

The search for UNM’s 21st president has been hailed as both the most inclusive and transparent search many have seen at the University, and rightly so. Prior to the start of the actual search, the Regents’ Academic/Student Affairs and Research Committee held public forums and met with constituency groups to compile opinions and input from around the University on what qualifications the next president should possess.

As a result of these meetings, we were able to provide a detailed, exhaustive “job description” to guide the search committee in their work. Regent President Jack Fortner assembled a qualified search committee of 29 members representing students, staff, faculty, deans and community members from all around the state.

This group solicited nominations from within and outside our campus, and considered a large pool of incredibly qualified leaders in education from around the country.

In order to effectively outreach to a pool of qualified candidates, the University partnered with a search consultant, Alberto Pimentel. While criticisms of consultants include their high cost to the University, it should be noted that Pimentel negotiated with UNM to recruit and provide access to candidates at a reduced rate.

After an exhaustive round of preliminary interviews, the search committee forwarded their recommendations to the Board of Regents, which proceeded to select five finalists to come to campus for public interviews. It should be remembered that every member of the diverse search committee ranked Robert Frank in their list of top candidates.

On Jan. 4th, 2012, the regents unanimously voted to hire Dr. Frank as our next president. There are many reasons to be excited about Dr. Frank’s arrival in Albuquerque on June 1. Just as you and I carry a vested interest in our next president and the changes he will make to our school, Dr. Frank will be directly responsible for the quality of his own degrees — he has three from UNM.

As a student who lives on campus, I am excited that our next president will be among the 3500 residents living on campus, with a doorstep only feet from Zimmerman Library, the Duck Pond, and our Student Union Building. In addition to these positive image-builders, Dr. Frank has an honest record of making the organizations he’s led successful.

At the University of Florida (one of the nation’s premier public universities), he was recognized with awards and an endowed chair in his name for his leadership as the dean of the College of Public Health and Health Professions. Currently, he has brought great success to Kent State University as provost by increasing student retention and academic success by large margins. These are areas UNM needs significant help in, and I look forward to utilizing Dr. Frank’s experience to help our own students succeed.

As with every transition, our potential for success with Robert Frank is limitless. He will be on campus periodically this semester and has committed to engaging the campus in a 100-day listening and learning period before making changes on campus.

Let’s all be team players and help educate him on what makes our university wonderful and how he can take us to the next level.

Early criticism and paranoia will not do much to advance our state or UNM; let’s welcome our next leader with a hopeful attitude for a stronger University.

Jacob P. Wellman is the student regent at UNM. He writes a monthly column for the Daily Lobo about the ins and outs of what the regents do at UNM. Any questions you might have for him about the regents or the University should be sent to stregent@unm.edu.