UNM's Faculty Senate voted Tuesday to approve resolutions for both a new faculty regent on the Board of Regents and to hold an open forum for all presidential-search finalists.
Faculty Senate President Beverly Burris said that the resolution to place a faculty regent on the board came from discussion and widespread support from faculty last year.
The resolution, which Burris will present to the regents at their next full meeting, states that the "UNM Faculty Senate hereby endorses the initiative to include a Faculty Regent on every Board of Regents in New Mexico, and, where appropriate, to increase the size of each board to seven members, including one faculty member and one student."
Burris said it was worded to include smaller state institutions other than UNM.
The University Board of Regents currently includes a student regent, a position that was instituted four years ago. Eric Anaya, the second student regent, will be ending his term this fall.
Burris said that the only way faculty regents can be placed on the boards is to amend legislation, which means that the senate will have to find sponsors in the N.M. Legislature to help change this legislation.
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Sen. John Geissman said that the president of the institution is responsible for submitting a list of three candidates to the governor and the governor will choose the regent, which is how the UNM student regent is chosen.
Burris said a faculty regent would be a balance to the student regent, adding that much important business conducted by the regents is carried on in executive session and it would allow the faculty to have some representation there.
She said that while the faculty regent would have to step out in regard to some personnel issues, it is not unprecedented to have faculty regents.
"It's something of a movement around the country," Burris said.
She added that only the University of Kentucky currently has a faculty regent.
The senate also approved a resolution to have an open forum for all presidential-search finalists. The resolution states that the "Faculty Senate proposes that all finalists for the presidency of UNM be invited to participate in a joint public forum, to be held after all of the candidates have completed their individual campus visits."
Sen. Ed DeSantis, a University Honors faculty member, said that campus interest in the presidential search has not been displayed in quite some time, but that this resolution would open the search to greater numbers of people.
DeSantis said that the forum would include three assigned topics and a brief intermission. He added that documents from the forum would be available on the Internet to open up an even wider audience.
He added that the resolution would allow for two things: to observe the candidates in an interactive situation under some pressure in public and this process would also sound many voices to the Board of Regents.
