by Jamie Koch
Daily Lobo guest columnist
The most important job of any university Board of Regents is hiring the right president.
To do that, we regents first have to do our homework. We need to make sure we are hiring the right person at the right time - and the only way to find out what kind of president the University of New Mexico needs right now is by asking a lot of questions.
These questions aren't just for presidential candidates, although you can be sure we regents will have plenty to ask the men and women who want to lead our state's largest university.
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No, I'm talking about starting our search by asking questions of the people most affected by this president: the faculty, students and alumni of this great University.
To begin, I have appointed attorney Raymond Sanchez to chair the presidential search committee. Sanchez will be joined by engineer Sandra Begay-Campbell and Mel Eaves, also an attorney, and one with thorough knowledge of the University's finances. Together, the three of them bring years of wisdom and life experience to the search.
Joining them will be six faculty members - including one from the branches - a dean, one undergraduate and one graduate student, and one representative each from the staff, alumni, the School of Medicine and the community. Committee members will be appointed this summer.
It is no accident that the initial appointments reflect the diversity of our great state - Hispanic, Anglo and American Indian, with men and women serving. Future appointments will continue to reflect our state's and our University's diversity. Our University is now a majority-minority university. Our faculty and staff have more women than men. We want the people who help select our next president to reflect that rich diversity.
The search committee's first task will be visiting with our University and community constituents to come up with the list of qualifications we want in our next president. We want diverse opinions, a lot of back-and-forth discussion, and we plan to base the job description for the next president on what we hear in those meetings.
It's essential to hire a president who is the right fit for the University and the state of New Mexico. Regents Sanchez, Begay-Campbell and Eaves have met with Faculty Senate, students and graduate students. Any organized group that would like to have input needs to contact Regent Sanchez through the Regents' office.
It's important to note that this committee, through its chair, will have responsibility for running this search. We anticipate having a consultant help identify potential candidates who most closely fit our job description and the qualifications we want in a UNM president.
But in the past, too much authority was placed in the hands of companies that specialize in presidential searches. Such companies were hired to draft the job description, recruit possible candidates and tell us what we needed in a president. This time, the search committee, after consulting with the greater University community, will decide what kind of president we need now.
Aggressive efforts will be made - and a consultant will help with this - to recruit excellent female and minority candidates. Once we have our list of qualifications, it will be easier to go out and find the best people in the country, rather than simply waiting for them to come find us.
We are planning an active search process, an open search process and one where regents ask a lot of questions. The goal is to select a president by April 2007. The conversation with students, faculty, staff and alumni to help decide what kind of president UNM needs begins now.
In a Jan. 28 editorial, the Albuquerque Tribune noted, "UNM deserves a knowledgeable, strong and decisive president who understands the University's vision and is able to stay the course."
We as regents agree wholeheartedly. Let all of us who love UNM get started on the task ahead.
