On April 8, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed Senate Bill 19 into law, requiring all members of university boards of regents to undergo 10 hours of training.
The training, required for regents at all universities and public post-secondary educational institutions, will cover topics such as state law, financial and fiduciary responsibilities, student success, available state and nongovernmental resources, and ethics and accountability, according to the now-law.
“I've always felt like we should be looking for regents who have a lot of experience and passion in higher education, and I feel like that's not always the case in the people that get selected,” Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D-Las Cruces), who sponsored the bill during the legislative session, said.
This bill followed the resignation of the president of Western New Mexico University and its regents after an investigation by the state auditor discovered improper spending, according to The Associated Press.
While the bill was not specifically prompted by the situation at WNMU, it could help prevent similar situations in the future, Steinborn said.
“You need regents who are really passionate about this subject and have ideas, have something to offer, so that they can be the leaders their schools deserve to help their school be at the cutting edge of meeting those needs of modern-day society,” Steinborn said.
The training can help regents learn more about their fiduciary duties and other ethical and moral responsibilities to the University, especially since the University of New Mexico encompasses so many fields of study, UNM regent Christina Campos said.
“The more that we can learn, I think, the more effective we can be as regents,” Campos said.
Current members of boards of regents will have until the end of 2025 to complete the training, and newly appointed regents will be required to complete their appointment within the first six months of their term, according to the law.
“UNM takes orientation of new Regents very seriously, so it does not appear that SB19 will have a dramatic impact on what it is already doing,” UNM regent Patricia Williams wrote in a statement to the Daily Lobo. “I think it is a good and necessary measure in order to help create and enforce good governance.”
Steinborn hopes that universities will implement an in-person training where regents can learn from experts in different areas, and that in the future, there can be a bipartisan nominating commission for university regents to widen the pool of candidates, he said.
“That's my only hope at this point: that higher education really invests in doing this thing in the most impactful way,” Steinborn said. “It's certainly up to them.”
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Jaden McKelvey-Francis is a beat reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on X @jadenmckelvey
