The competition begins: Presidential finalists travel to New Mexico State

Two of the five New Mexico State University presidential finalists visited campus this week and shared with students, faculty, staff, press and public about their professional backgrounds and goals for the university.

Richard Herman
Richard Herman, of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, shed light on aspects of his life during his visit Monday, including the scandal that led to his resignation from his current position, effective in December.

A scandal
Herman chose to resign from his position as chancellor after coming under pressure concerning special attention the university paid to student applicants who were politically connected and admitted some of them over more qualified students, according to a University Communications press release.

Moving forward
Herman said he made a mistake, but the university will be able to move forward now that he has resigned.

“A lot has been learned from this,” Herman said. “When you hurry about making a decision, think about the trail.”

Herman said there are always positive things that do not get recognized by the press, but negative things are always highlighted. Herman said he said no to the situation many times, but that part did not make it into the news.

“There were places I could have walked away, maybe I should have,” Herman said. “It was regrettable, but in the end we established a firewall. We’ll see how successful it is.”

Experience
Herman has had experience working with ethnic studies and diversity and said during his years at the University of Illinois, he worked hard to make the university more inclusive and supportive of minority students. Herman also said there are many important goals to work on at NMSU, including working with student organizations, addressing societal problems and increasing the graduation rates overall.

“Declaring values and deciding what is good [for the university] is important,” Herman said.

Herman said leading NMSU will take a lot of strategic planning.

“It’s not just about the rankings,” Herman said.

Herman said he was happy to be at NMSU and is moving past the scandal.

“It’s been a rough five months,” Herman said. “[But] I look back on my 11 years and feel enormously proud of what I’ve been able to do.”

Barbara Couture
Barbara Couture, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln since 2004, was the first of the two female finalists for the position of president to visit campus Wednesday and said if chosen she plans to stay at NMSU a while.

The long-term
Couture said her life has been dedicated to public higher education for decades, and she supports NMSU and its mission. Couture said each of the leadership positions she has held at universities have been long-term, including 20 years spent serving as a professor and associate dean at Wayne State University in Detroit.

“I’m not an institution hopper,” Couture said. “My intention is to stay and help build this university, if I get the opportunity.”

Couture said she held leadership roles and initiated diversity projects at three major research colleges, including starting the American Indian Studies Plateau Center at Washington State University, where she served as dean of the College of Liberal Arts for six years.

“[NMSU would be] a great place to continue my professional path,” Couture said.

Goals
 Couture said one of her goals is to help bring more women into the science, technology, engineering and math fields. Couture said she would like to build on diversity beyond bringing women into STEM fields and to expand the goals and success of the faculty overall.
Couture said NMSU is concerned with bringing the best faculty members to the university, and faculty members should have recognition for their commitment to the students.

Community involvement
“A new president should partner with the community,” Couture said. “To attract high-quality faculty and students [the new president] must have high-quality communication, stability, emphasis on excellence and good, transparent communication.”

Competing for Couture
Couture was selected as a presidential finalist at the University of Albany in New York in February, but was not selected. Couture is also a finalist at Southern Illinois University and said she will visit the university next week. Couture said she is looking at both universities but has enjoyed her visit to NMSU and was impressed with the growth of the campus and the community, including the construction of the new convention center, Center for the Arts and the Native American Cultural Center.

“[Las Cruces] is a city just bursting with potential,” Couture said. “The citizen growth [is proof] that lots of people want to come here.”

Couture said she is also dedicated to the land-grant mission of the university and would work to meet the expectations of the campus and the Las Cruces community.

“I think the community is looking for a collegial atmosphere;  strong, stable leadership,” Couture said. “That’s what I hope to provide.”




Kristina Medley is the news editor and can be reached at trunews@nmsu.edu