4 of 5 regents are formally out at Western New Mexico College.
Photograph illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Larger Ed | Vectorig/DigitalVision/Getty Photographs
Going through withering scrutiny from state officers over a expensive exit settlement with outgoing president Joseph Shepard, 4 of Western New Mexico College’s 5 regents have now resigned, the college confirmed Tuesday.
State officers discovered that Shepard improperly spent greater than $360,000 in taxpayer funds for journey, luxurious resorts and furnishings for his campus residence after a 2023 investigation by Searchlight New Mexico first introduced consideration to his questionable monetary strikes at WNMU. Regents have additionally been accused of violating WNMUs’ journey and procurement insurance policies.
(Shepard has denied any wrongdoing and rebutted claims of improper spending.)
Amid the fallout, Shepard and the board agreed to terminate his contract in a transfer each events mentioned was mutual. Regents agreed to pay him almost $2 million in severance in addition to a further $1.5 million through different advantages, together with a school place.
Given how his contract was structured, the board might have fired Shepard with out trigger and parted methods with him for rather less than $600,000. The choice to pay him handsomely on the way in which out prompted state officers to accuse the board of fiduciary mismanagement.
A Wave of Resignations
On Dec. 31, Democratic governor Michelle Lujan Grisham despatched a letter to regents urging them to resign “as a way to preserve the longer term well being and stability of Western New Mexico College.”
The letter got here 11 days after the board accepted Shepard’s exit settlement.
“Within the spirit of a clear slate of decisionmakers on the college, I’m asking in your rapid resignation to assist make sure that Western New Mexico College will be capable to regain its equilibrium and as soon as once more serve its college students before everything,” Lujan Grisham wrote.
By Tuesday, when the board was subsequent scheduled to fulfill, 4 of the 5 members had resigned. The assembly, at which regents have been scheduled to launch a seek for an interim president to exchange Shepard, didn’t happen on account of an absence of quorum.
Solely scholar regent Trent Jones remained.
“Regent Jones, who serves because the board’s treasurer, will proceed to serve on the board briefly to make sure the uninterrupted processing of college funds, together with scholar monetary help,” college spokesperson Mario Sanchez wrote to Inside Larger Ed by e mail.
Regent Lyndon Haviland was the primary to step down, doing so on the identical day the governor made the demand. She was adopted by Daniel Lopez, who resigned Jan. 1, and Dalva Mollenberg on Jan. 2.
Board president Mary Hotvedt—who had praised Shepard for “selflessly stepping down for the great of the college within the face of ongoing points”—additionally tendered her resignation Jan. 2. (Although Hotvedt’s time period expired on Dec. 31, she was slated to serve till formally changed.)
Not one of the outgoing regents referenced the controversy of their resignation letters.
In a Tuesday afternoon assertion, Lujan Grisham mentioned her workplace is within the technique of on the lookout for new appointees to serve on WNMU’s board.
“My workplace is already reviewing candidates to exchange the previous WNMU board and usher in a brand new period of accountability on the college. All public universities in New Mexico should uphold their elementary fiscal duty to the folks of this state and the scholars they serve,” Lujan Grisham mentioned.
The governor additionally blasted the board for its “tone-deaf determination” on the severance package deal, pointing to financial wants throughout the state.
“The sum of money contained in Dr. Shepard’s separation settlement might have addressed meals insecurity throughout all the WNMU scholar physique for a full 12 months,” Lujan Grisham mentioned.
Authorized Choices
What a newly reconstituted Board of Regents may imply for the much-maligned Shepard deal is unclear. If a brand new board have been to attempt to stroll again the deal, which has already been signed, Shepard might file go well with and WNMU could be chargeable for protecting his authorized bills within the case.
Nevertheless, state officers have taken one other method to undo the deal Lawyer Normal Raúl Torrez requested a state courtroom Monday to halt the disbursement of severance funds, which he known as “an egregious misuse of public funds” in a information launch.
A $1.9 million severance fee is due by Jan. 15, in keeping with the phrases of the exit settlement. Torrez is looking for a short lived restraining order to forestall the payout “till a full evidentiary listening to on a preliminary injunction will be held.” The legal professional basic famous in a authorized submitting that two investigations into improper spending at WNMU are underway and argued that the exit settlement or severance funds could also be “voidable or unenforceable on account of lack of consideration, unconscionable phrases” and “an absence of lawful objective,” amongst different causes.
Torrez argued that the exit settlement and severance pay could “finally be put aside as invalid as a result of the board breached their fiduciary duties.” However time, he harassed, is essential.
“Absent courtroom intervention, the state will seemingly undergo the concrete hurt of the waste of just about $2 million {dollars} in public funds on prime of the waste that has already been recognized by the [Office of the State Auditor],” Torrez wrote within the emergency movement. “That fee, if made previous to the completion of the Particular Audit, will seemingly be unrecoverable by the point that audit and any subsequent litigation primarily based on its outcomes are full.”
