By Lynn Janes

On July 31, 2025, the board of regents held a special meeting at Western New Mexico University. The board consisted of Chair Steven Neville, Joseph "Dean" Reed, John Wertheim and WNMU Student Regent Keana Huerta. Dr. Chris Maples, interim president, also attended.

The board approved the agenda with the removal of the agenda item that pertained to the early childhood facility. Reed said they needed more information. They also approved the minutes from the last several meetings.

Neville introduced the new interim president for the president's report. Maples had officially started June 29, 2025. Neville asked if he had anything to report or comments to make.

Maples went over what he had done in his profession but had ended up in administration and being a department chair and vice president for research at a research institute. After that it had been president, interim president or interim chancellor of academic institutions. "My background is with a lot of different forums." He had come here to set things on the right path

At this point in the meeting the zoom link had been infiltrated with extremely vile language and extreme pornography. Neville shut the meeting down until the people doing this had been removed which took them just a few minutes.

Maples handed over reporting to specific people and said he would have comments after.

Carlos Carranza, student government president, introduced himself and said he had come here from Hatch. He had grown up working on a farm and picking chiles and onions. He had decided to come to Western New Mexico University (WNMU), and it has been the perfect place for him. He had been involved with student government for the past two years and has enjoyed this new position and meeting a lot of different people. He will be a junior this year.

Bartholomew Brown, staff president senate, said he comes from Silver City and has been at the university for ten years and this will be his second year for this term. They have welcomed several new staff senators to the team that have fresh ideas, dedication and high energy levels. "We are truly excited about all the contributions they will make." Last night they had a staff appreciation night at the Silver Bowling Center. It had been a success bringing the staff and family members together. He congratulated the WNMU bowling champions, Chris Matthews and James Lee.

Brown said the staff senate is very eager and prepared to support Maples and looked forward to positive collaboration and providing staff perspectives to help guide effective institutional decisions. "We are grateful that we were included in discussions with the search group for the permanent president."

Brown thanked the IT team and their continued efforts to rebuild and secure the system. He also thanked the facilities team that had made the campus beautiful and welcoming. Brown added that the staff and staff senate will be energized, motivated and ready for an exciting and productive semester. "As we begin this new chapter at WNMU we eagerly await welcoming our new students, returning students and bring back that vibrant campus they bring."

Gregory Robinson Guerra, faculty senate president, has been at the university for three years and starting his fourth. He works in the college of education and is a bilingual education professor in Spanish. Andrea Nika serves as vice president and is an associate professor of sociology, social sciences and cultural studies. Guerra said both would be honored to serve the faculty and administration.

His report would be since the last regular board meeting in May. Academic affairs had received $40,000 for faculty development. The funds have been utilized for conference travel and faculty training. The faculty had been required to submit funding applications. Upon completion of their fund initiative, they had been required to submit a post award report. Academic affairs have created clear funding guidelines. They have been informed that the 2026 fiscal year they will have $40,000 for faculty development. He thanked the administration on behalf of the faculty for the funded initiatives.

Guerra thanked Dr. Jack Crocker for the faculty meeting with Anthem on the permanent president search. They had all shared excellent ideas about the search such as the various strengths and weaknesses they felt would be important. He added that currently through the WNMU web page everyone could extend their opinions, and it will be available until August 4, 2025.

Guerra said that Nika has made available a shared governance plan for the administration faculty and board of regents which will be brought to the faculty senate for their input.

Neville asked Crocker if he had anything to add. He said no, "I'm just glad Maples is here." Neville said Crocker had done an amazing job filling in, with very unusual circumstances. It had been dropped in his lap. He had done an incredible job, and Neville extended his appreciation and thanks. "You kept the ship afloat especially with all the pitfalls and problems."

Maples had a few things to add. "I am extremely excited for the electricity of students returning to the campus soon." The semester starts officially August 11, 2025, and the first day of classes August 18, 2025. He went over all the upcoming games starting August 30, 2025.

Maples asked Crocker to give an overview of the permanent president search. Maples had attended both town hall forums and they had done well and well attended.

Crocker said the forums had gone well. In the beginning they had sent out an RFP (request for proposal) for a search firm. They had received five proposals. However one had been late and could not be considered. Neville and Wertheim had reviewed the proposals. They had chosen Anthem. This week had been the initial rollout for Anthem to collect information, and they will be taking all that information to create a profile for the president. At that time, they will provide a draft for review. Anthem had been very pleased with the turnout for the forums and said they had more people than they have had with any other institution searching for a president.

Anthem had met with the students, faculty, staff and administration. They had also done the two town halls that gave the public an opportunity to provide input. Zoom participation had also been available to those who could not attend. The town halls had been advertised in various platforms. The survey Guerra mentioned can still be done until august 4, 2025 and will be anonymous. It has been run by Anthem and WNMU has nothing to do with it. It can however be accessed on the WNMU website. The website will also have continual updates on the search.

{Editor's Note: The survey can be accessed at https://wnmu.edu/search-for-a-president/ .]

New Business

The board approved the preliminary appointment to the presidential search committee. Neville had narrowed down a few people and said they didn't want more than 12-13 people. The list he provided did not have everyone and it had not been completed. Reed will be the chairman of the committee and Wertheim will be vice chair. The board approved the appointments. The committee will also have the presidents of the senate, staff and students. They may serve or appoint someone to serve. Kelly Riddle, vice president of business and finance, has been asked to serve. Neville said he had spoken to William Hawkins, Silver Consolidated Schools superintendent, and he had agreed to serve.

Neville said with the others they would try to keep a broad spectrum of community leaders and university personnel. He will be contacting the Chamber of Commerce, LULAC (League of United Latin American citizens), county commission, mayor and some other organizations.

Riddle had several items to bring before the board for approval. The board approved all of them after her presentation.

The fourth quarter fiscal year 2025 had been gone over by the finance committee along with Reed and Huerta. They are required to submit the quarterly financial certification report. The report covers up to June 30, 2025. She pointed out that some things would be a little different on this report than the others. A question on the report asked if payroll had failed to be made as scheduled. Not due to any financial situation but one payroll had been a day late due to the cybersecurity incident. It happened the one time, but it had to be reported and an explanation of the reason and what had been done to take care of it. She explained in detail the problem that had transpired. They had notified the employees and also let them know if they incurred any kind of late fees or banking fees the university would reimburse them.

Riddle had a budget adjustment request. She went into what the adjustments had to do with and the requirements of the state. One had been an appropriation form from the state that they didn't have the amount to include with the original budget.

Riddle presented a list of asset disposal and explained these items would not be in use or not working anymore. Typically, they do not do this early in the fiscal year, but they have a chemical fume hood located in a building in Luna County that had been put there for science classes. They no longer use this county building and would need to remove it and store it. Currently they don't have a place to store it or use it. Removing it will be costly. They have proposed donating it to Luna County. She understands they want to continue to use the space for classrooms.

The next item Riddle presented had to do with the American Tower lease. Verizon uses this tower on WNMU property that started in 2005. It has come time to renew or extend the lease. Verizon has reached out to them about the increase in rent and they have added something to the contract. They would like the option to have other tower tenants, space on their tower that would create a revenue share back to WNMU of $150 a month. The lease will extend it another 25 years.

Although the next item had been postponed in the motion for the agenda, Riddle wanted to say a little bit about it. They had a meeting with Higher Education department and the legislative finance committee. They had discussed the project for the Early Childhood Facility and had some hesitation. Another meeting has been scheduled for the planning of the facility. It seemed inappropriate to move forward until that meeting has taken place. It should happen withing the next six to eight weeks to finalize the project. A concern of the university will be that some of the funds already received might revert. The first appropriation had been $5 million, and they will not revert until June of 2027, so Riddle thought they would be fine.

Nevill asked Wertheim to address the possible action regarding the validity of WNMU separation and faculty agreement involving former university president pursuant to the New Mexico Open Meetings Act. Wertheim had two motions to present.

Wertheim said, "I'm going to just recite some issues that are of concern. I want to locate the public in space and time to Dr. Shepherd's separation agreement and faculty appointment that was purportedly approved by the Board of Regents on December 20th of 2024. In particular, I would direct the public's attention to the agenda. It was published pursuant to that meeting on December 20th of 2024. And I just wanted to make a few points about that meeting."

"First, the December 20, 2024, action item on the agenda titled President's Contract, in my view, did not meet the requirements of the New Mexico Open Meetings Act to give proper notice to the public of the action that was going to be considered and taken by the Regents on that day.

"Secondly, the Open Meetings Act section 10-15-1A is clear that the public is 'entitled to the greatest possible information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those officers and employees who represent them.' That applies to the Board of Regents then and now.

"Thirdly, the Open Meetings Act at section 10-15-1F also requires that the Regents shall post 'an agenda containing a list of specific items of business to be disclosed or transacted at the meeting."

"Fourthly, the Open Meetings Act at section 10-15-3A states that no action by the Board of Regents 'shall be valid unless taken or made at a meeting held in accordance with the requirements of the Open Meetings Act.' Because I do not believe that the Open Meetings Act, that the agenda and the meeting complied with the Open Meetings Act."

Wertheim made the following motion"The Board of Regents conclude that the action taken on December 20, 2024, by the old Board of Regents, but it's the same body. The action taken on December 20, 2024, by this Board of Regents with regard to the purported Western New Mexico University separation and faculty appointment agreement involving a former New Mexico president was invalid for failure to comply with the legal requirements of the New Mexico Open Meetings Act to list that agreement as a specific item of business to be discussed or transacted at that meeting." The board all approved the motion.

They had just passed the motion that concludes that the separation agreement with Dr. Shepard would be invalid and now within the board's power to either approve or disapprove of that agreement. Because of the vote on the open meetings act previously the board needs to revote for that agreement now that is has been properly noticed in the agenda and very detailed.

Wertheim had written this motion to disapprove the proposed WNMU separation and faculty appointment agreement involving a former university president.

Yes, would disapprove it. No, would presumably leave it open to approval. The board all voted to disapprove the separation agreement and faculty appointment. This will leave it in limbo until resolved.

Wertheim said he knew the public and various parties would have a lot of questions after these votes. All of these questions will be very legitimate and need to be answered in due course. Many things can't be discussed because it will be a personnel matter, and they are limited in their response. "I ask that everyone have patience." He said he had tried to frame the agenda and motions as clearly as possible to answer basic questions.

Wertheim said, "As of right now, from the perspective of the Board of Regents, Dr. Shepherd's separation agreement and faculty appointment is no longer in existence."

Reed addressed the outside council that had been voted on at the last meeting. Wertheim said many have been and will be watching their moves closely and that would be a good thing and the purpose of public meetings. In the last meeting they had voted to hire a special counsel, Ortiz and Zamora, to advise the board and that will be attorney client privilege. It will be a matter of public record that the board hired the firm, which has extensive experience in the area of education for 30 years. Wertheim's said he had known Zamora since high school. Zamora graduated from Georgetown University and University of Arizona law school. He had also been the general counsel for Governor Bill Richardson.

Public comments

Mary Parker, executive director of the Western Institute for Lifelong Learning (WILL) spoke. She wanted to welcome the new regents and looked forward to working with them. She mentioned she had meet Reed's daughter at a WILL event.

Dr. Mark Donnell said he retired as an anesthesiologist and lived in Silver City for 30 years. He had practiced at the hospital for 20 years and been a chemistry researcher at WNMU for 20 years. He had also worked as an adjunct professor in the nursing department in the natural sciences department. Because of the recent actions in this meeting, he thought some of his comments would not be necessary but still would be making them as he originally wrote them. He welcomed Maples and said he appeared to be highly qualified and highly educated. He thanked Maples for coming to take this job at a difficult time and the regents for taking these unpaid positions in the face of the recent problems.

Donnell continued, "I have two things I'd like to discuss. The first is, as you know, Dr. Joe Shepard is still scheduled to teach the business ethics course in the fall. This is truly absurd. Like we all know Joe, he's a very nice guy, but he's ethically bankrupt. I recognize that assigning instructors to particular courses is not a board function, but I'm asking the business department chairperson and our interim president work together to find a way to either assign a different instructor, allow students to take this course by Zoom at another university, or cancel the course for the fall and assign a new instructor to teach the course in the spring. Allowing Dr. Shepard to teach ethics would be the height of hypocrisy. Please do not allow WNMU to become the laughingstock of higher education in the state of New Mexico."

The second point he wanted to make had been how hard the IT department had been working to recover from the cyber issue. As part of this they have rolled out a software program called Microsoft Authenticator. He has heard a number of complaints from faculty about the increased difficulty to access the system. He had explained to them why it had to be done, and they have been much less upset after. The IT department needs to do a better job at explaining these changes.

Board comments

Reed thanked everyone for the participation in the Anthem search. "We will genuinely try to get out some more information on the committee and start dates." Anthem has turned out the be an excellent choice and has handled things well.

Huerta wanted to express how excited she is about the upcoming academic year and looking forward to the collaboration and growth. She also extended her heartfelt thank you to everyone who had participated in the recent town hall forums. The engagement will be invaluable to assuring that this process has transparency and is inclusive. Huerta asked that everyone participate in the online survey, which will be quick and anonymous.

Wertheim wanted to address the Dr. Shepard matter briefly. He had said previously that his vision has been the resolution of this matter. "Currently there is a pending lawsuit from the Department of Justice (attorney general) and one in Grant County on this matter. There is also a pending lawsuit in Rio Ariba County from the Ethics Commission." He said the vision will be to have everyone come together involved in the lawsuits to have a giant negotiated, mediated settlement. What they had just done might affect the Department of Justice lawsuit. "I think it would be beneficial for the university, as well as Dr. Shepard, and he and I have spoken about this, that the best resolution for everyone is to get this in front of a retired judge or justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court to hammer out a fair negotiated settlement. So that's certainly my goal in making the motions that I made."

Neville said he had attended one of the town halls and 30-40 people had been in attendance and as many online. He had not been to the one the day before but heard it had been well attended. "We want your input. We want to try to make sure that we do select a president for this institution that's going to go forward and continue the progress that has been made and make sure that this is a great university that it has been and continues to be."

Meeting adjourned.