By Lynn Janes

On April 9, 2025, the board held a regular meeting at Western New Mexico University. The board consisted of all new members. These members had been appointed by the governor, Steven Neville (acting chair), Joseph "Dean" Reed, John Wertheim and WNMU student Keana Huerta.

Neville opened up the meeting with a formal election of officers. Wertheim nominated Neville to be chair and himself as vice president. He continued that Reed should be treasurer because that post requires being present on campus. Wertheim then nominated Huerta for deputy treasurer and secretary. The board agreed on the nominations.

The board approved the agenda, meeting minutes from December 12, 2024, December 20, 2024, and January 7, 2025. Wertheim wanted to explain something to the public and make it clear that when they approve the minutes, they would only be approving what happened in the meeting and not ratifying what happened. To further explain they would not be legally agreeing with what happened. They had watched the meetings but had not attended.

The board approved the next board meeting for April 29, 2025, to be held at 10:00 am. They would conduct an executive session at 9:00 am. Acting president Jack Crocker said they needed to have the meeting as the budget would be due to the state by May 1, 2025. The next meeting will be held May 8, 2025.

University president's report

Crocker welcomed the new regents on behalf of the faculty, staff and community. "We are happy to have you here and that you are willing to serve." He turned over the meeting to Dr. Phil Schoenberg, faculty senate president. On behalf of the faculty of WNMU he extended their gratitude to the new regents for taking up these responsibilities especially during the transitional time for the university. "I am looking forward to putting the controversy of the last eighteen months behind us and hope to see Western continue to live up to its potential and reputation for excellence in the community and state."

Bart Brown, staff senate, extended his gratitude to the board members and welcomed them. They have continued moving forward with their regular duties and have been reviewing the staff handbook and have proposed some changes that will be brought before the general assembly for a vote. The goal has been to ensure the language remains current and aligned with WNMU policies and procedures. Additionally, they will be reviewing the staff constitution and bylaws to ensure the senate continues to operate transparently, ethically and financially responsible. They will be welcoming new senators due to the growth in the staff body adding two new seats. He invited them on a tour of the campus.

Brenda Dominguez, student body president, said, "I am excited for the future of our institution with this new leadership." She will be graduating in a month and had played golf for the university and currently serves as the golf coach. Dominguez has served in student government for several years. They had gone to Santa Fe for the legislature to lobby for funds for the university. She announced they had been able to obtain $250,000 for virtual desktop infrastructure improvements. This will make the campus more accessible to remote students that comprise about one-third of the students. They will be working on next year's leadership and elections will be done by the next board meeting.

Crocker said he had a few highlights he wanted to report to the board. The nursing graduates have a 100 percent pass rate on their board certifications. The social work program has been rated number one online program in the country. The MBA programs has been rated in the top ten, especially online. The enrollment for the summer will be above what it had been last year. The university has the Great Race coming up and Fiesta Latina. Spring commencement will take place May 9, 2025, and they will have it on Zoom so students that can't be present can still be recognized.

Crocker wanted to recognize one of the leaders that had moved the university forward, former president John Counts. He had passed away several days before. He asked for a moment of silence for him.

Old business

Neville pointed out the previous board had on their agenda to search for an interim president during the search for a permanent. Crocker had been serving but the board had not formally appointed him. It has been typical in this situation that the state sends in Jay Gouge, a former university president, to run the university during a search. The board will be researching, and Wertheim has been a resource for a number of retired presidents. They will look at bringing in an outside person on a temporary basis and will be researching options and will make a decision later.

Wertheim wanted to express how unusual this situation would be, having a university operating without a board for even a few months would be unprecedented. They, number one, make sure they have full transparency in whatever presidential search process that they start. An interim president may be necessary. He added a thank you to Crocker for dealing with an unusual situation. They had to research all options, and it may end up as a three-step process and may want to approve Crocker for a time, but it will all happen very rapidly. He said the board would want to avoid two big processes that would extend out. He encouraged that if anyone in the community knew of a qualified person, maybe retired academic with administrative skills to reach out to the board. They will do the process very openly. "What we are looking for is somebody who wants to come in for a short time and help run the presidential search process and be as transparent as possible."

Neville added this would not be any reflection on Crocker, he had done an excellent job in the interim. They want to be open, transparent and have a good clean process going forward. "This is new territory." Reed said he agreed they had to be totally transparent and very open with the public. "I think it is important to earn the trust and rebuild the trust in the community." He continued that they would be clear on this all being accomplished quickly but choosing the right person for the position as well.

New business

Presidential search

Neville said the board will be starting the new permanent president search and added it would be six months to a year under the best circumstances. The board discussed the use of a professional search firm. They will be looking at those and selecting through the RFP (request for proposal) process. The board all agreed to use this process. Crocker said that Kelly Riddle, vice president of business and finance, and her staff had been researching firms and would be glad to provide that information to the board.

Fiscal year 2023-2024 audit

Riddle said the audit had been finished and submitted by the due date for the state auditor on November 1, 2024. Scott Peck, an independent auditor, joined the meeting online to report. Neville brought up that during the confirmation hearings it had been suggested the board look at a forensic audit. Wertheim said essentially that would be the direction they would be going. A forensic audit would be much more involved than a standard audit routinely done. "It should bring some calming of the waters, you might say, as far as the perception of the university and make sure that if there are irregularities beyond the normal, we can identify and make the necessary policy changes."

Riddle said Peck would be addressing the standard audit, and it would require a motion of acceptance and after the presentation Riddle would give an update on the forensic audit. Peck went over the process of the standard audit they had done for fiscal year 2024. They had not found any material misstatements in the financial statements. Peck explained they have government auditing standards, which are requirements for state contracts. As they go through the process, they make sure the processes are in line with the university's policies and had not found any problems in this audit. They don't look at every item but what they tested had not had any issues.

Wertheim asked him to explain what a material misstatement would be. Peck said it means that either the perception of the community or outside reviewer understands that if you have an adjustment and it had happened in a couple of years past and mistakes that accidently had been made were corrected once found. Material finding means some processes could not be identified and that might cause a material misstatement. A special audit will drill down to specific areas. It would be looking at specific areas that came up in the public regarding travel and other things. They will look at every transaction.

Reed asked about the IC fund required by the state of 3 percent or greater. He wanted to confirm the university had exceeded that. Riddle said she didn't know the actual percentage but at the end of the fiscal year 2024 the university had a $12 million fund balance. That would be well above.

The board members accepted the audit presented to them for fiscal year 2024.

Special audit update

Neville started the discussion on the special audit the new board had called for but fortunately had been in the process of being developed.

Riddle said they started the process of a special audit in 2023 and into 2024. They had received a notice from the state auditor cancelling the special audit. This special audit they had started in 2023 had been self-designated. Now the special audit would be under the designation by the state auditor's office. They had to do another RFP and made the award to Jaramillo Accounting Group on February 21, 2025. Some of their auditors have currently been on campus doing field work. This has to be completed and to the state auditor by June 30, 2025.

Riddle gave the board a scope of work for the special audit. The special audit will be looking for potential fraud, waste, and or abuse including any potential violations of criminal statues in connection with procurements and travel. This will be looking at all the leadership of the university including president, first lady, regents and vice presidents. The time frame will include July 1, 2017, to December 31, 2024.

Scott Eliason, Jaramillo Accounting Group, joined online to answer any questions. Being a forensic audit they would be diving deep into the details. They had stacks of travel documents and have some of the team reviewing all of them and looking for certain attributes on conformance with university policies and procedures.

Wertheim asked in the report they receive if they would have recommendations of policy changes the board could address. Eliason said it would be a roadmap of things they feel could be enhanced or improved as part of the overall process. It will not just be some conform some don't but go beyond and give a cause and effect and a recommendation to fix the problem. Management will then have an opportunity to respond on how they will take corrective action. In some cases, the university has already taken corrective action, because this has been ongoing for a while as Riddle had said.

Reed asked it Eliason felt the June 30, 2025, completion date would be realistic. He said they would be making every effort to ensure they meet that date. The firm has been working nights and weekends to meet the date.

Crocker said regardless of the outcome of the forensic audit he wanted to publicly thank Riddle and her staff for their work. They have had to put thousands and thousands of documents together for the audit.

2025-2026 Student Fees

Crocker turned the presentation over to Dominguez and asked her to explain the process. She said the student fees would probably be the most important thing student government does besides lobbying. They ask departments across campus to prepare a presentation as well as a packet for them to review. The committee agrees on certain proposed fees and then it will be taken to the senate. The senate then must approve unilaterally. This coming year they will be able to decrease student fees by 20 cents. She went over all the increases and decreases that arrived at that amount. The board approved the changes in fees.

2025-2026 tuition

Crocker said they would not be asking for any increase in tuition. He had provided a packet with all pertinent information to the board. Full-time students must be at 15 hours and that would be at a cost of $3,000 for in-state students and for out-of-state it would be $7,000. The board approved no increase in tuition.

Public comment

Hugh Epping said he has been an enthusiastic supporter of WNMU. He wanted to point out something he thought they might not be aware of. He and his wife had moved to Silver City 15 years earlier and when they came there had been a town and a university and the two never met. In the past 15 years the university had incorporated themselves into the town and attributed it to the past administration. The cultural affairs department had brought events that the community supports. The university has been open to the public.

Epping said this would be something they didn't want to lose and would want to keep innovating with the university. He asked them that when they will be choosing a new president to bring someone in that would be creative, innovative and a member of the community. Continue the growth and accomplishments of the past. They had been fortunate to have a forward-looking president who let the staff to their job. "We don't want a micromanager. The staff of this university is incredibly talented." He wanted them to include some members of the community on the search committee for the new president. He welcomed the new regents to the community.

Samantha Johnson, WNMU library director, hoped they would come take a look at their building and welcomed them. She wanted them to take the time to get to know the students. "I feel like over the past 18 months they have been lost in the shuffle. Some aspersions have been cast on the students that I think is absolutely not fair." She hoped while looking for a new president they would look for someone focused on improving the students' success in college so they could get good jobs and be productive members of the community.

Dr. Mark Donnell, a retired physician, worked at Gila Regional Medical Center for 23 years. He had also been an adjunct professor at WNMU in the nursing department and several other areas. He welcomed the new regents. "We have a wonderful town and regional university that provides quality education for many students who could not go elsewhere. Our main problem has been a corrupt former administrator and equally corrupt board of regents who enabled Dr. Shepard to acquire large sums of public money." He continued to address the money lost and the ridiculous salary and perks the former president had. "We expect that you as our incoming regents will begin a new era of honesty here at WNMU and to perform in the interest of the citizens of the state."

Donnell hoped they would appoint a young energetic individual to become the new president and that this person be hired at a reasonable salary of $200,000 to $220,000 a year. He wanted them to keep in mind that state officials from the governor down make less than $220,000. The president of the university will receive free housing, travel allowance and payment of health and life insurance. He felt that the recruitment of international students should be prohibited, and international travel of the administration be highly restricted. He continued with other perceived failings of the past administration.

Board closing comments.

Huerta said she saw a lot of familiar faces and thanked them for all they had done to make the students their best. "This has been an awkward transition phase to say the least ,and I have seen your effort, and it is very much appreciated on the students' end." She looked forward to the new energy and new exciting things they can bring to the university.

Reed said he appreciated the participation and enthusiasm. "We have a plethora of opportunities to work on very quickly. Excellence will be our number one priority. It is good to be home."

Wertheim thanked everyone from the administration, faculty, students and staff. He appreciated the thoroughness of the reports everyone had given. He alluded that it had been like drinking from a fire hose so any help they could give with understanding Western would be appreciated. His great grandfather and grandmother were buried at Memory Lane Cemetery. His great-grandfather had been a machinist in the Santa Rita mine. He had a reputation of the guy that could fix any machine. Wertheim had thought a lot about that on his drive from Albuquerque. It has been the nature of things no matter how well maintained or built a machine is, sometimes things break. What this board needs to do will be to fix it. "I wish we could just wave a magic wand or utter some magic words and automatically catapult us into a new future but that is not reality." He added two things could be true at once. Somebody can do a good job and still make mistakes. They can do great things but still have a lapse in judgement.

Wertheim said they had a mixture of parties on the board but had been unanimously confirmed by the state senate, both republicans and democrats. Last time he came to this campus had been to view Salt of the Earth with his union brothers and sisters. He had been the former chairman of the democratic party of New Mexico. He also had been confirmed through the rules committee of the senate when the republicans were the majority. He would be honored to serve alongside his fellow regents, but they needed to fix everything and achieve transparency. "This is about fixing the machine and we are committed."

Neville said, "I confess, I'm an Aggie three times over." He said WNMU has a strong relationship with San Jaun College and that is his community. When the governor called him, he had been on a fishing trip in Mexico on the ocean. She then told him it would not be New Mexico State but WNMU. Having the relationship through San Jaun College and having family relationships in the area, he could not say no. He had been in the senate for 20 years and has had the opportunity to sit in meetings at every campus in the state. WNMU had always been one of his favorites even over New Mexico State and University of New Mexico. "This is a great institution and setting. The environment down here is tremendous, so it was an easy decision." He asked everyone to excuse his Aggie background. "I will guarantee that I will put my heart into trying to make this university a better place."

Neville said it would be a big job finding a new president and it will be a big deal. It would be overwhelming in some cases and they will be looking for someone that will be a good fit for the community. He spoke to he and Wertheim having known each other and them all being native New Mexicans.

Meeting adjourned.