The state Department of Justice and several lawmakers are collaborating on two proposed measures to increase oversight of New Mexico’s public colleges and universities.
Attorney general Raúl Torrez initially announced plans to craft the legislation in early January, after news broke that Western New Mexico University had granted a generous severance package to its former president.
Torrez and the DOJ tried to block WNMU’s issuing of a $1.9 million one-time payment to the controversial ex-president Joseph Shepard, a deal approved by the school’s board of regents.
A state court ruled against the DOJ and Shepard got paid but Torrez said at a Roundhouse press conference yesterday that the state will continue to litigate to recoup the funds.
Meanwhile, the proposed Senate measure, sponsored by George Munoz, would require boards of regents at public universities to get approval of some employment deals from both the state Board of Finance and the Department of Justice.
AG Torrez believes that the dual oversight will prevent future repeats of the WNMU - Shepard payout.
“ Those two separate and powerful independent checks should bring an end to this kind of excessive compensation and give taxpayers in this state some peace of mind that the people that we entrust to care for their kids, to make sure they're educated, to provide for the resources to have thriving world-class institutions have their eye on the ball and they're focused on the things that are the most important,” Torrez said.
A companion House Joint Resolution proposes an amendment to the state constitution that would give the courts jurisdiction over the boards of regents at all of New Mexico’s public institutes of higher education.
In answer to a question about whether New Mexico relied on any other states’ approaches to handling higher ed oversight, Torrez said the legislation was modeled after strategies used in the business world.
“ Most of the case law that we have in this space is related to the fiduciary duties that a corporate board of directors owes to the shareholders, and that's a well-developed body of case law,” Torrez said.
“We don't have the same type of development that you would see in the public space, but that's why we thought it was necessary. But there's no explicit reference to another state to articulate these duties. It actually comes from the corporate world where board members can be removed whenever they violate a fiduciary duty.”
As for the dispute between the state and Western New Mexico University, Torrez said yesterday that the state auditor and ethics commission are continuing to examine the case.