Dec. 31—A member of the Western New Mexico University Board of Regents announced her resignation Tuesday ahead of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s letter to the board asking them all to resign amid a flurry of state ethics investigations into both university president Joe Shepard’s alleged wasteful spending and his multimillion severance contract.
Nonprofit executive Lyndon Haviland issued a letter to Board Chair Mary Hotvedt touting the accomplishments of the five-member board during her three-year tenure and said she decided to step down because the university programs she wanted are in place.
Lujan Grisham on Tuesday asked for the immediate resignation of all of WNMU’s regents “to help ensure that Western New Mexico University will be able to regain its equilibrium and once again serve its students first and foremost.”
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The governor acknowledged she had already received Haviland’s resignation letter. In addition to Haviland and Hotvedt, the board is comprised of former Cabinet secretary Daniel H. Lopez; private attorney Dal Moellenberg; and WNMU student Trent Jones.
The university was not able to issue a response to Lujan Grisham’s letter before press time on Tuesday.
Haviland’s and the governor’s letters come ahead of a potential vote of no confidence in the board on Thursday by the WNMU Faculty Senate, which, if approved, would ask all board members to resign or have lawmakers remove them, even though Lujan Grisham appoints the regents for all the state’s colleges and universities.
The Faculty Senate vote could also ask lawmakers to halt Shepard’s new contract before it goes into effect, once he steps down as university president on Jan. 15. The board announced in December that it would hold a special meeting on Jan. 7 to explain the contract, but it is not clear at this point if that meeting will take place.
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Haviland, who is the chief executive officer of a child sex abuse prevention organization called Darkness to Light, did not mention anything about the more than $360,000 that State Auditor Joe Maestas said board members, Shepard, and his wife, ex-CIA Agent Valerie Plame, spent on lavish foreign business trips and furniture for the president’s residence from 2018-23.
Haviland also omitted New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s inquiry into Shepard’s separation agreement, which includes a $1.9 million payout as university president and a full professorship in the School of Business, making $200,000 a year. The board unanimously approved the new agreement on Dec. 20 after scrapping the president’s old contract.
In previous statements, Shepard and Hotvedt, speaking on behalf of the board, have denied wrongdoing, asserting they have made university policy reforms, and saying they are being treated unfairly in the court of public opinion.
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