Linda Bunnell Shade says she is ready to take UNM to the next level - an accomplishment many say she was able to do while working as the chancellor of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
Bunnell Shade, 60, was named Friday as one of the five finalists to be UNM's next president.
"There's just such a sense of eagerness and energy in the institution [UNM]," she said.
The Texas native has a long background in higher education working as an administrator at several institutions including Minnesota State University, California State University and at the University of California-Riverside.
Between 2001 and 2002, Bunnell Shade moved to New York to become senior vice president for Higher Education at the College Board, the nonprofit organization that owns the SAT standardized test. During her tenure there, Bunnel Shade said she helped revise the popular test for college-bound students to include updated math questions and a written essay component to better prepare the nation's high school students for college.
But she said she is ready to return to a campus setting.
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"I really, really missed life on campus and I think that's why I'm interested in UNM," Bunnell Shade said. "UNM is a wonderful institution, I've studied and know a lot about it."
Her latest job in a university setting was working as the chancellor of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs from 1993 to 2001.
While serving as chancellor, Bunnell Shade oversaw an unprecedented amount of growth at the university, converting the former commuter campus into a residential one that is considered the state's fastest growing university. She established the first residential dormitories on campus, doubled the square footage of campus buildings and also played a key role in securing about $5 million in private funding for a massive library and technology center.
"That was really my goal," she said of the campus's growth.
She also helped establish an initiative to improve graduation and enrollment rates that saw a 59 percent increase in minority student enrollment.
An editorial printed Sept. 11, 2001, in the Colorado Springs Gazette praised Bunnell Shade for her work at the campus, saying her efforts to improve the university were "dramatic."
More than half of all degrees awarded by the university since it was founded in 1965 were earned by students during the eight years Bunnell Shade was chancellor.
The former chancellor said she has been to UNM campus three or four times and also has several friends in Albuquerque.
"I feel really at home in the Southwest," she said.
Bunnell Shade earned her bachelor's degree in English and communications from Baylor University where she was designated a distinguished alumna in 1995. She earned her master's degree and doctorate in English literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
She was also awarded with the Community Leader of the Year for 2001 by the Economic Development Corporation of Colorado Springs.
Bunnell Shade said if selected, she would like to remain UNM president for a long time.
"I've never been a short-timer at a campus," she said. "I'm looking forward to coming to campus [to meet with the UNM community]."
