UNM Presidential Candidate Profiles

Carlos E. Santiago said he will bring a variety of perspectives to UNM if chosen as the University's next president.

"I've been very involved in fundraising and capital development," Santiago said. "I know all the aspects of running a large research university. Coming from a faculty background and having served in various capacities, I have a pretty intensive view."

Santiago is provost and vice president of academic affairs at the University of Albany, State University of New York. He is also a professor in the Latin American and Caribbean Studies as well as the Economics Department. Santiago said he believes his experience running a large research university makes him an excellent candidate for UNM president.

"I deal with the day-to-day operations of the entire campus," Santiago said of his work at the University of Albany. "I serve in the absence of the president. While the president is mostly focused on external issues, I deal with most of the internal issues on campus."

As provost at Albany, Santiago has also been very involved with fundraising for the university.

"One area I'd like to focus on is economic development," Santiago said. "It is a wide-ranging endeavor and it takes a lot of collaboration. The executive and state government is very important, as well as the private sector. If you want to grow, you have to have a research university leading the way."

Santiago also said he is a product of public schools and that he thinks public higher education is an important part of the educational landscape.

"I have always worked in public higher education," he said. "I believe in public higher education. I believe it should provide quality education to a wide range of the community."

Santiago said he is familiar with UNM from an educator's point of view. He said he looked into the University's Economics Department in 1988 and has had a scholarly interest in UNM as a professor and former chairman of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Department at Albany.

Santiago earned his bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Miami in 1973 and two master's degrees in economics from the University of Puerto Rico in 1975 and Cornell University in 1979. He also earned his doctorate from Cornell in 1982.

Santiago is tentatively scheduled to visit UNM April 17-18.

Louis Caldera wants to be the next president of UNM because, he says, of the kind of institution UNM is.

"One of the challenges will be to put the necessary resources together to be one of the best," Caldera said. "I'd like to generate a sense of excitement for what the possibilities are. I'd like to increase awareness that UNM is one of the best research universities in the country."

Caldera is vice chancellor for University Advancement of the California State University system. It is the largest four-year system in the country.

"We are a 23 campus, 400,000 student system that is growing by 5 percent each year," Caldera said. "I work at the system level, helping to build public and private support throughout the system."

He added that he is very involved in fundraising at the federal, public and private levels.

Caldera also was appointed to two positions in the Clinton Administration. From 1998-2001 he was Secretary of the Army.

"It was my job to make sure our soldiers were manned, trained and equipped," Caldera said. "We made sure our soldiers were ready for any missions our country asked of them."

Caldera also served as managing director and chief operating officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service from 1997 to 98. His duties were to run the federal grant-making agency which he said was like a parent organization to AmeriCorps.

Caldera has also had a successful political career. He served three terms in the California State Assembly, representing the 46th district near downtown Los Angeles from 1992-97. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has received the Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Award and the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Chairman's Award.

Caldera earned his bachelor's degree from the U.S. Military Academy in 1978, his juris doctorate from Harvard Law School in 1987 and his master's of business administration from Harvard Business School, also in 1987. He is married and said he and his wife, Eva, would like to raise his three daughters Allegra, Sophia and Camille in Albuquerque.

Caldera said he will be visiting campus probably in the second week of April. He said his philosophy on higher education is that every child deserves an opportunity.

"I'm a passionate believer in education as someone who has benefited greatly from public education," he said. "Tremendous opportunities are open because we have a system where if you work hard, the opportunities are limitless. Every young person needs to go beyond high school and every child deserves the opportunities of a challenging education."

Larry Edward Penley said there is a great opportunity to make public universities indispensible resources for their regions - a goal he plans to make a reality in Albuquerque as the next president of UNM.

Students and colleagues alike say that Penley, 54, has made the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University one of the best in the nation during his 13 year tenure as dean. He was named last Friday as one of five finalists for the top post at UNM.

"Dr. Penley took the college of business here so far it is almost unqualifiable," said Andrew Bain, a recent graduate from the W.P Carey school who worked closely with Penley on several projects.

Penley was born in Virginia, raised in Tennessee and stayed in the South for his studies in higher education. He received a B.A. and M.A. from Wake Forest University and his Ph.D. in management from the University of Georgia.

Two major areas of concern for Penley as a university administrator are fundraising and strengthening connections between local primary and secondary schools and the university. He has enjoyed a great deal of success with both at ASU.

"There is no expectation that the state will fund us the way we want, the way we need to be funded," Penley said. "The way we were able to be so successful [at ASU] was, in part, community involvement."

Penley was instrumental in raising money for the ASU business school, including $60 million brought in through a capital campaign and a $50 million gift from Phoenix-area businessman W.P. Carey.

"Mr. Carey was very impressed with Penley and [Penley] was a big reason for the gift," said Garrett Neese, city reporter for the State Press, ASU's campus newspaper.

For too long, higher education and K-12 have been disconnected in an unacceptable way, Penley said. In Phoenix he developed the Rodel Community Scholars Leadership Program, which helped bring local minority students to ASU and, more importantly, helped keep them in the local community after graduation, he said.

"You don't want local businesses to feel like they have to go out of state to recruit," he said. "UNM has to be able to create a broad base of access and keep the very best students working in local industries."

Penley added that he is becoming more familiar with the issues at UNM, including the large Hispanic and American Indian populations on campus. Building "the best darn undergraduate program possible" would also be on the top of his list should he become president, he said.

Penley is the father of two, Jonathon, 23 and JoAnna, 19. His wife, Yolanda, is associate dean at Mesa Community College, Mesa, Ariz.

Penley said that he will be coming to UNM sometime in the next three weeks to visit with students, faculty and staff.

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.

"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]."

UNM presidential candidate Edward John Ray said that he feels he can use his administrative experience to help the University realize its goals in the future.

Ray, the executive vice president, provost and professor of economics at Ohio State University, admitted that while he is unaware of the issues at UNM, he is anxiously awaiting an opportunity to become acclimated with the community.

"I am planning to take the time to hear all concerns that the community has when I get to visit the campus within the next three weeks," Ray said. "The sense I got from the presidential search committee is that UNM is an optimistic community that is looking forward to a prosperous future."

He said that UNM and OSU are comparable in size and have similar visions of where the institutions would like to be in the future and he believes he has an accurate perspective of what the University means to the people of New Mexico.

"My experience dealing with issues at such a large body has given me a sense of the demands of the presidential position," Ray said. "I hope to bring that experience to bear for the benefit of the students and the community in general."

Ray, who has been a permanent fixture at Ohio State University since 1970, has held positions ranging from professor and department chairman to interim and acting senior vice president of the University.

He said that after reading material on UNM and visiting the state two years ago, he and his wife fell in love with New Mexico and wanted to learn more about it.

"It's a place that is starkly beautiful in many aspects," Ray said. "From what I have read, UNM fosters a culturally rich environment that provides the highest level of academic excellence."

Ray added that he is proud of several accomplishments he has made during his time at OSU, including a strategic planning initiative that controls the University's budget and resources and a diversity action plan intended to increase recruitment and retention efforts of minority students at the institution.

He said that due to those and similar programs, OSU is above and beyond where it was 10 years ago in terms of a prosperous future.

"There is increased interest in a multi-cultural center and a number of academic initiatives including minor programs in several ethnic studies," Ray said. "I like to think that I had a significant hand in that change."

Ray received his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Queens College in New York in 1966. He went on to earn both his master's and doctorate degrees from Stanford University by 1971.

Having been presented with several awards from OSU including the University's Outstanding Teaching Award and the Chairperson's Recognition Award, Ray is also the author of several books, including Principles of Economics and The Income Tax in America: The Origin and Resolution of Fiscal Crises.

Ray said that his personal motto is that a university's values are reflected in what it includes in its curriculum. He added that if chosen as the next president of UNM, he would want to expose students to a greater range of the elements in society.

"I am very much looking forward to visiting the campus and learning more about the terrific opportunity to lead UNM into the future," Ray said.