by Caleb Fort
Daily Lobo
The regents announced the five finalists for the position of University president at a meeting Wednesday.
Under state law, the regents have to wait a minimum of 21 and a maximum of 30 days after naming the finalists before selecting a president.
Jamie Koch, president of the regents, said the Board of Regents will try to name a president within 22 or 23 days.
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The finalists are:
Meredith Hay, vice president for research at the University of Iowa.
Daniel L¢pez, president of New Mexico Tech.
Herman Lujan, provost and vice president for academic affairs at California State University-Los Angeles.
Robert McGrath, senior vice president for research at Ohio State University.
David Schmidly, system CEO and president of the Oklahoma State University System.
David Harris has served as acting president since Louis Caldera, former UNM president, resigned from the position in January 2006.
Student Regent Rosalyn Nguyen, who is serving as a regent until her successor Dahlia Dorman is confirmed by the state House, said she is happy with the group of finalists.
"It's really solid," she said. "We had a list of what we wanted the candidates to be like, and all of these candidates match or exceed that."
The finalists were chosen by
the board.
Each finalist will be brought to UNM for two to three days of interviews with faculty, staff and students before the regents name a president.
It's important for students to take advantage of those meetings,
Nguyen said.
"What I really want to see during the next step is for students to be proactive," she said. "This is someone who is going to run the University. I want
students to get involved before a president is named, not have all their concerns after it's already happened."
Although there will be no formal surveys of public opinion about the candidates, the UNM community will be able to influence the decision, Koch said.
"The regents can listen," he said.
John Geissman, chairman of the faculty Committee on Governance, said the finalists' credentials are impressive.
"Seeing the list, I was borderline speechless," he said. "I was very pleasantly surprised."
In September, faculty approved a resolution to the regents, requiring the president to have attained tenure, earned a doctorate and have experience in academic administration.
All of the finalists have doctorate degrees, and all of them serve as administrators at universities.
Four of the five candidates have achieved tenure, according to a UNM news release.
Faculty members should attend as many meetings with the candidates as they can, Geissman said.
"If hundreds of faculty appear at the interviews, that will really send a message to the candidates," he said. "I'm going to come up with questions, and my colleagues will as well. I'm sure there will be interesting responses, and I look forward to hearing them."
Faculty members will be an important tool for scrutinizing the candidates, he said.
"I haven't done my homework on these people yet, but I will," he said. "Consider that all of us have colleagues at these institutions - it's not going to be hard to find out what people who have been at a school with these candidates for administrators think
about them."
