Dive Brief:
- Two members of Western New Mexico University’s board of regents resigned last week amid state scrutiny of spending by the public institution’s leaders, including Western New Mexico President Joseph Shepard, who resigned in December.
- Lyndon Haviland, the board’s vice president, submitted her letter of resignation on Dec. 31 to Board President Mary Hotvedt. Hotvedt, in turn, tendered her resignation, two days after New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called on the entire board to resign.
- The Albuquerque Journal reported Thursday that all five regents plan to resign. A university spokesperson said by email Monday that the other regents are expected to resign.
Dive Insight:
Hotvedt, Haviland and Shepard’s resignations come after a November report from the state’s auditor found issues with university spending.
A probe from the office found “a concerning lack of compliance with established university policies” over the roughly five years between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2023.
Specifically, investigators found that travel and reimbursement requests by the university president and regents lacked proper documentation, exceeded approved amounts, or were incomplete or erroneous.
Shepard and the regents also expensed items banned by university policy, such as alcohol and room service, the audit said. It found Shepard misused his state-issued credit card, or P-card, on things like high-end furniture above allotted amounts, in violation of institutional policy.
One presidential furniture purchase totaled over $17,000 and was made without the required approvals. In all, the university provided state auditors with documentation of 91 P-card transactions by Shepard’s office amounting to nearly $150,000.
Western New Mexico also issued a P-card to the president’s wife, Valerie Plame, who is not a university employee, the report found. Auditors noted instances where the university funded her travel that didn't appear related to official institutional business, including to a women’s leadership conference where she was a guest speaker.
Searchlight New Mexico, which published an investigation in December 2023 looking into spending by university leadership, described Plame as having “profited handsomely” off university funds.
Shepard, who started in the role in 2011, tendered his resignation Dec. 20. It becomes effective Jan. 15, after which he will take on the president emeritus title and transition to a professor role in the business school. He also secured a new separation contract that includes a $1.9 million lump sum payment, according to media reports.
In a campus message announcing his resignation, Shepard addressed the auditor’s letter of concern, as well as other claims. He said the auditor’s office did not have “any conversations with us to understand any contextual issues — nor has there been any due process afforded to us.”
Shepard also pushed back on the Searchlight New Mexico's description of his wife's involvement. Plame's P-card had been approved by the board chair at the time and was used only for university purchases, he said.
“I leave my post not in defeat but with a deep understanding that it is the right thing to do to advance that which I love dearly,” Shepard wrote. “To all of you who have supported me, thank you. Know that we will be okay. To those of you who are against me, I hope you someday find peace. My choice is to move beyond the toxic and back to the center of compassion.”
On. Dec. 31, following the resignation of Shepard and Haviland, Gov. Grisham called for the resignations of all the university’s regents.
“I believe that new leadership is required on the Board of Regents in order to maintain the future health and stability of Western New Mexico University,” Grisham wrote in a letter directed to the board. “In the spirit of a clean slate of decisionmakers at the university, I am asking for your immediate resignation to help ensure that Western New Mexico University will be able to regain its equilibrium and once again serve its students first and foremost.”
