r/NewMexico 23h ago

Governor works to replace 'tone-deaf' regents at Western New Mexico University | AP News

https://apnews.com/article/western-new-mexico-regents-resignation-bf186c5c086608a5b272ed81cbd024be

Have to give the Governor credit here.

121 Upvotes

17

u/AMDFrankus 18h ago

About time. As soon as they knew that the university President was spending massive amounts of money on himself like that they should have all resigned along with him because they didn't do their job of providing oversight.

24

u/BigBoringWedding 20h ago

Has anyone seen a story that says how much the regents are paid, if at all? I hope these idiots screwed themselves financially.

I'm a Democrat who's no fan of our governor, but I'm not sure what else she could have done here. There was no indication the regents were going to approve a golden parachute.

What kills me most is that Shepard doesn't have to be on campus as part of his professor role. Make that guy deal with the stares and dirty looks from fellow professors who DIDN'T give a middle finger to students and the state by stealing taxpayer money.

I hope he and Plame eventually get the hell out of our state. We have enough corruption. We don't need to import it.

8

u/Dosdesiertoyrocks 20h ago

Worse, he was given an 8 month sabbatical, had to teach only 2 classes per semester, and only needed a few years until retirement, meaning he was about to secure a pension and suck even more money out ... for the rest of his life.

30

u/LostRoadrunner5 22h ago

Tone deaf doesn’t begin to describe that gang of jackals.

18

u/KnightRiderCS949 22h ago

I came close to choosing them for my graduate degree. I am happy I didn't.

5

u/LostRoadrunner5 22h ago

I like one of the programs. But ..

8

u/thefrontpageofreddit 20h ago

She should also replace UNM’s regents. Still don’t understand why she appoints conservatives to lead these schools.

Her recent appointees authorized the violent attacks on students and the racist charges/bans imposed on nonwhite student protestors.

13

u/KnightRiderCS949 20h ago

There is a funny thing about New Mexico liberals. They aren't that liberal. In many ways, they are pretty hard-line conservative. So, when it comes to actions or ideologies viewed as youthful and deviant, you can see some harsh responses and far-right behavior.

These people tend to view themselves as open-minded and liberal, and others may see them as such. Still, I have never considered them tolerant or open-minded to viewpoints outside of their cultural perspective and life experience.

2

u/MadeInAmericaWeek 10h ago

Such an interesting chain of events.

I met one of the regents in the past year. The regent seemed quite wealthy, well connected, and chummy with MLG. Grandstanding sure is a weird thing

1

u/Aretirednurse 21h ago

She should have done it sooner.

2

u/KnightRiderCS949 20h ago

She didn't. Does that remove all positive implications for you?

1

u/Mysterious-Eye8710 11h ago

Who is the governor firing now?

-9

u/FairDaikon7484 22h ago edited 20h ago

Credit for doing something about it after the fact ? Instead of making sure our institutions are free of corruption in the first place. Good job fam.

Lol yall are funny with these replies

15

u/coffeetilithirts 21h ago

Unless I’m missing something, doesn’t corruption have to take place to show proof before anyone can do anything about it? If the Governor made a move to replace without an action taken by the regents it would be seen as overreach and complainers would complain about that.

2

u/ChimayoRed9035 21h ago

They might be talking about how NM politics is still and old-timey boys club- which MLG is absolutely a product of.

4

u/KnightRiderCS949 21h ago

You are NOT wrong.

3

u/ChimayoRed9035 20h ago

Anyone who thinks differently hasn’t worked or been apart of NM politics in any meaningful way.

There has been good policy from MLG, but you just can’t be at the top of NM politics without corruption flavored old timey politics. It’s a hard truth to swallow when we think of ourselves as a progressive stronghold. The best example is last year’s Medicare provider debacle, which is an open and shut case for my point.

1

u/Dosdesiertoyrocks 20h ago

These regents and the dean have been doing stuff like this for a decade and everyone has known it. In 2018 WNMU payed a professor 160k in a lawsuit over favoritism, unjustified bonuses, and the dean making the janitors clean his house, do his laundry and run errands for him.

15

u/KnightRiderCS949 22h ago

That's silly. I have a laundry list of things to criticize the governor over, but blaming her for not cleaning up a systematically corrupt state is just unrealistic. I call out injustices and ping actions that positively impact our state's overall social justice.

1

u/JimmyJamesMac 21h ago

So .. Thought crimes?

-4

u/JubalEarly1865 23h ago

NM hasn’t had a good Governor since Lew Wallace.

2

u/lifeisntthatbadpod 20h ago

I think that’s unfair to our state. I’m a transplant from Oklahoma, though I was born here and raised here. After three years of living under Governor Kevin Stitt, anyone, anyone is better qualified than that clown.

1

u/littletree0 16h ago

Ok but it's Stitt, the bar is in the gutter

3

u/lifeisntthatbadpod 16h ago

Extremely true!