Martin named sole finalist for LSU chancellor job

New Mexico State University President Michael Martin was named today the only finalist for chancellor at Louisiana State University’s main campus in Baton Rouge, and he’s expected to visit the campus next week to interview for the job.

University officials in Las Cruces have called a news conference for 10 a.m. Friday at the Fulton Center to discuss the situation, and Board of Regents Chair Bob Gallagher is expected to announce that the university will allow Martin to interview for the job.

The announcement that an LSU chancellor search committee had narrowed the field of finalists from 11 to one was made today in a news release after the committee unanimously voted to invite Martin to campus for a series of interviews next week.

“(Martin) would be a very strong leader for our campus,” Jack Hamilton, the search

committee’s chair, said in the release. “He’s worthy of this place and I hope he decides to come. I also hope the committee decides to pick him.”

In the release, Hamilton praised Martin’s “success in fundraising at NMSU and in dealing with the New Mexico Legislature.”

Following the interviews with Martin, the committee will meet again next Friday to determine whether it will recommend that LSU System President John Lombardi recommend that the LSU Board of Supervisors hire Martin.

In the news release, Lombardi called Martin “highly qualified” to lead LSU’s flagship campus, and said he awaits the committee’s final decision.

Martin came to NMSU in 2004, leaving a job as vice president for agriculture and natural resources at the University of Florida. Last year, he was named winner of the Justin Smith Morrill Memorial Award, a national award named after the author of the bill creating land-grant universities, for his service on behalf of the land-grant mission of delivering accessible learning that combines practical skills with classical education, research and discovery in the public interest.

Click here for the curriculum vitae Martin submitted to LSU.

Martin’s tenure has been full of big changes and some controversy. He increased fundraising, reorganized the university’s research system, pumped more money into athletics and helped work a deal to locate the city’s soon-to-be-built convention center on campus. But he and the members of the Board of Regents have also been criticized by some (including me) for several issues, including the way they deal with the public and for keeping donor lists secret. The second is a controversy primarily because secret donors are contributing to Martin’s compensation.

Martin’s most recent controversy has revolved around the way the university handled the personnel situations of two professors in the College of Health and Social Services and the student protests that followed the decision to not renew their contracts.

A year ago, the regents extended Martin’s contract through 2012. His current contract pays him $335,000 annually, a housing allowance of $6,000 per month and a deferred compensation payment of $100,000 if he stays at NMSU until the end of the contract.