Martin says he has not decided to leave NMSU

“We feel terrible,” were the words New Mexico State University Board of Regents Chair Bob Gallagher used today to describe the board’s reaction to news that President Michael Martin is considering taking a job in Louisiana.

But nothing has been decided, Martin and Gallagher said today at a news conference at which they formally announced that Martin, as I reported on Thursday, is the sole finalist for chancellor of Louisiana State University’s main campus in Baton Rouge. Martin will travel to Louisiana on Monday for two days of on-campus interviews. He could be offered the job as soon as a week from today.

During today’s news conference, Martin said he’s not looking to leave or being pushed to leave. If anything, he said, he’s being pulled. He said he won’t make a final decision, even if he’s offered the job while he’s in Louisiana, until he has a chance to return to Las Cruces and meet with NMSU’s regents. He said the idea that he’s leaving “should be deferred for the time being.”

“I don’t want this to be a eulogy, and I don’t want to attend my own funeral,” he said about today’s new conference.

Martin didn’t apply for the LSU job. He was asked to consider it by LSU’s system president, who was Martin’s boss when the two worked at a university in Florida. Gallagher talked at the news conference about Martin’s accomplishments and said it’s great that NMSU has a president that other schools are actively recruiting.

“I don’t want to be the chairman of the Board of Regents if we have a president that other universities don’t want,” Gallagher said. “We’re not going to accept mediocrity.”

Gallagher pledged that, even if Martin leaves, academic excellence will remain the top focus of the university. He said an interim president would be in place in early June and a national search firm would be hired with the goal of installing a new president by Jan. 1.

Still, Gallagher said he was hoping that in about 10 days he would be holding another news conference to announce “that was have the same great president.” He promised that the board isn’t through trying to keep Martin in Las Cruces.

Martin said he owed it to the LSU system president to consider the job. He also said, at this stage in his life, the challenge of learning the culture of a new state may be enticing, as it was when he came to Las Cruces from Florida.

“It’s what we do in this business,” Martin said of the possibility of leaving NMSU. “The presidencies seem to be changing a little more rapidly these days.”