Regents to host public farewell reception for Martin

The New Mexico State University Board of Regents will host a public farewell reception for outgoing President Michael Martin on Wednesday.

The reception will be held from 4-6 p.m. at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, 4100 Dripping Springs Road. Martin is leaving on July 31 to take the job of chancellor at Louisiana State University’s main campus in Baton Rouge.

The regents this week appointed university Executive Vice President and Provost Waded Cruzado to be interim president. She’ll take over on Aug. 1 and become the first woman and the second Hispanic to lead NMSU. Cruzado will be paid an annual salary of $300,000.

“I am truly honored by the opportunity to serve as interim president and I intend to pay back the trust that you have deposited in me,” Cruzado told the Regents when they appointed her earlier this week. “I am proud of this institution and its power to positively transform the lives of the people we serve. I will do my absolute best to continue the good projects already in place and to provide leadership on behalf of New Mexico State University to the very best of my ability.”

Cruzado plans to make Education Dean Robert Moulton the interim executive vice president and provost.

Martin is leaving on good terms with the regents. They let him out of a provision in his contract that would have required that he pay six months’ salary back to the university because he did not provide six months’ notice of his departure.

The regents have begun a national search to find a new president and hope to have one in place by January, though Cruzado’s current contract runs until the end of June. When a news president is hired, she will return to the provost job.

Cruzado was the regents’ second choice for the interim job. Earlier this month, James McDonough withdrew his acceptance of the interim president job because of an unspecified health concern.