Waded Cruzado (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
NMSU’s executive vice president and provost is expected to start her new job around Jan. 1
Waded Cruzado was named the next president of Montana State University late this afternoon.
Cruzado, currently executive vice president and provost of New Mexico State University, said in a news release announcing her hiring that she is “honored to be the next president of such a superb institution.”
“MSU is deeply dedicated to its students and to the state. I look forward to continuing its tradition of excellence,” she said.
Cruzado will become MSU’s 12th president. She will also be the first woman and first minority to hold the presidency in the university’s history. According to the news release, Cruzado’s salary is still being finalized, but she plans to start her new job at MSU around Jan. 1.
“She was our first choice,” Montana Commissioner of Higher Education Sheila Stearns said in the release. “She will bring great leadership to MSU and to Montana. This is a very good day.”
The announcement comes after Stearns and MSU officials met with Cruzado in Las Cruces earlier today.
“MSU’s new president will be a tremendous leader for the university, the community and the state,” Clayton Christian, vice chairman of the Montana Board of Regents, said in the release.
Cruzado was selected from a pool of more than 60 candidates who applied for the position and was one of three finalists who visited the MSU campus in late September and early October.
“The feedback we received from her campus visit was glowing,” Christian said in the release. “Students, faculty and staff, as well as community members, were all very positive in their comments about her. We have a new president who is really going to do great things for our students and our state.”
Cruzado, 49, will succeed Geoff Gamble, 67, who announced his plans to retire in March after leading the university for nine years.
Cruzado’s history at NMSU
The news comes months after Cruzado was ousted from the interim president job at NMSU.
After former President Michael Martin left NMSU in 2008, the regents named Cruzado interim president while they searched for a new leader. But after spending $90,000 on the search to replace Martin, the regents scrapped the process late last year, saying a state law that required them to publicly name five finalists hampered the process.
Gov. Bill Richardson responded by replacing three of five regents.
In restarting the search in May, the new board ousted Cruzado from the interim president job, saying they wanted to ensure the integrity of a new search. Cruzado is popular among students and faculty, and some said a move to make her the permanent president during the previous search created the appearance of a done deal and hampered the university’s attempts to draw other qualified applicants.
Many Cruzado supporters were angered by the regents’ decision to move her back to the provost job.
After removing Cruzado from NMSU’s top job, the regents named a new interim leader, Manuel Pacheco, and said Cruzado could apply for the permanent president job. Cruzado never said publicly whether she was interested in applying.