Waded Cruzado (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
New Mexico State University Executive Vice President and Provost Waded Cruzado has been offered the job of president at Montana State University, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle is reporting.
“We’re her first choice, she’s our first choice,” Sheila Stearns, MSU commissioner of higher education, was quoted by the newspaper as saying. “She’s a terrific academic leader.”
Stearns and two other MSU officials are flying to Las Cruces today to negotiate with Cruzado. In an e-mail, Cruzado told the newspaper she is “immensely honored about the possibility to continue a conversation about the future of MSU and my potential contribution to it.”
“Needless to say, I am thrilled, grateful and humbled about what this opportunity represents,” the newspaper quoted her as saying.
The decision to offer the job to Cruzado was made Tuesday. Cruzado had been one of three finalists for the job, and one of the others withdrew his name from consideration over the weekend.
Cruzado had also interviewed as a finalist for the president job at the University of Texas-Pan American, but that school’s board of regents selected another candidate on Monday.
Cruzado’s job searching comes months after she 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 also 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 has not said whether she is interested.