{"id":3238,"date":"2008-05-16T15:52:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-16T21:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/05\/martin-says-he-has-not-decided-to-leave-nmsu\/"},"modified":"2008-05-16T15:52:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-16T21:52:00","slug":"martin-says-he-has-not-decided-to-leave-nmsu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/05\/martin-says-he-has-not-decided-to-leave-nmsu\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin says he has not decided to leave NMSU"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cWe feel terrible,\u201d were the words New Mexico<\/st1:placename> State<\/st1:placetype> University<\/st1:placetype> Board of Regents<\/a> Chair Bob Gallagher used today to describe the board\u2019s reaction to news that President Michael Martin<\/a> is considering taking a job in Louisiana<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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<\/a>, is the sole finalist for chancellor of Louisiana State University\u2019s<\/a> main campus in Baton Rouge<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. Martin will travel to Louisiana<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> on Monday for two days of on-campus interviews. He could be offered the job as soon as a week from today.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

During today\u2019s news conference, Martin said he\u2019s not looking to leave or being pushed to leave. If anything, he said, he\u2019s being pulled. He said he won\u2019t make a final decision, even if he\u2019s offered the job while he\u2019s in Louisiana<\/st1:state>, until he has a chance to return to Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> and meet with NMSU\u2019s regents. He said the idea that he\u2019s leaving \u201cshould be deferred for the time being.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want this to be a eulogy, and I don\u2019t want to attend my own funeral,\u201d he said about today\u2019s new conference.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Martin didn\u2019t apply for the LSU job. He was asked to consider it by LSU\u2019s system president, who was Martin\u2019s boss when the two worked at a university in Florida<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>. Gallagher talked at the news conference about Martin\u2019s accomplishments and said it\u2019s great that NMSU has a president that other schools are actively recruiting. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be the chairman of the Board of Regents if we have a president that other universities don\u2019t want,\u201d Gallagher said. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to accept mediocrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Still, Gallagher said he was hoping that in about 10 days he would be holding another news conference to announce \u201cthat was have the same great president.\u201d He promised that the board isn\u2019t through trying to keep Martin in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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<\/st1:city> from Florida<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what we do in this business,\u201d Martin said of the possibility of leaving NMSU. \u201cThe presidencies seem to be changing a little more rapidly these days.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe feel terrible,\u201d were the words New Mexico State University Board of Regents Chair Bob Gallagher used today to describe the board\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}