{"id":401243,"date":"2017-08-03T14:53:53","date_gmt":"2017-08-03T20:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=401243"},"modified":"2017-08-04T12:45:43","modified_gmt":"2017-08-04T18:45:43","slug":"nmsus-carruthers-to-retire-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/08\/nmsus-carruthers-to-retire-next-year\/","title":{"rendered":"NMSU’s Carruthers to retire next year"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Mexico State University Chancellor Garrey Carruthers plans to retire on\u00a0July 1, 2018<\/span><\/span>, when his current contract ends, the university announced Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"Garrey

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Garrey Carruthers<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI have tremendously enjoyed my time here at NMSU, as a student, professor, dean and for the past four years serving as chancellor and president of this great university,\u201d Carruthers said. \u201cI\u2019m enthusiastically looking forward to what we can accomplish in the next 11 months.”<\/p>\n

Carruthers was named NMSU\u2019s president and chancellor in 2013. Since that time, he has focused on student recruitment, fundraising, marketing, strengthening connections with the community colleges in the NMSU system, improving efforts to foster student success and making the university more entrepreneurial.<\/p>\n

And he has overseen\u00a0the Transforming NMSU into a 21st Century University initiative \u2013 a massive effort to seek efficiencies by examining and overhauling the way the university does business, from its organizational structure to the way it handles purchasing, finance services, information technology and other areas. Projected savings from the project total more than $10 million\u00a0and were made necessary in part because of declining appropriations from the state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That’s resulted in lots of<\/a> job losses<\/a>\u00a0and has not been without controversy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have sailed this ship together through some stormy seas,\u201d Carruthers said. \u201cWhen we hit some calm, it was amazing to discover just how well we had charted the course and how successful we\u2019ve been in transforming NMSU into a 21st Century university.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two prominent legislators praised Carruthers in a news release.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disappointed. I really wish he could stay a while longer,\u201d said state Sen. Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces. \u201cChancellor Carruthers has done a great job. He\u2019s led the university through some trying times and he\u2019s done so successfully. He also works magnificently with our legislative delegation and our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cGarrey Carruthers has made a lot of tough decisions during his time as chancellor,\u201d Smith\u00a0said. \u201cHe\u2019s been proactive, not reactive, by getting in front of budget issues when no one else was. He\u2019s pointed NMSU in a positive direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carruthers said he was “particularly pleased with our student recruitment efforts, which will result in a substantial increase in this year\u2019s incoming freshman class.”<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve also been mindful of our students\u2019 success once they arrive on campus,” he said. “That\u2019s why we\u2019ve implemented a central advising center, early warning indicators, a first-year residency requirement and other efforts to make sure the student experience at NMSU is the very best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other officials also praised Carruthers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to congratulate Chancellor Carruthers on his retirement and thank him for his partnership in higher education initiatives,\u201d said state\u00a0Higher Education Secretary Barbara Damron.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with Chancellor Carruthers every day is a great privilege. He is smart, well-informed, wise and a dear friend,\u201d said NMSU executive vice president and provost Dan Howard.\u00a0\u201cHe is the face of New Mexico State University and the most effective proponent of higher education in the state, both with the Legislature and the public. He has had a transformative influence on NMSU.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fundraising has been a key focus area during the time Carruthers has spent as chancellor, particularly to support student scholarships as well as the university\u2019s teaching, research and outreach functions. NMSU publicly launched its Ignite Aggie Discovery campaign earlier this year \u2013 the most ambitious campaign in NMSU system history with a goal of raising more than $125 million in cash and pledges. To date, the campaign is more than 62 percent complete, having raised nearly $77 million. Those funds benefit students across the entire NMSU system, including each of the university\u2019s community colleges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so fortunate to have someone as outstanding as Garrey Carruthers to lead this university,\u201d said Andrea Tawney, NMSU\u2019s vice president for advancement, marketing and communications. \u201cHe essentially serves as our chief fundraising officer and helped us make this past year the most successful fundraising year we\u2019ve had since the beginning of our campaign four years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carruthers holds bachelor\u2019s and a master\u2019s degrees from NMSU and is the university\u2019s 27th president. Coincidently, Carruthers also served as New Mexico\u2019s 27th governor. He is the only NMSU graduate to serve either as the university\u2019s chancellor or New Mexico\u2019s governor. He received a Ph.D. in economics from Iowa State University.<\/p>\n

After his career in politics, Carruthers served as president and CEO of a managed health care company. He became dean of the NMSU College of Business in 2003, also serving as the university\u2019s vice president for economic development and director of the Pete V. Domenici Institute. As vice president for economic development, he was instrumental in establishing NMSU\u2019s Arrowhead Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cChancellor Carruthers is the ultimate Aggie and has been a truly outstanding and inspirational leader for NMSU,” said Angela Throneberry, NMSU\u2019s former senior vice president for administration and finance, who retired earlier this month. “Because of his many accomplishments, we are by far a stronger and more sustainable institution.”<\/p>\n

NMSU Board of Regents Chair Debra Hicks\u00a0said Carruthers “has worked steadfast to transform NMSU for the future and enhance our student-centric institution.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Mexico State University Chancellor Garrey Carruthers plans to retire on July 1, 2018, when his current contract ends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":164764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[125,133],"class_list":["post-401243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-education","tag-nmsu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401243","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\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}