NMSU Regents president: Now is the right time for a new chancellor

It is “the right time for us to make the change,” New Mexico State University Board of Regents Ammu Devasthali said as the university continues its search for a new chancellor.

Dan Arvizu’s five-year contract as chancellor expires in June, and there was “no discussion of renewal” by the board of regents, Devasthali said.

Arvizu is “a very good man and has done a lot,” Devasthali said, especially regarding NMSU student enrollment and retention. He also has brought additional grant funding to the university.

But, she said, “We need somebody new with the vision to move us forward. We need someone to take us to the next level.

An important goal for NMSU going forward must include increasing faculty salaries, Devasthali said.

“Our faculty are underpaid,” she said. “We have to bring our salaries up in order to attract and retain quality faculty.”

NMSU also needs to reach R1 status, Devasthali said.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Higher Education has developed a classification system that identifies Research 1 (R1) universities as the most research-intensive based on funding for research, staffing levels and the number of doctorates they award. An R1 rating makes a university more appealing to faculty and students and brings in more research grants and partners.

Devasthali said she spent three-four days a week in Santa Fe during the 60-day legislative session that ended March 18 because NMSU “needed to have a presence there. (Legislators) get used to seeing your face there and what you represent.”

Although Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has not acted on all the bills the legislature passed, “It looks really good for us,” Devasthali said about state funding for NMSU.

The General Appropriations Act of 2023 passed both houses of the legislature and was sent to the governor. It includes full funding for the New Mexico Opportunity Scholarship program to pay for New Mexico residents who graduate from high school and attend an in-state university. If the governor supports it, that “would be really helpful,” Devasthali said.

But, scholarships “don’t help with operations,” she said, and the board of regents may have to consider a tuition increase to provide additional funding.

Devasthali said she has had “lots of conversations” with Lujan Grisham about higher education. The governor, she said, “is very vested in K-12.” For undergraduate and graduate education and for research,” we have to carry through,” Devasthali said.

“You can’t stop with a high school diploma,” she said. ““We need more investment in higher education.”

Additional funding for graduate assistants’ and teaching assistants’ salaries and basic healthcare is also important, Devasthali said. The pay they receive is “not enough to live on,” she said, and the small increase that likely will come to NMSU from the legislature won’t be enough to make a meaningful difference.

Devasthali said she hopes the new chancellor is chosen from academia rather than industry so that he or she “understands the process the faculty goes through” and recognizes that they “put their heart and soul into teaching young people every day,” she said. “They don’t get paid the big bucks. They’re passionate about what they do. They are committed to their students. They work really, really hard.

“What would the university be without students and without faculty? We wouldn’t have a university,” she said.

Making sure he or she connects with NMSU faculty and students and does “whatever needs to be done to become part of community” is “a conversation I will definitely have” with the new chancellor, Devasthali said.

“It’s important that the person on top reflects what the students look like,” she said, noting that NMSU is a minority-serving institution. “Everyone is looking at diversity.”

"We should be really focused on growing our own faculty leadership so we have that pool of diverse candidates. This is an amazing community. (There are) well-qualified rock stars – people of color in this community. They have to find them.”

Part of the reason Devasthali Hall, the NMSU art building, is located on the northern edge of campus is to help connect NMSU with the community, she said. Devasthali led efforts to raise private funds to help build Devasthali Hall, which houses the NMSU Department of Art and University Art Museum and opened in 2020. She also led fundraising for the ASNMSU Center for the Arts.

“There has to be constant outreach,” Devasthali said.

“I love this university,” she said. “We’re on the cusp of doing great things. There is such fantastic work being done. Fantastic things are happening at NMSU.”

Devasthali was appointed to the board of regents by Lujan Grisham in 2019 and recently re-appointed to a six-year term that ends Dec. 31, 2028. She is in her third year as board president and, along with student regent Garrett Mosley, is the only regent who lives in Las Cruces.