Finding great leaders in New Mexico

© 2012 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. The number one thing I tell educational leaders in New Mexico: rent, don’t buy. There are so many ways to end a job and only a few ways to hold on. Most public school superintendents and college presidents are lucky to serve three years before some political fight, usually not of their making, scoops them up and out of the job. And then there are the sports coaches who leave frequently.

UNM recently went through a change in presidential leadership and NMSU just lost their president. They have had eight people in the president’s office in just sixteen years. That said from the 1920s to 1980s both the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University had stable leadership. In fact, both institutions had a run of forty years with just three presidents each.

NMSU’s first president was fired when the political makeup of the board changed by one member out of five. Hiram Hadley was one political vote on the wrong side and only served four years from 1890 to 1894. But my personal favorite “interesting” president was UNM’s Bud Davis. Read column

Finding great leaders in New Mexico