Dive Transient:
- Two members of Western New Mexico College’s board of regents resigned final week amid state scrutiny of spending by the general public establishment’s leaders, together with Western New Mexico President Joseph Shepard, who resigned in December.
- Lyndon Haviland, the board’s vp, submitted her letter of resignation on Dec. 31 to Board President Mary Hotvedt. Hotvedt, in flip, tendered her resignation, two days after New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham known as on the complete board to resign.
- The Albuquerque Journal reported Thursday that all 5 regents plan to resign. A college spokesperson stated by e-mail Monday that the opposite regents are anticipated to resign.
Dive Perception:
Hotvedt, Haviland and Shepard’s resignations come after a November report from the state’s auditor discovered points with college spending.
A probe from the workplace discovered “a regarding lack of compliance with established college insurance policies” over the roughly 5 years between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2023.
Particularly, investigators discovered that journey and reimbursement requests by the college president and regents lacked correct documentation, exceeded authorised quantities, or had been incomplete or faulty.
Shepard and the regents additionally expensed gadgets banned by college coverage, corresponding to alcohol and room service, the audit stated. It discovered Shepard misused his state-issued bank card, or P-card, on issues like high-end furnishings above allotted quantities, in violation of institutional coverage.
One presidential furnishings buy totaled over $17,000 and was made with out the required approvals. In all, the college offered state auditors with documentation of 91 P-card transactions by Shepard’s workplace amounting to just about $150,000.
Western New Mexico additionally issued a P-card to the president’s spouse, Valerie Plame, who will not be a college worker, the report discovered. Auditors famous cases the place the college funded her journey that did not seem associated to official institutional enterprise, together with to a ladies’s management convention the place she was a visitor speaker.
Searchlight New Mexico, which revealed an investigation in December 2023 wanting into spending by college management, described Plame as having “profited handsomely” off college funds.
Shepard, who began within the position in 2011, tendered his resignation Dec. 20. It turns into efficient Jan. 15, after which he’ll tackle the president emeritus title and transition to a professor position within the enterprise college. He additionally secured a brand new separation contract that features a $1.9 million lump sum fee, in line with media reviews.
In a campus message saying his resignation, Shepard addressed the auditor’s letter of concern, in addition to different claims. He stated the auditor’s workplace didn’t have “any conversations with us to grasp any contextual points — nor has there been any due course of afforded to us.”
Shepard additionally pushed again on the Searchlight New Mexico’s description of his spouse’s involvement. Plame’s P-card had been authorised by the board chair on the time and was used just for college purchases, he stated.
“I go away my publish not in defeat however with a deep understanding that it’s the proper factor to do to advance that which I like dearly,” Shepard wrote. “To all of you who’ve supported me, thanks. Know that we are going to be okay. To these of you who’re in opposition to me, I hope you sometime discover peace. My alternative is to maneuver past the poisonous and again to the middle of compassion.”
On. Dec. 31, following the resignation of Shepard and Haviland, Gov. Grisham known as for the resignations of all of the college’s regents.
“I imagine that new management is required on the Board of Regents to be able to preserve the longer term well being and stability of Western New Mexico College,” Grisham wrote in a letter directed to the board. “Within the spirit of a clear slate of decisionmakers on the college, I’m asking to your quick resignation to assist be certain that Western New Mexico College will be capable of regain its equilibrium and as soon as once more serve its college students firstly.”