Western New Mexico University president defends spending as regents encourage more work abroad
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Regents at Western New Mexico University expressed support Friday for President Joseph Shepard as he faces scrutiny over his wife’s spending on foreign travel and use of a college credit card.
During a regular regents meeting held on the Silver City campus, faculty members and foreign students also packed the crowd to show their support for Shepard, who is beginning his 13th year at the helm of the school.
Speaking to the gathering, Shepard said he welcomes a financial review by the state auditor and that his staff has been working on a review of the university’s policies and procedures in response to questions raised about spending over the past five years .
He reiterated to the regents that trips to Zambia and elsewhere have helped put Western New Mexico on the map and attract more foreign students. Other members of his leadership team ticked off statistics about enrollment growth, graduation rates among foreign students and fundraising that have boosted university programs.
“What happens is when you go to these places and come into contact with other cultures and other ideologies and so on, you gain tremendous knowledge yourself and start doing research on your own,” Shepard said.
Participation in international conferences by WNMU faculty projects the school as “a real player” and creates opportunities for networking, he added.
Regents approved a motion Friday supporting that position, affirming the importance of WNMU’s international partnerships and noting existing agreements and new negotiations with academic institutions from elsewhere in the U.S. Southwest to Mexico and Brazil.
Regents declined to halt international travel, in direct response to a recommendation from the state Department of Higher Education calling on the university to suspend it pending the completion of a cost-benefit analysis.
In a letter to WNMU in early January, the department expressed concerns about such expenditures and asked whether it was necessary for regents to attend certain international trips.
The letter also referenced the expenses of Shepard’s wife, former CIA agent and activist Valerie Plame. It said non-state employees should not use or use government procurement cards.
Lawmakers in New Mexico have also raised questions about Shepard’s spending, noting that tuition has increased in the state and that they have a duty to ensure taxpayer money is used efficiently.
Regents agreed Friday to conduct a broad review in the coming months that will include their handbook, travel policies and other procedures. They also agreed to a proposal from Shepard to create an ad hoc committee to work on updating the policy.
Shepard acknowledged during the meeting that it can be difficult to quantify the benefits of building relationships with foreign institutions, as some of those benefits are superficial.
“How do you quantify it?” he asked. “It’s a system. It’s bigger than just saying, ‘Well, we got X amount of dollars from this specific student who came from that specific place.’ It’s bigger than that.”
The university known today as WNMU has a history dating back to its founding in the 1890s, before New Mexico became a state.