Crashing enrollment, an athletic department in disarray, uncertainty about the leadership of the president who is clashing with a key legislator and a continued problem with branding and marketing. And that's only the short list of problems facing the University of New Mexico. Can a group of new UNM Regents make a difference?

Governor Lujan Grisham has just named five regents to the seven member panel, all of whom are expected to win confirmation from the Senate Rules Committee which begins the process today. Can they be strong and innovative enough to bring change to our Harvard on the Rio Grande? Here's some Roundhouse scuttlebutt about some of the personalities that will be at the helm of the state's flagship university.

Kim Sanchez Rael is described as "thoughtful and prepared." The Stanford and Harvard grad has a lengthy background in entrepreneurial business undertakings and spent seven years as an Intel executive. She ls also politically astute as is her husband, veteran state bureaucrat Lawrence Rael who currently toils for ABQ mayor Tim Keller as a top administrator. Sanchez Rael, 53, may be the star of the new group of regents--if there is to be one--and the one who could emerge as an advocate for a new and improved agenda.

Sandra Begay Campbell and Doug Brown. A Roundhouse Alligator tells us:

These are recycled regents. Begay Campbell served on the panel under Gov. Richardson. Brown is also a former regent who once headed up the UNM Anderson School of Management. She is a UNM and Stanford graduate, an engineer who is a longtime employee of Sandia Labs with strong ties to the Native American community. But there are questions. . . 

Both Begay Campbell and Brown have strong education credentials and community activities but questions remain about where they were while the demise of the athletic department began during previous tenures. Why didn't they exercise oversight of contractual buyouts, poor controls and
management of athletic department budgets, poorly constructed payback of the bonds to remodel the Pit into a less friendly, hard to sell sky box model? Why didn't they raise questions about the Athletic Department's lax controls that led to the recent criminal charges against former Athletic Director Paul Krebs? What will be different for them this time that makes them pay attention? Will they be the stabilizing influence some argue, or go along, get along status quo regents? Also, Brown is 81 and has a wide array of experience, but does he relate to the current generations? 

The other MLG appointees are Robert Schwartz who has more than 40 years of experience teaching law, mostly at the UNM law school. The student regent IS Melissa Henry. She's a licensed mental health counselor who is pursuing a  doctorate in counselor education.

The leftover regents are attorney Rob Doughty and and Marron Lee, whose terms expire in 2020. Both are diehard members of the Governor Martinez political machine but are now presumably outnumbered by a new governing majority.

PATTY VS. GARNETT

As for that troubled UNM athletic department, UNM President Garnett Stokes is in a pitched battle with House Appropriations Committee chairwoman Patty Lundstrom who wants to appropriate $2 million to reinstate athletic programs eliminated at UNM to address the department deficit. Most notable is the elimination of men's soccer that has drawn howls of protest from students and their parents. One of the Gators sends along the talking points memo that UNM's legislative committee of staff, students, alumni etc. are working from to fight the reinstatement. There's nothing in it about Stokes working out a compromise with Lundstrom. Maybe there should be?
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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2019