The governing board for New Mexico State University named Valerio Ferme as the next president.
(Danielle Prokop / Source NM)
The New Mexico State University governing board named Valerio Ferme as their pick to helm the university system Thursday after more than a year without a permanent leader.
Valerio Ferme (Courtesy of New Mexico State University)
Ferme beat out former state Public Education Department Secretary Arsenio Romero, who stepped down from his post abruptly in late August, shortly after becoming a finalist for the NMSU job.
Ferme is a vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Cincinnati, which has an enrollment of just over 50,000 students. A call to Ferme at the University of Cincinnati went unreturned Friday morning.
Ferme beat out three other finalists for the position. Those include:
Arsenio Romero, former PED Secretary and a former NMSU regent and professor
Brian Haynes, a vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of California, Riverside
Monica Lounsbery, a dean at the college of health and human services at California State University based in Long Beach
The NMSU president oversees both the land-grant university’s main campus in Las Cruces, but also the satellite campuses in Doña Ana County, Alamogordo and Grants. Just over 14,700 students attend at the Las Cruces campus, and more than 21,000 students are enrolled across the state, according to the 2023-24 headcount.
Ferme joined the University of Cincinnati in 2019 as an English professor and Dean of Arts and Sciences, and moved into his current administrative position in 2021, according to his resume. Before that, he taught at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and the University of Colorado Boulder.
At Thursday’s special meeting to announce the pick, Regents Chair Ammu Devasthali thanked the community for engaging in public forums and submitting more than 700 feedback responses on the candidate search.
“The feedback submissions we received following the faculty, staff, student and community forums have provided invaluable insights,” Devasthali said. “Your voices are a big part of the success of this process.”
NMSU engaged in two rounds of searches for the next president, after the sudden April 2023 resignation of Chancellor Dan Arvizu, months before his contract expired.
Arvizu oversaw a tumultuous period at NMSU. This included the cancellation of the basketball season over instances of hazing, after which, former players settled with the school for $8 million. Former employees filed multiple lawsuits against the university under his leadership, for allegations including retaliation for investigations in racist and sexist pay disparities.
NMSU’s first search in March ended with the regents rejecting all five finalists and starting the search anew.
Ferme’s start date has not been decided, according to a news release from NMSU. The start date, salary and other contract negotiations will be presented to the board of regents for approval in a future public meeting, the release stated.
Until Ferme officially takes the position, interim President Mónica Torres will continue in the role.