Pacheco gets nod as NMSU???s interim president

The New Mexico State University Board of Regents approved a $325,000 contract with Manuel T. Pacheco to serve as interim president starting June 1.

Pacheco replaces Waded Cruzado, who served for 10 months as interim head after former President Michael Martin left the university last year.

Pacheco will serve for about six to eight months while the university searches for a new, permanent president, said Regent Chair Blake Curtis in a news release.

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???Dr. Pacheco has an extensive background in higher education and an impeccable reputation,??? Curtis said. ???The university will be in good hands while we search for our new president.???

Pacheco, who is retired and has been living in Arizona since 2003, previously served as president of four universities: The four-campus University of Missouri System, the University of Arizona, the University of Houston-Downtown and Laredo State University. He also served in 2006 as interim president at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas.

Pacheco, a native New Mexican, has a bachelor???s degree from New Mexico Highlands and a doctorate from Ohio State University.

He served on several corporate boards, including Warnaco Group Inc. and Asarco LLC, and he???s currently on the board of PNM Resources. He is also a charter member of the not-for-profit boards of the National Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse, the National Security Education Program, and the University of Arizona Science and Technology Research Park.