Western New Mexico University’s main campus in Silver City. (Courtesy of Western New Mexico University)
A burgeoning faculty union at Western New Mexico University announced Wednesday that it took a “major step forward” this week after administration officials acquiesced on three sticking points that had stood in the way of a settlement agreement.
One of those sticking points was whether the embattled former president Joseph Shepard would be included in the bargaining unit, given his status as a tenured faculty member, according to a news release from the WNMU faculty union. Shepard secured that title as part of a controversial December 2024 contract that also paid him nearly $2 million in severance.
The WNMU Board of Regents on July 31 voted to undo the contract, finding that their predecessors on the board had violated the state Open Meetings Act when they approved it.
Two lawsuits remain pending in the matter from the New Mexico Department of Justice and the State Ethics Commission. Following the board’s vote, Shepard provided a statement to Inside Higher Education, which said: “After serving 14 exemplary years of advancing the university, it’s troubling that this new, Governor-appointed Board has chosen this path. This is a matter before the courts. The Board’s desire to attempt to circumvent the legal process is telling in that they know they can’t win where facts matter and are doing all they can to prevent the truth from being shared.”
Shortly after nixing Shepard’s contract, the administration settled with the nascent WNMU faculty union, according to the news release. Now, all that remains is for the Public Employee Labor Relations Board to verify the results of the union’s membership drive.
About 70% of Western faculty voted in favor of joining a union, organizing committee member Andy Hernández told Source New Mexico on Thursday.
“And since the university is no longer contesting the composition of the [bargaining] unit, and of course, we were very careful in collecting cards, we expect a pretty quick verification,” said Hernández, a history professor.
He said he expects the board to take up the matter by mid-September.
Christopher Maples, the interim WNMU president, told Source on Thursday in a brief phone interview that he supports the unionization effort because it enables better communication between departments and union members.
“I think, places that have [unionized] managed to actually improve communications among themselves and between departments,” he said. “That’s always a great outcome.”
The other two sticking points were whether university librarians and faculty at WNMU’s Applied Technology department were eligible to join. Administrators ultimately agreed there, too.
Faculty leaders initially announced the push in May, saying a recognized union would improve shared university governance after a “tumultuous year.” Shepard’s term as president ended amid revelations about how he spent university resources at the president’s mansion, among other questionable spending.
But Maples and Hernández described the new union as just the latest university-wide effort to right the ship ahead of the fall semester that begins Aug. 18.
Maples told Source that he was already seeing a spike in activity on campus, as staff and faculty and students prepared for a new year of learning. The promise of a new semester makes it hard to be pessimistic, he said.
“Students and faculty come back, and it just springs a new life into the university,” he said. “You can see our future. Our future is sitting in the classroom.”
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