LAS VEGAS, N.M.
As he starts his final year at New Mexico Highlands University, Martin Gomez is focused on “passing classes.”
“That’s what we got to do,” the business administration major said.
Gomez has heard about an administrative upheaval at the state-owned university in Las Vegas that resulted in several high-level firings in the spring, but the school’s troubles didn’t affect his academics — which remain his priority this year.
“The classes, the teachers are really good over here,” Gomez said. “They’re really understanding, really patient, and a lot of them are willing to help.”
While instructors described a sense of ambivalence about returning to campus as Highlands remains in a state of turbulence, many students, like Gomez, said their back-to-school experience, which began last week, has been business as usual. The monthlong turmoil — which saw the departure of several high-ranking administrators and formal probes by the New Mexico Office of the State Auditor, the state Higher Education Department and prosecutors from the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office — hasn’t directly affected their education.
Faculty members said they’re glad to be back in the classroom, but some remain worried about the lingering effects of the administrative shake-up — including some budget cuts.
Interim President Kimberly Blea confirmed the university will implement a 30% reduction in “below-the-line costs” for discretionary expenses like supplies and travel. The decrease is not an overall 30% budget cut or a cut to personnel costs, Blea wrote in an email to The New Mexican.
By reducing those costs, she wrote, “we hope to address the budget concerns raised by the state with minimal impact to the student experience.”
All of that means the new school year is starting out with a mix of emotions, said Kathy Jenkins, president of the faculty and staff union.
“Firstly, I’d say we’re excited and energized because we love getting back in the classroom and teaching and interacting with our students,” she said.
“Secondly, I think we’re concerned and a little reserved with the current administration because they haven’t taken strides to build a sense of community back on campus,” she added. “… We need to start working together to [rebuild] the trust that has been lost.”
The backstory
Signs of trouble at Highlands appeared in May, just a few weeks shy of the spring semester’s end and graduation. The board of regents abruptly placed then-President Neil Woolf on paid administrative leave, and then fired him about a month later.
Nathan Burton/The New Mexican
In the meantime, university officials dismissed several other staff members, a wave of firings that took out the university’s provost, several vice presidents and the men’s basketball coach.
Vice President of Student Affairs Kimberly Blea was named Highlands’ interim president. The search for a permanent successor to Woolf is still underway.
Woolf has since filed a lawsuit against the school, alleging retaliation over a construction deal. The regents have denied those accusations, though they did admit to ousting him without cause and said they would comply with the terms of his contract.
Highlands also faces a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit from a former vice president and a discrimination suit from a former athletic director.
A former professor has accused the university of operating under a “culture of discrimination,” after Highlands declined to renew his H-1B immigrant work visa.
The administrative upheaval has brought on spending cuts, including the 30% decrease in below-the-line spending.
Jenkins said she worries the reduction in spending will chip away at resources for students — like field trips and lab supplies.
“We all need to do our part in balancing the university’s budget, but it’s millions of dollars. … We’re not going to be able to provide the same services as we have in the past to our students,” she said.
‘Oversight period’
A special audit of the university is underway. The school, the State Auditor’s Office and a Bernalillo-based certified public accounting firm signed a contract earlier this month to start that process, Dave Peña, a spokesperson for the state auditor, confirmed in an email to The New Mexican.
The state financial oversight agency expects to provide more information about the audit in mid- to late December.
“Our priority is transparency, accountability, and providing answers to the public,” State Auditor Joseph Maestas said in a statement. “This special audit is an important step toward giving students, employees, taxpayers and the broader community a clear understanding of the facts.”
Highlands also submitted a required corrective action plan to the New Mexico Higher Education Department, along with its budget for fiscal year 2027, Auriella Valles, a spokesperson for the state agency, wrote in an email to The New Mexican.
Higher education officials will continue to meet with Highlands leaders to monitor implementation of the plan, which Valles described as “necessary to ensure transparency, accountability and appropriate internal controls” at the university.
“Our focus remains on strengthening financial processes, improving transparency and safeguarding students throughout this oversight period,” she wrote. “We will take the necessary next steps with New Mexico Highlands University to support long‑term institutional stability.”
Frustration, joy
For faculty and alumni, the start of the new school year has brought a mix of feelings.
Jess Goldberg, an associate professor of American literature at Highlands and director of the university’s gender and women’s studies program, said she started the school year “feeling genuine rage at the way that the anti-democratic governing structure of the university has harmed people here.”
And yet, she described Tuesday — her first day of teaching classes this semester — a “magic day” of learning. She said it reminded her why she loves working at an open-admissions university, where most applicants with a diploma or GED certificate are accepted for enrollment.
“Students being back on campus reminds me of the incredible, positive work we do here and the reason why I enjoy waking up in the morning,” Goldberg said.
Nathan Burton/The New Mexican
Highlands alumni and community members have voiced disappointment in the institution in recent months. In a virtual board of regents meeting in June, an anonymous attendee spammed the chat with chicken emoji in protest.
Cin Ulibarri, understands that disappointment. The Las Vegas native dedicated nine years to Highlands — first as an undergrad, then as an administrative assistant for an on-campus institute and staff union leader, then as a graduate student pursing a master’s degree in public administration — before leaving the university June 30.
Ulibarri still believes in Highlands’ potential.
“Highlands is such a core part of Las Vegas, and it could be so much more than what it currently is. It just takes imagination. … I’m scared that in the end, it’s not going to serve the community like it has in the past, like I dreamed it could in the future,” they said.
From his plant-filled office in the Ivan Hilton Science and Technology Building, forestry professor Michael Remke said he’s starting the new school year focused on educating students and is excited to work with them.
That’s the case for most of Highlands’ more than 90 faculty members, he said.
“For most faculty, we’re here to do our scholarship. We’re here to do our research. We’re here to support the students and make our classes interactive and engaging and do experiential learning — and none of that has changed,” Remke said.
He added, “No administration turmoil, no change in leadership will ever change that that’s what we’re here to do.”
Students unfazed
Students voiced a common perspective when The New Mexican visited the Highlands campus Tuesday: They heard about the administrative shake-up that rocked the university at the end of the last school year, but it didn’t affect them directly.
Nathan Burton/The New Mexican
Over a midday meal of Funyuns and caffeine Tuesday, Highlands students Starley Moralez and Aubrey Martinez-Sandoval agreed the semester is starting out more smoothly than last year — because, as sophomores, they know what to expect.
“It was less nerve-wracking the last year,” Moralez said, noting she was “terrified” of getting lost on campus during her first year.
“I’m a little bit nervous, just because … it takes me a little bit of time to get adjusted back to the groove of everything, but I’m excited and I know where I’m going,” Martinez-Sandoval added.
Both students said they heard rumors about the turmoil at the end of the previous school year, but it didn’t affect their education.
“It mostly, I guess, affected the administrative side more than the student side,” said Gomez, the business administration major.
Luckily, the strife hasn’t dimmed students’ goals.
After finishing her degree in social work, Moralez wants to become a therapist — and maybe even start her own practice in New Mexico.
Math major Michelle Dominguez, a junior, plans to go to graduate school and become an astrophysicist.
Junior Dominic Valdez hopes to use his social work degree as a pediatric oncology counselor at University of New Mexico Hospital — the same hospital where he fought cancer.
Once she finishes her degree in early childhood education, Martinez-Sandoval wants to become an educator. She’s open to teaching students from prekindergarten to third grade.
After Highlands, Martinez-Sandoval is hoping to find a stable job, she said, and get her “life going.”
