After a year of scrutiny, Joseph Shepard to resign as WNMU president

Joshua Bowling, Searchlight New Mexico

This article was originally published by Searchlight New Mexico.

Joseph Shepard is out as president of Western New Mexico University after more than 13 years on the job. The university Board of Regents unanimously voted to terminate his contract on Friday, although both sides said the decision was mutual.

Shepard and the regents have been under the microscope for more than a year after a 2023 Searchlight New Mexico investigation found that he and other university leaders used taxpayer money to travel the world, stay at upscale resorts and spend more than $27,000 to furnish his on-campus home. Searchlight reported that his wife, former CIA agent and author Valerie Plame, used a university purchasing card in her capacity as first lady, which state investigators have since deemed a violation of university policy. Searchlight’s reporting spurred multiple state agencies to open investigations into the university executives’ spending. Most recently, the Office of the State Auditor released its findings, which detailed more than $360,000 of “wasteful” and “improper” spending that violated university policy. There was virtually no oversight on the spending, State Auditor Joseph Maestas told Searchlight the day he released his findings, because the Board of Regents itself was involved.

“I have come to the conclusion that the path forward for this university and for our community is to remove myself from the equation and resign as president … I leave my post not in defeat, but with a deep understanding that this is the right thing to do to advance that which I dearly love. To all of you who have supported me: thank you. Know that we will be OK. To those of you who are against me: I hope you find peace.”

WESTERN NEW MEXICO UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT JOSEPH SHEPARD

At a Dec. 12 Board of Regents meeting in Silver City, several members of the public called on Shepard and the regents, who oversee the terms of his employment, to resign. On Friday, just eight days later, the regents convened a special meeting and struck a defiant tone while announcing Shepard’s resignation. The meeting was virtual and members of the public had no chance to weigh in with their thoughts. At no point in the 45-minute meeting did Shepard or any of the regents — several of whom have accompanied him on his costly overseas trips — admit any wrongdoing or acknowledge that state investigators found their spending to violate their own policies. Instead, Shepard batted away such allegations and maintained that he and the board have not done anything without keeping the well-being of WNMU students in mind.

“A lie is halfway around the world before the truth has got its boots on,” Shepard said during the meeting while reading his resignation letter. “I have come to the conclusion that the path forward for this university and for our community is to remove myself from the equation and resign as president … I leave my post not in defeat, but with a deep understanding that this is the right thing to do to advance that which I dearly love. To all of you who have supported me: thank you. Know that we will be OK. To those of you who are against me: I hope you find peace.”

Throughout his remarks, Shepard said that “toxic” outside forces had led him to this decision. When the Office of the State Auditor sent the university a sharply worded letter of concern last month, Shepard said that the office never gave the university an exhaustive report detailing its findings. “Nor has there been any due process afforded to us,” he said.

Shepard said he made the decision to resign because his wife’s role in university spending has come under scrutiny, likening it to when Plame’s identity as a CIA agent was outed by a Washington Post writer in 2003. “Twenty years later,” Shepard said, “Valerie is again in the uninvited spotlight.” Plame did not speak at Friday’s virtual regents meeting.

Shepard will remain university president through mid-January. The particulars of his termination — whether he will be paid severance or allowed to cash out paid time off — were not disclosed during the meeting, and Shepard did not respond to requests for comment Friday afternoon. Reached by phone, Board of Regents Chair Mary Hotvedt would not comment.

It’s unclear what lies ahead for Shepard and Plame, though public records show that the pair recently bought a riverfront property in Embudo, between Santa Fe and Taos, that was previously used as a wedding venue.

Joshua Bowling is the criminal justice reporter for Searchlight New Mexico.