Weekly Briefing

Crisis after crisis at New Mexico State University

The chancellor of New Mexico State University wants everyone to know the university is not in crisis.

The steady stream of headlines about the Las Cruces university seem to tell a different story. Last month, the university fired the head men’s basketball coach, Greg Heiar, and canceled the rest of the season after a hazing scandal. In the span of three months, starting in November 2022, the former provost and former Title IX coordinator filed lawsuits over their respective dismissals, accusing the institution for retaliating against them for doing their jobs. The Board of Regents decided to not renew the chancellor’s five-year contract, which expires June 30. And a New Mexico State basketball player was involved in a shootout that left him injured and a University of New Mexico student dead.

During a press conference last month, Dan Arvizu, reassured students and staff that the basketball incident was “contained” to the team. In a March 2 email to the university, Arvizu wrote that he worries that the attention to these events detracted from the other “outstanding things” happening at the university.

Here’s a short rundown of what’s going on:

The most personally distressing incident for Arvizu took place last year when his wife, Sheryl Arvizu, was charged with battery against a household member after she told police that she was the “primary aggressor” in an altercation with her husband. Though the charge was later dropped, a police report said that she repeatedly punched him while he was driving home from a work dinner. During their drive he denied cheating on her with a colleague. The couple’s police interview was captured by a police body camera. In a March 2 email, Arvizu wrote to the university saying that the couple was working on their relationship and asked for privacy.

In December the university’s Board of Regents said that it would not renew Arvizu’s contract as chancellor — it didn’t state why.

That month, Carol Parker, former provost, filed a lawsuit against the university, alleging that she was made a scapegoat for the problems her male superiors created. Parker had previously received votes of no-confidence from the faculty senate. She said she was punished for trying to investigate faculty complaints about pay disparities based on gender and race. Parker said that the president and chancellor wanted her to drop the investigation. And Parker claimed that she felt pressured to support a merger of academic departments and colleges that the faculty opposed.

Her lawsuit also argues that she was the victim of gender discrimination when she was disciplined. The decision to put her on administrative leave before her employment was terminated was announced to university employees, she said. The former president, John Floros, a man, was given a yearlong paid sabbatical and allowed to return to a tenured faculty position.

In February the university’s former Title IX coordinator, Laura Castille, filed a lawsuit alleging that her superiors retaliated against her for reporting “gross mismanagement, abuse of authority, and violation of policy” by New Mexico State.

Castille’s job in the Office of Institutional Equity involved reviewing the university’s job postings for compliance with laws and university policies. She raised that a university vice chancellor inappropriately altered a job posting to ensure that a “close ally” would become chief audit office. When she raised this to her superiors, including the chancellor, she said that she was reprimanded and evicted from her office. She resigned under pressure in August.

In response to questions about the lawsuits, a New Mexico State spokesman said that he couldn’t comment on pending litigation and that the university “takes any allegations of discrimination seriously and works to ensure compliance with university policy on such matters.”

In February a basketball player told campus police that three teammates had been ganging up on him for months — holding him down and inappropriately touching him, physically and sexually. The player said he didn’t want to press charges, but depending on the investigations, charges could be brought anyway.

But trouble had already been brewing for the men’s basketball team.

In November, Mike Peake, a basketball player, exchanged gunfire with a University of New Mexico student, Brandon Travis, who died from his injuries. Peake said he was acting in self-defense after he was attacked with a baseball bat and shot in the leg, and has not been charged with a crime pending the investigations.

New Mexico State hired two firms to investigate the hazing allegations and shooting incident. And it’s conducting an internal investigation. Depending on the findings, the university may issue more disciplinary measures against other coaching staff members, the chancellor said.

Until then, Arvizu emphasized at a news conference that student safety remains top priority.

Read our Katherine Mangan’s full story here.

Lagniappe.

• Read. The nonfiction book Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire & Revolution in the Borderlands tells the story of two brothers Jesús and Ricardo Flores Magón, who organized the resistance against longtime Mexican president Porfirio Díaz. The book shows how the Mexican Revolution reshaped the United States and is a total page-turner. (Kirkus Reviews)
• Listen. I love independent radio stations. Here’s another one of my cherished stations run by volunteer staff — including the D.J.s — WFMU, broadcasting from Jersey City, N.J. (WFMU)
• Watch. Last weekend I saw this exhibit featuring Black artists from the South at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. If you don’t live nearby, this 15-minute documentary tells the story of some of the quilters featured in the exhibit. (The New York Times)

—Fernanda