Carruthers: New Mexico has too many colleges
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — With New Mexico’s strained budget forcing difficult funding decisions year after year, a familiar question keeps arising: Does the state have too many higher education institutions?
The answer is yes, according to Garrey Carruthers.
The former governor and current chancellor at New Mexico State University — where he oversees the research institution and its four associated branch campuses — Carruthers said “even I think we (university) presidents agree” on that point.
New Mexico has 31 publicly funded colleges and universities.
But speaking to the business community at Wednesday’s Albuquerque Economic Forum breakfast, Carruthers acknowledged that it’s a thorny problem since all seven of the state’s four-year schools are written in the Constitution. Changing that requires amending it, and the chancellor earned a hearty laugh when describing a friend in South Dakota who once tried something similar.
Read more: https://www.abqjournal.com/1031935/carruthers-nm-has-too-many-colleges.html