Source: NMSU board of regents to appoint Manuel Pacheco as interim president

A source close to New Mexico State University told ABC-7 Tuesday that the new NMSU interim president will be Dr. Manuel Pacheco.

The NMSU board of regents is expected to make the formal announcement Wednesday morning. The meeting will be livestreamed at 10 a.m. here.

The decision comes on the heels of last week’s decision to part ways with Barbara Couture, who was appointed president in late 2009 and resigned last week.

Pacheco is not a stranger to NMSU. The New Mexico native was interim president back from June 2009 to Dec. 2009, before Couture was hired.

The source told ABC-7 a national search for a permanent president will begin immediately after the formal announcement.

The meeting, which begins at 10 a.m. in the Corbett Center at NMSU, is open and will include a public comment period.

Pacheco is a former president of the University of Arizona and the University of Missouri. He previously was interim president at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, N.M.

Pacheco, whose long list of honors includes everything from Father of the Year in Tucson, Ariz., to being named one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in America by Hispanic Business Magazine, is a former Fulbright Fellow and the winner of the Hispanic Achievement Trailblazer Award from Hispanic Magazine. He also was the president of the University of Houston-Downtown and Laredo State University, and is a Distinguished Alumnus of The Ohio State University.

Pacheco earned his Ph.D. in foreign language education in 1969 and a master’s in Spanish in 1966, both from The Ohio State University. He has a bachelor’s from New Mexico Highlands University and also studied at UniversitŽ de Montpellier, France.