New Mexico State University Chancellor Garrey Carruthers retiring

New Mexico State University Chancellor Garrey Carruthers announced he is retiring July 1, 2018 – the end of his contract period.

“I think what people would say, what I hope they would say, is that we’re really proud of New Mexico State University,” Carruthers told ABC-7’s New Mexico Mobile Newsroom. “We’re so proud of that university and how it’s been represented in the last four years.”

Carruthers was named as NMSU’s president and chancellor in 2013. He also served as New Mexico’s 27th governor and is the only NMSU graduate to serve either as the university’s chancellor or New Mexico’s governor. He received a Ph.D. in economics from Iowa State University.

“I would be happy to stay on, but the contract ran out,” Carruthers said.

Carruthers likened fixing the university’s financial problems to navigating a ship on troubled waters.

“We have sailed the ship together through the stormy seas,” Carruthers said. “We have now chartered a course to calm waters. And I think the last three or four years have been challenging, but we sailed that ship together through the stormy seas.”

According to a news release, Carruthers oversaw the transforming of NMSU into a “21st Century University initiative … overhauling the way the university does business, from its organizational structure to the way it handles purchasing, finance services, information technology and other areas.

Projected savings from the project total more than $10 million. Carruthers said the savings from this effort are especially important in the face of declining appropriations from the state.”

As for post-retirement plans?

“My wife loves to travel and somebody asked me if I loved to travel,” Carruthers said. “I said, ‘Yes, of course I would. I’m going to buy me a luxury car, big luxury car, and I’m going to tour Doña Ana County.'”