University of New Mexico Board of Regents

The Board of Regents is responsible for the governance of the University of New Mexico. This responsibility may be exercised only by the Board as a unit; individual Regents are without power to act separately in the transaction of University business, except when one of the Board's officers is specifically authorized to act on behalf of the Board. The Board's power to govern the University includes fiduciary responsibility for the assets and programs of the University, establishment of goals and policies to guide the University and oversight of the functioning of the University. The Board vests responsibility for the operation and management of the University in the President of the University.

The University of New Mexico, created by an Act of the Territorial Legislature in 1889, opened as a summer normal school on June 15, 1892, and began full-term instruction on September 21 of the same year. In creating the University, the Legislature designated it as the state university whose objective should be to "provide the inhabitants of the State of New Mexico with the means of acquiring a thorough knowledge of the various branches of literature, science and arts." § 21-7-2, NMSA 1978 (Laws 1889, ch. 138, § 1).