BusinessReport.com

Hometown: Crosby, Minn.

Birth date: Jan. 29, 1947

Family: Wife, Jan; daughter Amanda and son Sam

Education: Bachelor’s, business and economics [Minnesota State Mankato, 1969]; master’s, economics [Minnesota State Mankato, 1971]; doctorate, applied economics [University of Minnesota, 1977]

Professional highlights: President, New Mexico State University [2004-present]; vice president for agriculture and natural resources, University of Florida [1998-2004]; vice president for agricultural policy, University of Minnesota [1997-98]; dean, College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota [1995-98]; professor, Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota [1992-95]; professor, Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics, Oregon State University [1977-92]

What kind of chancellor is LSU getting in Michael V. Martin, the current president of New Mexico State University who will officially start his new job in Baton Rouge on Aug. 1?

To get an idea, Business Report checked in with a handful of people who have watched Martin during his four years as head of the school, located in Las Cruces, less than 50 miles from the Mexican border.

While most of them had nice things to say, there was some criticism of the 61-year-old Crosby, Minn., native who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Minnesota State Mankato and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

Martin accepts the LSU job as controversy roils his campus over allegations of racial discrimination and sexual harassment from two College of Health and Social Services faculty members whose contracts were not renewed earlier this year. Much of the criticism was aimed at Martin and other members of the university’s administration and board of regents. One Martin supporter, however, says things are being stirred up by a small group within the university that doesn’t represent the majority view.

Heath Haussamen, who runs a popular blog on New Mexico politics, says Martin has good relationships with the local business community, a talent for fundraising and the support of several state legislators, though he’s less popular with members of the university community more focused on academics and the traditional role of the university. The demands of fundraising dictate that Martin’s primary focus is largely external, Haussamen says.

“Raising money is necessary, but the students are the reason you’re there,” he says. “You can’t ignore them, and a lot of people think he has.”

Haussamen says the university’s board of regents thinks the world of Martin and has basically given him free rein as university president, though Haussamen says Martin can be touchy when it comes to media coverage.

Recalling an episode from his pre-blogger days as a reporter with the Las Cruces Sun-News, Haussamen says Martin got mad about a story on the NMSU administration’s 2005 “disarming” of the university’s mascot—formerly “Pistol Pete” and now just “Pete.”

“He takes things so personally,” Haussaman says. “It’s just kind of the way he does business.”

But Martin has a champion in Sen. Mary Kay Papen, a Democratic member of New Mexico’s Legislature whose district includes Las Cruces.

“He has, I think, done a remarkable job with lobbying for the university, getting funds for the university,” she says. “I think he’s done a remarkable job with the community. I think he’s extremely good at forging ties with the business community.”

Papen says Martin and his wife, Jan, have become “part of the fiber” of Las Cruces. Papen says she’s sorry to see Martin leave for LSU, but acknowledges not everyone feels that way. Not being a member of the NMSU community, Papen wouldn’t comment on issues there.

“His tenure certainly hasn’t been without his hard bumps in the road,” she says. “Any position that you hold that has any kind of authority has its bumps in the road.”

Stan Fulton, a multimillionaire philanthropist who lives in Las Vegas, Nev., but owns a racetrack and casino near NMSU and has donated large amounts of money to the university, says LSU should consider itself “very lucky” to land Martin, who Fulton describes as “very qualified and a good guy.”

Martin will get $400,000 a year plus another $125,000 in annual deferred payment if he sticks around for at least five years. In that case, he’ll be making about $125,000 more at LSU than his current salary at NMSU. But Fulton says he doubts Martin’s decision to go to LSU had to do with money.

He thinks Martin took the LSU job to return a favor to LSU System President John Lombardi, who gave Martin a job at the University of Florida when Lombardi was president there in the late 1990s.

“It’s very interesting,” Fulton says. “Before we had Michael Martin we had Jay Gogue. He left New Mexico State to head up the University of Houston. From there he went to Auburn. Now we’ve lost Michael Martin to LSU. It looks like New Mexico is a great state to prepare presidents to go elsewhere.”

Laura Conniff, a NMSU regent, says she’d be delighted if LSU decided it didn’t want Martin after all.

“You’re getting a great deal more for your money than you have any idea,” she says. “Mike, in my opinion, is an extraordinary leader and what I would consider—the term is sometimes overused—more of a visionary. He can see an organization and where it should go, and he does very good job of getting it there.”

As for the heat Martin is feeling at NMSU, Conniff guesses it’s caused by a “very small percentage” of faculty that has blown things out of proportion. Regarding his habit of “shooting from the hip” in conversations with faculty, students and administrators, Conniff says that’s not such a bad thing.

“He’s outspoken, but he’ll tell you what he thinks and it’s not necessarily what you want him to say,” she says. “I admire that quality.”

Finally, Martin himself says LSU is getting a blue-collar kind of guy who’s “pretty close to the ground” who likes to engage with a university, on many levels.

“I’m not an imperial president or chancellor,” he says. “My natural inclination is to get involved on campus and beyond. I think I understand how to delegate. But I like to feel part of the fabric of the university, not just a face that represents it.”

That’s at odds with Haussamen’s characterization of Martin as preoccupied with external affairs, though Martin admits he and Haussamen—a former editor of the NMSU student newspaper—haven’t always seen eye to eye.

Martin says he was upset the Pistol Pete article didn’t mention the main reason for deep-sixing the six-guns: so NMSU could stop paying royalties to Oklahoma State University, which owns the Pistol Pete trademark. Martin says he’s been ravaged in print before—fine as long as the reporter gets it right.

“If it’s a legitimate beating, it doesn’t bother me,” he says.

Asked about the furor over the faculty dismissals, Martin says a recently released report found Martin’s administration followed the proper university policies and procedures. Communication could have better, he concedes.

And Martin knows he won’t get everything right at LSU, where he plans to push the university into a more entrepreneurial, community-engaged, 21st century state of mind.

“If you hire me, I promise I will make some mistakes,” Martin says. “But you have to be willing to transform yourself. That means taking some risks.”