By KRWG News
New Mexico – Gov. Susana Martinez has rescinded an executive order issued in December by former Gov. Bill Richardson that established a new process for selecting regents at New Mexico's public research universities.
Martinez issued her own executive order Friday to overturn what she called a "convoluted" process.
Richardson's order had adopted a proposal from faculty groups that regents candidates at the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University and New Mexico Tech be reviewed by a search committee of faculty and community members. Under the order, the governor could either accept a recommended name or chose a different nominee.
Martinez's order overturns those requirements and restores the process by which regents are picked by the governor.
Martinez says the search committee was another symbol of big-government excess that served little purpose.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.