Aggie credentials to be a regent at NMSU

Aggie credentials: A couple of Republican senators are proposing a law that would require at least two members of the New Mexico State University Board of Regents to have experience in agriculture. Currently, one member of the five-member board must be a student. But there is no requirement that any of the regents have experience as a farmer, rancher, soil conservation manager or know how to drive a tractor. “Since it is the agricultural research school, I feel it is important to have two members with an ag background,” Sen. Cliff Pirtle, a farmer from Roswell, told the Senate Rules Committee, which voted 4-3 Wednesday morning to advance the bill. Pirtle argued that as the school handles funding for agricultural research, it is only fitting to require a few of its leaders to have agricultural bona fides. But some members of the committee said they do not want to keep otherwise qualified regents off the board.