On December 14, 1967, the Board of Regents announced that Ferrel Heady, then serving as academic vice president, had been selected to succeed Popejoy and would take office on July 1, 1968.
Education
A.B. Washington University, St. Louis, 1937
A.M, 1937, Ph.D., 1940
Career
President Heady has worked in public administration and taught political science and was on the faculty of University of Michigan for many years before coming to UNM.
University Activities
In 1968, over a hundred Vietnam War protestors surged on the field where the Navy ROTC was practicing close-order drills. Vice Presidents Harold Lavender, John Perovich, and Chester Travelstead were called to the scene and asked them to leave. They threaten that whoever stayed would be arrested. All but three left and were promptly arrested by campus police. After hearings, they were suspended from UNM. They brought their case to the Student Standards Committee and were suspended yet again. Then they went to President Heady and were acquitted.
In March 1969, Lionel Williams, a teaching assistant in the English department, had made available in a freshman English class copies of the poem “Love-Lust” by Lenore Kandel. Some legislators were outraged over the poem’s vulgarity and directed the UNM Board of Regents to remove Williams. He was suspended, which prompted Joseph Frank, chair of the English department, to support Williams by refusing to assign someone else to take over his classes. Kenneth Pollack, another teaching assistant, gave a lecture over an allegedly obscene theme. He, too, was suspended. A special advisory committee appointed by President Heady recommended that Williams and Pollack be reprimanded with some statement of disapproval, but also be reinstated. Heady accepted the recommendation and allowed the assistants to return to their classes.
On May 5, 1970, the presidents of the Associated Students of UNM and the Graduate Student Association endorsed a plan for a student strike over the Vietnam War and the Kent State massacre. Protestors occupied the AFROTC Building and the Student Union Building and refused to leave. After the AFROTC Building was evacuated, protestors persuaded students not to attend class. President Heady wouldn’t declare a strike, but granted a moratium for the four students who were killed at Kent State. The protests continued, and the university was shut down until the following Monday. Protestors stayed in the Student Union Building, which the Board of Regents declared illegal.
The governor ordered the National Guard to sweep the building and arrest those who were there. President Heady learned about it and was inside before the guardsmen had been deployed. The guardsmen marched with unsheathed bayonets, and ten stabbings ensued, when those outside didn’t hear the order to disperse that was given inside. The use of bayonets was later viewed as unnecessary force. The Regents overruled President Heady’s granting permission to the faculty to adopt a motion expressing opposition to the Vietnam War.
On May 10, 1972, a peaceful march of about 250 people moved from the UNM campus to an entrance of Kirtland Air Force Base. A sit-in led to the arrest of thirty-five people. The peaceful protest was pushed back to UNM, leading to eight more arrests. The demonstrators grouped at Yale Park, where police used tear gas to disperse them. As some forty to fifty people were treated for minor injuries, the number of demonstrators increased to more than a thousand. President Heady was critical of the use of tear gas in an attempt to confine the demonstrators to the campus and stated that the police were driving students out of the dormitories and into the demonstration.
The following day, over two hundred protestors met at Yale Park and were dispersed by tear gas once more. The crowd of students grew to over five hundred. The situation continued to deteriorate, leading President Heady to use the powers the Regents had granted him to declare a state of emergency and impose a curfew from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. the next morning. Heady reported, “As the evening hours passed, it looked more and more likely that the curfew order might spark a confrontation at 11 p.m.” So the gutsy president walked from his home to the mall and spoke to the crowd there. He explained the necessity for the curfew to clear the mall and end the pattern of nightly forays off campus and return the campus as a sanctuary. He told the students that he would lift the curfew if the people on the mall would stay there, or if they left, would promise not to return later during the night. Sensing that the students were in agreement, Heady then announced that he was lifting the curfew and would stay on the mall and talk with them as long as they wished. The students responded with enthusiasm, and Heady spent the next two hours with them. Within two hours after the eleven o’clock deadline had passed, almost nobody remained on the mall.
The next day, May 12, plans were worked out for the antiwar march that started on the edge of UNM and ended at Ridgecrest Park with a twenty-minute candlelight vigil. An estimated fifteen hundred marchers participated with police clearing traffic and staying fifty yards to the front and rear of the marchers. Heady and other administrators and faculty members were in the march.
The summer of 1967 saw the initiation of a preparatory program at the School of Law for Native American students under the direction of Professor Fred Hart. By 1970, forty participants in the program were enrolled at various law schools. The following year, Yvonne Knight became the first Native American woman to graduate from the UNM School of Law.
In 1971, the architecture program, previously part of the College of Fine Arts, became a school in its own right, with Don Schlegel as the first dean.
In 1972, the UNM catalog announced that fellowships and assistantships in lithography were available at the Tamarind Institute, newly affiliated with the College of Fine Arts. Supported in part by the Ford Foundation, the institute offers training, study, and research as well as the production of high-quality lithographs.
A new division of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology was organized in 1973. The Office of Contract Archaeology would undertake large-scale, interdisciplinary cultural resource studies, including projects that require both fieldwork and analysis.
In 1975, President Heady was appointed to the new Committee on Technical Excellence. It made recommendations to the legislature for funds to upgrade scientific research, resulting in an additional $3 million a year for five years for buildings, equipment, and library holdings.
The Latin American Programs in Education (LAPE) offered training to foreign educators. Numerous students from this program became university presidents, ministers of education, vice ministers, and directors general in various Central and South American countries.
In 1972, construction began on the Cancer Research and Treatment Center with a grant from the National Cancer Institute and funds from the New Mexico Legislature. Among the center’s research projects was a partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory in the use of subatomic particles to treat tumors.
In 1971, UNM and the National Park Service entered into an agreement to create a joint Chaco Project, to promote research on sites UNM formerly owned in Chaco Canyon in western New Mexico. The agreement called for a research center within the Anthropology Department and joint management of the resulting archaeological materials in Maxwell Museum.
Among the contributions to campus development was the beautification project at University Stadium sponsored by the Lobo (booster) Club under the direction of Lee Galles. The project included irrigation, grass, and trees on the slopes of the stadium, along with large concrete disks, one with raised block letters “NM” and one depicting a football player, on the corners of the facility. Curbs were also added along with pine and cottonwood trees and chamisa.
The Farris Engineering Center was completed in November 1968 and named for Marshall E. Farris, who served for twenty-nine years as dean of engineering.
In 1969, plans were going ahead on the construction and financing of a new building for the Law School. On April 17, 1971, the new Bratton Hall was dedicated.
Also in 1969, the Regents ratified the agreement for UNM to operate the Bernalillo County Medical Center.
In March 1970, the Regents approved the purchase of the IBM Building on the southwest corner of Central and Stanford to house the Technology Application Center.
A university landmark was removed from the campus in 1969 when the Zimmerman Field and Stadium complex was demolished to make way for new buildings.
In 1969, the Ford Utility Center was named for Professor A.D. Ford, chairman of the Mechanical Engineering Department. The Administration Building was named for France V. Scholes, history professor, academic vice president, and dean of the Graduate School. The Geology Building was named for Stuart A. Northrop, chairman of the Geology Department. The Civil Engineering Building was named for William C. Wagner, chairman of the department.
The addition to Clark Hall, the Chemistry Building, was designed by George Pearl and completed in December 1969 and named for Jesse Riebsomer, former professor and chairman.
In 1972, the Electrical Engineering Building was named for Ralph W. Tapy, professor and chairman of the department.
In 1971, Rodey Hall, formerly between Hodgin Hall and the Farris Engineering Center, was declared too dangerous for use and was razed, making it possible to extend Redondo Drive between Tight Grove and the engineering complex.
In June 1972, the physics laboratory and lecture hall was completed and named Regener Hall in honor of Victor R. Regener, physics professor and researcher.
In June 1973, Professor Emeritus of English T.M. Pearce wrote a memorandum to Myron Fifield, director of the Physical Plant. Pearce had heard that Hodgin Hall was on the demolition list and indicated that he would like to see the building kept as an alumni hall and visitor center. After a tour of the building with Fifield, he wrote another letter on July 1, 1973, advocating keeping and restoring Hodgin Hall. Under the leadership of alums Tony Jackson and Bill Brannin, plans were soon under way to save and restore the building.
On December 8, 1973, Ortega Hall, which houses classrooms, language labs, and offices, was dedicated. It was named for Joaquin Ortega, director of the School of Inter-American Affairs.
In 1973, the College of Business and Administrative Sciences was named the Robert O. Anderson Schools of Management, the first UNM academic division named for an individual. Anderson was a board chairman of Atlantic Richfield.
By the end of 1973, six major buildings were under construction or just being completed. They included Woodward Hall, a new bookstore, the Nursing-Pharmacy, an addition to Zimmerman Library, and the Cancer Research and Treatment Center.
In 1975, the Married-Student Housing complex, the Dale Bellamah Law Center, the Nursing-Pharmacy Building, and the Cancer Research and Treatment Center were completed.
The John Gaw Meem Archive of Southwestern Architecture in Zimmerman Library came in May 1975.
Women’s athletics took a giant step forward in 1973-74, when the budget totaled $35,000, up from $4,300 the year before. Title IX, the federal law mandating equal opportunity for women in sports, got some of the credit, but Linda Estes, the associate athletics director, credited President Heady. He “was probably the first president in the nation to come out and do anything like that,” she said.
At the UNM Gallup Branch, the campus had grown sixteen acres, thanks to another gift from the Clair Gurleys. An administration and classroom building had been added in 1974. A Southwest-style building named Gurley Hall was new the next year, when an associate degree in nursing was offered.
Regent Calvin Horn evaluated President Heady, and when the report was completed on June 10, 1975, he sent copies to members of the Board of Regents and the president. The Regents and Heady agreed that he would retire as president no later than December 31, 1975. At that time, he would be given a sabbatical leave to prepare for a return to teaching at UNM. Heady announced his retirement decision at the September 18, 1974 meeting of the board.
Heady returned to teaching and research in the areas of political science and public administration at UNM. He retired in 1981 as Professor Emeritus.
On a part-time basis, Heady continued his involvement with the university and participated in federal programs such as those sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development. He continued to travel frequently on assignments to Latin American countries. Heady also continued to teach public administration courses and presented papers at national and international conferences as well as serving on dissertation committees for students at other universities from around the country.
Ferrel Heady passed away on August 17, 2006 at the age of 90.
Excerpts from Miracle on the Mesa by William E. Davis |
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