Associated Press - November 19, 2009 8:35 AM ET

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - The New Mexico State University Board of Regents is expected to appoint a new school president at a special meeting Thursday.

They will choose among four candidates.

They are former North Carolina State University Chancellor James Oblinger; the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, Barbara Couture; California State Polytechnic University president Michael Ortiz; and Southern Polytechnic State University president Lisa Rossbacher.

Initially, the Regents were considering a fifth candidate, but former Illinois chancellor Richard Herman withdrew from consideration earlier this month.

Herman had resigned his post as chancellor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign last month amid an admissions scandal.

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