UNM Retains School of Law Dean Camille Carey

University of New Mexico School of Law Dean Camille Carey, who faced both protests and support over her leadership, will stay on as dean, KOB 4 reports. UNM announced the reappointment by Provost Barbara Rodriguez on July 6, saying she reached the decision after careful consideration. Rodriguez said she is committed to working with Carey and the law school community to strengthen the school, and Carey said she is honored to keep serving.

Carey has served as dean since 2022 and leads a law school with more than 30 faculty members and about 300 students, KOB 4 reported. She joined UNM’s law faculty in 2009 and previously served as vice dean and associate dean for academic affairs, according to UNM’s 2021 announcement of her appointment.

In June, some UNM alumni and organizations, including the New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, urged UNM to remove Carey, citing declining local applications and the underrepresentation of Native students. Critics argue nonresident students make up one-third of the 2026 and 2027 classes. “Our state’s only law school is turning away its own people,” UNM graduate Jessica Martinez said, according to KOB 4.

Members of the 2025-26 Admissions Committee pushed back in a letter to President Stephen Goldstein and Rodriguez, saying New Mexico applicants for the 2025 entering class had increased since 2011. They said 23 of 296 students enrolled in 2025-26, or 7.77%, identified as American Indian or Alaska Native, compared with 24 of 294 in 2021-22, the year before Carey took office, and that 36 students, or 12.16%, identify as Chicano.

Editor’s note: Updated Oct. 31, 2026. This story is now part of Daily Reports, our New Mexico news roundup, and was revised to credit KOB 4’s original reporting. Learn how Daily Reports works in our editorial standards.