Janet Murguia, one of Kansas University’s highest-profile administrators, will leave the university at the end of the month to lead a national Hispanic advocacy organization.

Murguia, executive vice chancellor for university relations since July 2001, will be named today as executive director and chief operating officer of the National Council of La Raza, which is based in Washington, D.C. She will start the job in March.

Murguia, 43, is expected to take over as president and chief executive officer of the organization by the end of the year, after Raul Yzaguirre retires. Yzaguirre has led the group since 1974, six years after it was founded.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Murguia, who has served on La Raza’s board of directors since 2002. “It offers a national platform to be an advocate for the Hispanic community. There’s a huge increase in demographics, but it won’t mean anything if you have those demographics and don’t have social empowerment and economic empowerment.”

Kevin Boatright, associate executive vice chancellor under Murguia, will lead the university relations division on an interim basis. Chancellor Robert Hemenway said KU would conduct a search for a full-time executive vice chancellor but said he had no time frame for filling the position.

Hemenway created the executive vice chancellor position in 2001 to oversee government and public relations, the KU Visitor Center, trademark licensing, Kansas Public Radio and the Audio-Reader Network.

The creation of Murguia’s position — which pays $198,472 this year — drew criticism from some students, faculty and staff, in part because it came at a time when KU was raising tuition rates at record levels.

But Hemenway said he was convinced the position was necessary for KU to consolidate all of its outreach efforts, and noted that some of the money came from unfilled positions, including that of Marlin Rein, former director of governmental relations.

Hemenway said Murguia had been a “very effective spokesperson for KU.”

“I have mixed reactions,” Hemenway said. “I’m happy for her, but sorry to lose her as part of KU. She’s a very talented, very effective person. You hate to lose someone like that. On the other hand, a KU graduate and a Kansan is being chosen to lead an important national organization.”

‘Big statement’

Murguia will become the first woman and the first Midwesterner to lead La Raza.

Jose Villarreal, La Raza board chairman, said it was especially notable that a woman would be heading a flagship organization of a culture long known for its patriarchal attributes.

“Since we are often viewed as one of the most important Latino institutions in America, this sends a big statement to a community that traditionally has been male-dominated,” Villarreal said.

After starting in humble beginnings in the Argentine community in Kansas City, Kan., Murguia received bachelor’s degrees in journalism and Spanish from KU in 1982, then received a law degree in 1985.

She worked seven years for Congressman Jim Slattery before going to work at the White House in 1994 under Bill Clinton. There, Murguia rose to the rank of deputy assistant to the president, deputy director of legislative affairs and White House liaison to Congress.

She then was deputy campaign manager and director of constituency outreach for Al Gore’s presidential campaign.

Murguia has been named one of the top 100 most influential Hispanics by Hispanic Business magazine and one of the top 100 Latinas by Hispanic magazine.

Family ties

Despite 14 years in Washington, D.C., Murguia said she didn’t miss working in the capital and enjoyed being in Kansas. All of her family members live in the Kansas City area except her twin sister, Mary Murguia, a federal judge in Arizona.

A brother, Carlos, is a federal judge in Kansas City, Kan., and another brother, Ramon, is a Kansas City attorney who once served as chairman of the board of La Raza.

“I had strong reservations (on taking the job) at first because I enjoyed being back home,” Janet Murguia said. “I would have liked to have stayed in Kansas longer.”

She said she didn’t apply for the position when it was announced this past summer. But she eventually agreed to be considered in the fall after receiving phone calls from several supporters, including New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Henry Cisneros, secretary of housing and urban development under Clinton.

Murguia said she made her decision last week.

‘More awkward’

Announcement of Murguia’s departure comes less than a week before the Kansas Legislature is set to convene. One of her chief duties has been to lead KU’s lobbying efforts in Topeka.

“It makes it a little more awkward,” Hemenway said of the upcoming session.

He said he and his other top administrators — including David Shulenburger, provost and executive vice chancellor, and Donald Hagen, executive vice chancellor for the Medical Center — will review KU’s strategy for the upcoming session, in which universities are asking for a 6 percent increase in base funding.

Also complicating the higher education issues this session is that another university lobbyist, Dick Carter of the Kansas Board of Regents, left last fall. Reggie Robinson, CEO of the regents, announced earlier this week that Kip Peterson, an aide to U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran, has been hired to fill that position.

Murguia said she was confident KU’s efforts in Topeka would be solid.

“I’m really proud to be an alum of KU,” she said. “I’ll always be promoting KU no matter where I go.”

— Journal-World wire services contributed to this report.