Administrative leadership as a factor associated with the development of the University of New Mexico from an undergraduate teaching institution toward a nationally-ranked graduate research university is discussed. An ethnographic approach was employed for the institutional study, using documents from the university files and informal interviews. Factors concerning institutional development are briefly reported for the period 1967-1978. The internal modification of the organizational structure of the university, including the establishment of the Office of the Vice President for Research, is described. It is noted that such adjustments also facilitated the university's attempts to provide leadership for its research agenda and to secure external research support. The leadership activities of the Office of the Vice President for Research are also discussed with a focus on its efforts to protect faculty research interests and to secure external research support funds. Both sets of organizational development activities were associated with the university's emergence as a nationally-ranked research institution. (SW)