Posted by Greg Fant | Published May 15, 2012

Congratulations to the 2012 Distinguished AchievementProfessorship (DAP) recipients!  This professorship program was designed for full professors who have been in rank for at least seven years and who have demonstrated significant achievements at that rank.  The following 52 individuals are the members of our first cohort of DAPs.

Please watch for information about our opportunity to celebrate the success of these colleagues early in the Fall semester.  A new call for DAP nominations will also be forthcoming shortly.

Posted in News, Uncategorized

Posted by Greg Fant | Published

Established two years ago, the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (I.D.E.A) grants are designed to give members of the campus community an opportunity to develop and implement ideas that extend our mission and bring better focus to our diversity goals. Thanks to the work of Linda Lacey, William Quintana, Bob Nosbisch, and Christina Chavez Kelly, who served as our review committee, twenty-six proposals were read and evaluated. The pool of submitted proposals was very strong, showing the dedication of so many faculty and staff members to the values this grant program seeks to support. Please join me in congratulating the authors of the nine proposals that are funded for the 2012-2013 academic year.

Lisa Bond-Maupin, Hwiman Chung, Dulcinea Lara, Michele Nishiguchi, Hilda Olivas, and Don Pepion, “NMSU College of Arts & Sciences Diversity Assessment and Plan,” which will address the means for diversifying the faculty and retaining faculty, staff, and students and redesigning curricular and co-curricular programs.

Hispanic Faculty Staff Caucus (Caucus Chair, Spencer Herrera), “Adelante! Leading through the Arts,” which will educate the community and campus about the contributions of Hispanics to the Arts.

Borderlands Center for Educational Studies (submitted for BoCES by Rudolfo Chavez Chavez), “Closing the Opportunity Gap (CoG) Project,” which will build on an existing model of bringing middle school students from Hispanic and other underrepresented minority families to NMSU for campus visits.

Debra Darmata, “Interactive Theater Training and Performance,” which will improve the training of WAVE (Wellness, Alcohol, and Violence Education Program) peer educators by helping them develop interactive skills for their campus presentations.

Wendy Hamilton and J. Michael Patrick, “Waffling’ About College: A Program for Zuni High School Seniors & 2012 Graduates to Experience Harmony and Balance Through a College Introductory Program-From Pueblo to Campus,” which builds on an existing program in the Zuni community designed to excite high school students about remaining in school by engaging them in traditional Zuni agriculture.

Terry Cook, Brenda Blackburn, Cynthia Bejarano, Patricia Wojahn, Laurie Churchill, Cathilia Flores, Judith Messal, Marieka Brown, Tara Gray, David Rutledge, and Kathryn Valentine, “Fostering Success for English Language Learners,” which will assist NMSU  in addressing the English language training needs of students.

Laura Gutierrez-Spencer, “Undeclared Major (Freshman) Program,” which is a pilot program designed to offer training workshops to 20 undeclared freshmen, on majors and career opportunities including peer mentoring.

Joe Graham, “SIPI-NMSU Reunion” which is a direct recruitment strategy to enroll American Indian students who are currently at SIPI or who are SIPI alumni to become undergraduates at NMSU.

Jeanine Cook, Phil King, Randy Larry and Elissa Poel, “NMSU National Disability Awareness Week Conference,” which will educate our campus about responsibilities in working with persons with disabilities, as well as resources available to assist students, faculty and staff.

Posted in News, Uncategorized

Posted by Kimberly Altamirano | Published

We are pleased to announce that Michelle Nishiguchi is the 2011-2012 recipient. As a distinguished and internationally esteemed research scientist and an inspired teacher and mentor to students and faculty alike, Dr. Nishiguchi has become one of the most respected scholars at New Mexico State.

Dr. Nishiguichi (or Nish) joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 1999 receiving  promotions to Associate Professor in 2005 and to Professor in 2009. New Mexico State has presented her with the ideal opportunity to fulfill her lifelong ambitions to teach, mentor undergraduates and graduate students, and do original research on marine organisms as a way of understanding the evolution of disease.

Her teaching exceeds the campus’ highest standards. She has taught 17 different formal courses and seminars, one lab course, and one field course; as well as a Biochemistry course. Six of these are courses she initiated and developed. According to her students’ evaluations, her courses combine her mastery of theory and current research with dynamic classroom energy and contagious excitement. Letters by former students attest to how she inspires and guides them effectively through challenging genetic and evolutionary theory. One of the ways Nish stimulates students is by confronting them with compelling questions about life and existence. In recognition of her excellence in teaching, She was named a 2011 Education Fellow in the Life Sciences by the National Academies, the parent organization of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council.

Her fame as a graduate research mentor has spread far and wide. When prospective graduate students and postdoctoral students think of pursuing training in marine biology, Michele Nishiguchi is near the top of everyone’s lists as a prospective mentor. Since coming to NMSU she has attracted an unbroken chain of outstanding U.S. and international students who have contributed to her laboratory’s research efforts and who have received in exchange the finest possible mentoring and guidance. To date, nine M.S. students have completed their degrees under her mentorship, and most of them have gone on to pursue doctorates. Six Ph.D. students have also completed their degrees with her and are now pursuing professional careers in science. Four additional Ph.D. students are currently working with her on their degrees. She has also trained three postdoctoral fellows, two now hold positions as research scientists and one is continuing her postdoctoral training on campus. Nish takes great pride in her graduate students’ successes. They have presented their research at national and international conferences and have authored or co-authored research articles in many top-tier journals.

She has also been a prolific mentor for junior faculty in several departments, helping them navigate the shoals of research funding, journal-article preparation, as well as promotion and tenure. Particularly among women faculty members, she has become an important role model, advocate, and leader, especially in her work for the ADVANCE Program.

Nish has been one of the strongest supporters on campus of increased diversity in research. For many years she has trained and mentored undergraduates from underrepresented minority groups in her laboratory with support from her grants. In addition, she has participated in minority research-training grants from the National Institutes of Health, including the Bridges to the Baccalaureate program and the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) program. She has also received support from the Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) program to support both her undergraduates and graduate students. Nish has also trained numerous participants in the Undergraduate Research Scholars program supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and nine undergraduate Honors students have done their research and written their Honors theses in her laboratory.

Nish combines her research with her deep commitment to the students she trains in her laboratory. Together their hard work and determination have resulted in a body of unique and extremely important contributions to her discipline of microbiology and evolution. Because of these contributions, she is viewed across the world as the biologist who deciphered the mechanisms of bacterial infections in marine animal hosts. She acquired grant support for this work almost as soon as she arrived at NMSU, and she has had an unbroken series of major research grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation totaling $4.7 million with $2 million in additional grants pending. She has collaborated in obtaining additional grants for major, shared instrumentation, housed in campus core facilities across campus.

She collaborates with many national and international colleagues (recently France, Spain, India, Thailand, Australia).  Her expertise is often sought whenever there is a question regarding the evolutionary and ecological links between host organisms and bacterial populations. Indeed, Nish receives many invitations every year to be the plenary speaker at conferences and symposia throughout the world and in the U.S. (e.g. the prestigious Gordon Conferences). To date she has given 64 invited lectures and seminars, presented over 200 contributed talks at scientific conferences, 33 reviewed articles in 24 of the best journals of her field, eight book chapters and review articles, and 14 major, multi-year federal grants. All of these attest to the high quality and importance of her research, and to the high esteem in which she is held by colleagues in her field.

On campus, Nish has been a tireless participant in university, college, and departmental governance:

• leader of the Biosciences Cluster
• elected twice to both the University Research Council and the Faculty Senate
• served on 18 university and college committees. Among these are the Provost Search Committee, the Faculty Affairs Committee, the University Affairs Committee, the Arts and Sciences Dean’s Committee for Diversity, and several committees for the ADVANCE Program.
• Served as Department head and Associate Department Head

She is a member of eight professional societies and participates avidly in all of them.

• a past national chairperson
• previously served as a program officer.
• has organized seven conferences, seminars, and symposia internationally.
• has reviewed manuscripts for 35 journals,
• serves on the editorial board of two of these and as associate editor of one.
• has reviewed chapters for five textbook publishers.
• As a grant proposal reviewer, she serves seven agencies, especially the National Science Foundation on which she also serves as a member of seven separate review panels.

Nish continually accepts invitations to appear before community groups and schools as well. Every year she is invited to speak before the Generaciones Mother-Daughter Program, part of the Chicano Programs Summer Science Institute for students with disabilities. She has also spoken numerous times to the Mexican-American Engineers and Scientists, the Women’s Studies Task Force, and church and civic groups.

Campus wide recognition of this award will be part of the Fall 2012 Opening Convocation.

Posted in News

Posted by Kimberly Altamirano | Published April 18, 2012

Dear NMSU Student:

Have you received excellent academic advising from NMSU faculty or professional advising staff? If so, please acknowledge your outstanding advisor through a nomination for the “Award of Excellence in Academic Advising.” Selected candidates will be recognized at the Fall 2012 Convocation.  This award holds special meaning for advisor honorees, as they are nominated by you and your fellow students.

As you choose your nominee, please consider the goals academic advisors aspire to:

• Develop educational plans according to a student’s career interests
• Help clarify career and life goals
• Recommend appropriate courses and other educational experiences
• Interpret institutional requirements
• Enhance student awareness of educational resources
• Evaluate student progress towards goals
• Help develop decision-making skills and self-direction

Recognize your academic advisors for contributions to your success at NMSU by filling out the 2012 nomination form and emailing it to the address below by Friday, April 27, 2012:

exceladv@nmsu.edu

Or mail to:

Thank you for your time and participation!  If you have any questions please contact Kelley Hestir,
Co-Chair of the Academic Advising Council, at 646-3142 or by email: khestir@nmsu.edu.

Wendy K. Wilkins

Executive Vice President and Provost

Posted in News

Posted by Kimberly Altamirano | Published March 30, 2012

There has been a change in the date for  President’s open forums for faculty and staff, it is now set  for Monday, April 16 at 3:00 p.m. in the Corbett Center Auditorium

President’s open forums for faculty/staff and students set for April 23-24

NMSU President Barbara Couture has scheduled an open forum for faculty and staff at 3 p.m. Monday, April 23, in the Corbett Center Auditorium. All faculty and staff are invited to attend.

The president’s open forum with students will be at 1 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, also in the Corbett Center Auditorium. All students are invited to attend.

Posted in News

Posted by Greg Fant | Published March 13, 2012

International and Border Programs (IBP) at NMSU has launched a major international initiative that will open multifaceted opportunities in Costa Rica to our university.  This is the second major IBP international initiative in Latin America with broad university participation—the first being the across-college working team participation of the Mexico Champions Task Force.  A third initiative is anticipated by David Hansen, IBP Director of Latin American programs.  Based on promising initial contacts and findings of a NMSU exploratory mission, this would focus on multiple programs in Chile.  “The New Era of Excellence through Partnership” vision of President Couture is encouraging IBP to seek opportunities and to build NMSU international programs in important new directions.

The foundation for the new Costa Rica initiative is being built on cooperative activities defined in the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Center for Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education (CATIE) at its headquarters in Turrialba, Costa Rica.  An exploratory mission to CATIE was undertaken by Provost Wendy Wilkins and Study Abroad Director, Kristian Chervenock as a precursor to the MOU agreement.  The high level discussions identified a diverse set of activities of interest to both institutions.

The members of the large NMSU delegation attending the MOU signing ceremony were selected based on their experience and interests fitting closely to the priorities identified by CATIE during the exploratory mission.  The visitation program organized by Hansen emphasized one-on-one working meetings with CATIE counterparts who had been contacted by NMSU team members prior to travel – thus assuring rapid agreement on topics and the principles of cooperation.  NMSU administration officials also participated in the visit to assess possibilities and to strengthen the vitally important relationship building between institutions in support of the broad initiative.

The background of the delegation members highlights the broad array of interests presented in support of collaborative program development.  Accompanying Provost Wilkins and Hansen were:  Vice President for Research Vimal Chaitanya; Sam Fernald, Interim Director of the New Mexico Water Resource Research Institute; Jay Rodman, Senior Communications Specialist; Priscilla Bloomquist, Professor of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management (HRTM) and Faculty Senate representative; Matt Byrnes, Department Chair of Digital Imaging and Design Technology (DACC); Nirmala Khandan, Forman Endowed Chair, Department of Civil Engineering; Daren Bloomquist, HRTM and Campus Director of the Tri-National Indigenous Tourism  program; Miley Gonzalez, Interim Dean of the CATIE Graduate School and former Director of the NM Department of Agriculture; and Tom Dormody, Agriculture and Extension Education and incoming Dean of CATIE’s Graduate School.

CATIE is clearly distinguished from the other prestigious international research centers by virtue of its Graduate School.  Currently 8 masters and 1 doctoral program are offered by CATIE.  With the addition of NMSU, there are thirteen universities from the U.S. and Europe that presently have active collaborative programs with CATIE.  The IBP vision is to move beyond the more typical single lines of collaboration of these institutions.  NMSU is developing diverse array of cooperative activities supporting a deep, long term, institution-to-institution relationship.  As Provost Wilkins stated to the NMSU delegation attending the signing ceremony:  “Let’s make NMSU the ‘go to’ university for CATIE”—a desire echoed by CATIE Director General Jose Joaquin Campos in his message to the departing NMSU team.  That “go-to” possibility is greatly enhanced by the installation of Dr. Dormody as the new Dean of the Graduate School through special arrangements between NMSU and CATIE.  Dormody will also serve as the counterpart to Hansen in providing on-the-ground support to NMSU collaborative programs.

CATIE has strong historic ties to the U.S., and especially to USDA.  Its origins date to the 1940’s as a vision of then Secretary of Agriculture, Henry Wallace.  Wallace, with support of the Rockefeller Foundation, first proposed the creation of a research institute for tropical agriculture.  Soon after, the precursor of the Organization of American States founded the Inter-American Institute for Agriculture Cooperation (IICA) in Turrialba.  IICA later changed headquarters and, in 1973, its Turrialba field station became CATIE.  CATIE quickly became one of a select group of international agriculture research institutes with internationally recognized scientists supported by a broad array of global donor countries, foundations and development agencies.  Today it is responsible for two of the world’s largest germplasm collections protecting the genetic diversity found in coffee and chocolate.

The Governing Council of CATIE includes the Ministers of Agriculture of the 14 Latin American member countries of CATIE.  Through the CATIE stations and contacts in these countries, NMSU has entrée to an important network of institutions and opportunities throughout Latin America.  The tropical setting and scientific excellence offer expanded research, cooperative proposal development, and curricula opportunities to NMSU.  The accommodations at Turrialba and familiarity in hosting student groups offer exciting educational enrichment opportunities for both NMSU undergraduate and graduate students.

Posted in News

Posted by Kimberly Altamirano | Published February 24, 2012

Housing and Residential Life started Aggie Kindness to honor Emily Lein, a NMSU student who died in November. Lein was an Aggie “superfan” who showed kindness and enthusiasm to everyone she encountered.

“Emily’s death was a reminder to a lot of people that our opportunities to be kind come in many forms,” said Michelle Bernstein, Assistant Director of Residential Education and Assessment. “We wanted to give students the opportunity to spread kindness throughout NMSU and the community.”

The Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost teamed up with VP Research Office to hand out fruit on the International Mall.

Click Here to see more on Aggie Kindness Day.

Posted in News

Posted by Greg Fant | Published February 16, 2012

The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) will be implementing revised Criteria for Accreditation that are effective for all accredited institutions on January 1, 2013.  The Gamma version of the proposed revisions to the Criteria for Accreditation, including the Assumed Practices and Obligations of Affiliation, is available for review at  http://www.ncahlc.org/Information-for-Institutions/proposed-revisions-to-the-criteria-for-accreditation.html.

In addition, the Higher Learning Commission has implemented a new accreditation model, Pathways, that separates the continued accreditation process as currently carried out through PEAQ into two components: the Assurance Process and the Improvement Process.  NMSU received the following letter late last fall regarding the new process.

Posted in News

Posted by Greg Fant | Published January 10, 2012

by Kristian Chervenock

Participation in study abroad among NMSU students this past year has never been greater and we expect this trend to continue as our program and scholarship opportunities expand. Spring semester 2012 will see 113 NMSU students studying abroad in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. This is the largest cohort of Aggies abroad in the history of our program; reflecting an increase of 66% in students participating in study abroad from Spring semester 2011.

As the numbers of Aggies studying abroad continues to rise, so do our international partnerships. With the launching of three new and exciting exchange programs in South America, Europe and Asia—Peru, Denmark and China—students now have even more study abroad locations to choose from and an even wider range of multi and interdisciplinary curriculum options.

The number of international exchange students attending NMSU is also on the rise with nearly 100 students from over a dozen countries living, learning and thriving on our campus. Our Study Abroad Ambassadors continue to provide exemplary service to all visiting exchange students by preparing comfort packages given to exchange students upon arrival (sheets, towels, toiletries and kitchen supplies), arranging campus tours, providing assistance with registration and organization of local and regional field trips and activities.

Our Global Village Program, aimed at cultivating global citizenship, also continues to thrive. The Global Village is an internationally renowned model that brings international students studying at NMSU together with students from the US who have an interest in international affairs and/or travel. Many languages, cultures, majors, and backgrounds are represented in this truly diverse community.

We are proud to continue to provide financial support to students who apply to NMSU Study Abroad programs. Over 75% of our students receive some form of financial aid while abroad. In the 2010-11 academic year, five NMSU students competed successfully for Gilman Scholarships totaling over $20,000.  The Gilman Scholarship is a federally funded program supporting students who have been traditionally underrepresented in study abroad, or who choose non-traditional study abroad destinations. The 2010-11 academic year also witnessed the creation of the NMSU Study Abroad Scholarship Fund where student fee monies feed an annual scholarship fund totaling nearly $60,000. For Spring semester alone, over $22,000 will be awarded to Aggies accepted to study abroad programs.

As our campus continues to internationalize and greater numbers of faculty, staff and students become aware of the intellectually meaningful and personally transformative opportunities that a study abroad experience offers, the number of Aggies participating in study abroad will continue to grow. We are quickly approaching the national average of 3% of our student population studying abroad and it is our goal to reach 5% within the next ten years bolstering NMSU to one of the top institutions for study abroad in the country.

Posted in News

Posted by Greg Fant | Published December 7, 2011

Points to remember:

• This is a state wide, competitive program. Historically the NM Higher Education Department has selected one or two recipients from each campus.
• The program focuses on “engineering, physical or life sciences, mathematics, and other academic disciplines in which ethnic minorities and women are demonstrably underrepresented in New Mexico colleges and universities.”

Process to follow:

1. Students interested in this program, should take a blank copy of the application and visit with their academic department head.
2. Based on the advice of the academic department head, the student begins the application.
3. Since those selected are expected to return to NMSU and join the faculty, department heads should consult with departmental faculty. Faculty may wish to see the application, transcript, vita, essay, and current status of doctoral acceptance. Colleges and Departments can follow an internal process for this review.
4. After department support is secured, the department head should consult with the college dean and the complete application should be forwarded to the Dean’s office in time to meet the Feb. 15, 2012 campus review date.
5. College Deans will review applications and forward one or two for campus review, deadline is Feb. 15, 2012.
6. Our campus will select finalists to recommend to the NM Higher Education Department who will make the final selection.

Questions can be directed to Greg Fant (gfant@nmsu.edu) in the Office of the Provost.

Posted in News