Alan Shoho, Provost and Chief Academic Officer Alan's Monday Message for May 15 | New Mexico State University - BE BOLD. Shape the Future.
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Alan's Monday Message for May 15

Alan’s Monday Message for May 15th  

Good Monday morning Aggies! Throughout this past week I had a number of 1:1 meetings. To start the week, I had a meeting about dashboards and then a meeting with the Provost Council on African American Affairs. In the afternoon, I attended the Policy Steering committee meeting. To close Monday, I attended a Chancellor’s meeting on risk assessment with Ken Glascock.  

On Tuesday, I met with the NMSU Tribal education program with Dean Yoshi Iwasaki. Next, I met with the faculty senate leadership. For rest of the day, I worked on administrative tasks before driving to the Pecan Grill to mingle with the College of Arts and Sciences Department Heads and Dean’s leadership team and staff at their end of the semester celebration.  

To start Wednesday, Chancellor Gogue and I met with the Department of Public Health faculty. I want to thank interim Department Head, Teresa Keller for facilitating this meeting. In the afternoon, Chancellor Gogue and I met with the communications studies department followed by a zoom meeting with the Academic Search consultants to discuss the Graduate School Dean’s search. We are in the process of doing off list reference checking. We hope to offer and finalize a deal with a new Graduate School Dean in the near future. Next, I attended the Chancellor’s Executive team meeting. To end my day, I attended the Hispanic Faculty and Staff Caucus Stole ceremony for their students. It was a nice event at the Center of the Arts. Afterwards, I walked downstairs to attend part of the Department of Theatre Arts end of the year awards. The theatre arts students are very creative and they display a great sense of collegiality and teamwork.  

On Thursday morning, I attended the NMSU Board of Regents meeting. I brought forth an action item for the Regents to certify our Spring 2023 graduates from NMSU-Las Cruces, Dona Ana Community College, NMSU-Alamogordo, NMSU-Grants, and NMSU-Carlsbad. In total, we had 1432 undergraduates, 544 graduates, and 745 associate degree/certificate recipients. In the early afternoon, I went to the Pan Am Center to do a practice run for the upcoming graduation ceremonies. Next, I went to the Villanueva Victory Club to attend the Teaching Academy Gala. The Gala was well-organized and I give kudos to Tara Gray and her team for putting on a classy event. After the Gala, I drove to the School of Teacher Preparation, Administration, and Leadership (TPAL) end of the year celebration at the Amaro Winery Patio. I want to thank Rick Marlett for inviting me. It was a nice way to end the day and relax.  

Friday started with the NMSU Alumni Association’s Outstanding Graduates Awards Luncheon and Ceremony in Trader’s Plaza. It was so inspiring to learn about the seven awardees. They exemplify the best of NMSU’s graduates for Spring 2023. At 3pm, I went to the Pan Am Center to participate in the reception for this year’s Honorary Doctoral recipient, former State Senator Mary Kay Papen. Following this, I participated in the Graduate Commencement Ceremony in the evening. It was so exciting to see our graduate students receive their graduate degrees. It brought back a lot of good memories from long ago for me.  

On Saturday, I emceed the morning and afternoon graduation ceremonies. One of the highlights happened at the morning ceremony when we had 4 – five year Head Start kids lead the audience in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. As I shared, these students represent the class of 2040. In the morning, the undergraduates from College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. College of Business, and College of Health, Education, and Social Transformation walked the stage. In the afternoon, the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering celebrated their graduates. It was a great day for everyone there. This is why it is such an honor and privilege to be in higher education. Graduation brings it all together and illustrates how we make a difference to help people achieve their dreams. I want to thank Gabrielle Martinez and her team for organizing the Spring 2023 graduation ceremonies. In the future, I would like to see more faculty participation at graduation, because it means so much to our students when they see the people who supported them through their journeys to achieve their academic degrees.  

New Process for Requesting Funding 

Starting from this date going forward, any request for funding to the Provost office must go through the appropriate chain of responsibility. Hence, it must go through the Department Head to their Dean prior to being submitted to the Provost’s office for consideration. I highly recommend each college set up an internal process to review and prioritize funding requests prior to submission to the Provost’s office. 

NMSU’s Unsung Heroes 

This week, I received three recipients for being NMSU Unsung Heroes.   

Janie Wagoner (Student Program Coordinator Senior) – College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) Associate Dean, Donald Connor noted Janie is an essential team member in the College of ACES Academic Programs Office. ACES students and faculty are very fortunate to have Janie in their corner. She consistently provides excellent customer service to all who come to our office seeking help. Janie is an astute and effective problem solver, and she serves our students and faculty with a calm, steady and professional demeanor, regardless of the nature of the issue. She is highly respected throughout ACES and throughout the campus. Janie truly has the best interest of our students in heart and plays a key role in helping them achieve their goals. 

Dr. Susana Ibarra Johnson (Assistant professor, Bilingual Education and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), School of TPAL (Teacher Preparation, Administration, and Leadership), College of HEST (Health, Education, and Social Transformation). As Dean Yoshi Iwasaki noted, Susana has consistently demonstrated her commitment to improving the education of bilingual and multilingual students throughout New Mexico, which is deeply rooted in her personal experience as a bilingual learner and teacher. Her expertise in this area is invaluable to her students and colleagues alike. Her students have consistently rated her as one of our top instructors. Recently, she was honored with the Patricia Christmore Faculty Teaching Award, a testament to her dedication to and excellence in teaching. Not only has Susana excelled in her academic and scholarly pursuits, but she has also demonstrated exceptional leadership. She has stepped up to fill leadership roles as the Bilingual Education & TESOL Program Coordinator and taken to serve the Chair of the HEST Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Council. Dr. Susana Ibarra Johnson's passion for bilingual education, dedication to research, and leadership make her an invaluable asset to our college and university and our broader community. Thank you Susana for your passion to improve bilingual education.  

Gena Barela (Executive Assistant in Strategic System Services) As Vice Chancellor Ruth Johnston shared, Gena works tirelessly in the Chancellor’s office suite to help anyone within the office or visitors to it. Her smile, positive attitude, and can-do approach to problem solving makes her a star. Gena works quietly behind the scenes, and likely knows more about how NMSU works than almost anyone else. She’s a devout learner, having recently finished her Bachelor’s degree, project management certificate through NMSU Global, recent lean and liberating structures classes, and now in the 2023 ALTA cohort (developing leaders at NMSU). She also won the Roberts Memorial Award for outstanding service. Her supervisor, Ruth Johnston, and colleagues say they couldn’t live without Gena; she’s the glue that holds us all together. And as a new Provost needing assistance in navigating NMSU, I couldn’t agree more. Thank you, Gena! Your infectious smile is always a welcome sight!  

Kudos 

I want to give a shout out to the 1,976 graduates from the spring 2023 ceremony. We had 1,432 undergraduate and 544 graduate students receive their bachelor’s, master’s, specialist, or doctoral degree this past Friday and Saturday. There were also 745 graduates at Alamogordo, Dona Ana, Grants, and Carlsbad community colleges on Thursday and Friday. Congratulations to all our students and I want to thank the academic leaders, faculty, and staff for supporting and helping our students cross their academic finish line. This is why we are here. I was so proud of all the graduates who walked the stage this past weekend.  

A small team of students at New Mexico State University’s College of Business (COB) is making a big impact with an article that was recently published by the National Alliance for Insurance Education and Research. The paper is entitled “School Districts Targeted for Cyber Attacks: Is Yours Prepared?” and spotlights the Las Cruces Public Schools ransomware attack in 2019. It was written as a partial fulfillment of a class on Insurance and the Law at NMSU’s College of Business taught by Dwight Kealy, college professor of business law and insurance attorney. Congratulations COB students on addressing a timely issue that any organization including New Mexico State University needs to be vigilant to prevent.  

Leadership Transition  

Dean Enrico Pontelli shared with me the following news. After many years of dedicated and exceptional service, Dr. Rani Alexander, Department Head of Anthropology, will be retiring from NMSU. We would like to express our sincere gratitude for the hard work and for her commitment to our students and our institution. Dean Pontelli shared he is pleased to announce that Dr. Lois Stanford will assume the role of Department Head of Anthropology effective July 1st. Dr. Stanford is an exceptional teacher and scholar and she has already demonstrated outstanding leadership skills. We are looking forward working with Dr. Stanford in her new role. Please help me welcoming Dr. Stanford in her new position.  

Community Engagement through Op-Ed 

I want to encourage our faculty to write community op-ed pieces (usually less than 500 words) about their research or activities they are undertaking to improve our communities. This is a special type of writing where faculty translate their impactful research into layman’s terms. I have seen the power of this type of community engagement at other institutions. In particular, UT-Austin does a tremendous job of promoting the work of their faculty statewide in the Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, San Antonio Express-News, El Paso Times, as well as national outlets. If you are interested in pursuing this avenue, please work with Justin Bannister, and he and/or his staff will be able to guide and support you. This is a great way for our faculty to share the great work being done at NMSU.  

New Development 

I am pleased to announce the formation – per ARP 11.01 - of a university institute, the STEM + Education Research Institute. The Institute builds on (i) the Gadsden Math Initiative with the Gadsden Independent School District started over 17 years ago, (ii) last May’s Pete’s Patio brainstorming session on benefits and opportunities for creation of a university-level STEM education research center, and (iii) this academic year’s cluster hire in STEM/STEM+ education research. I want to thank the many who helped bring about this transformative research institute, particularly Drs. Wanda Bulger-Tamez (HEST), Michèle Shuster (A&S), and Patricia Sullivan (ENG) who will assist the Office of Research, Creativity and Strategic Initiatives with getting it off the ground.