Alan’s Monday Message for June 26th
Good Monday morning, Aggies! Today is National chocolate pudding day! Last Monday, I spent most of the day meeting 1:1 with direct reports and others. In the evening, I attended NMSU’s second Juneteenth event at the Corbett outdoor stage with Chancellor Jay Gouge and Mayor Ken Miyagishima.
On Tuesday morning I visited Branson library to meet with the Library Archives and Special Collections department faculty and staff. I want to thank Dennis Daily for facilitating this meeting. Dennis gave me a walking tour of Branson’s Archives and Special Collections. I met the students who are working on the Amador National Endowment of Humanities (NEH) project to digitize the collection. I was amazed at how they can read and translate the documents. Following this, I had some 1:1 meetings with direct reports. For lunch, I attended a luncheon with our Aggie Health and Wellness program and consultants from the American College Health Association. After lunch, I met with Erika Nikolaisen to learn more about our education abroad program. Following this, I met with the Strategic System Services direct reports as a group. I shared a few updates and then drove to attend the announcement of the new baseball coach at Fulton Center. I came back to the office to attend a meeting involving the Chancellor’s Executive Team and two Deans to discuss and examine processes across the institution and how we might improve things.
On Wednesday, I spent most of the day meeting 1:1 with direct reports. I had a briefing on email security audit. This is a major risk and concern for NMSU. Please be diligence as you open email and links within as they may contain ransomware or other nefarious malware. In the afternoon, I participated in the Chancellor’s Executive Team meeting to continue our work on improving institutional processes. What I appreciate about Chancellor Gogue is he doesn’t waste time in our meetings. He is focused on the issues we need to address and then he gives us our marching orders to go to work. I have a similar philosophy regarding meetings. Most meetings that go beyond one hour usually aren’t as productive and the shorter the meeting, the better. As I surveyed Department Heads (DH) when I first arrived, I heard similar thoughts that they did not want to attend meetings just to receive information or waste time, so we are going to try our best to make DH meetings more engaging and worthwhile. Senior Associate Provost James McAteer will be organizing the monthly one-hour meetings. Based on what I have heard from Deans and DHs, it is critical for our time together to be meaningful and value-added. One of my 1:1 meeting was with Calixto Melero. Calixto is helping to create a public Provost dashboard on the key metrics I am holding myself accountable to. Fall 2022 is the baseline year and moving forward, we will be tracking these metrics. When this dashboard is ready, I will share the link in an upcoming Monday message.
Thursday was full of 1:1 meetings. In particular, one of my direct report meetings was one of my last meetings with Lourdes Alvarado-Salas. Lourdes has accepted a promotion to be the new Assistant Dean for Budget in the College of Business. Congratulations Lourdes! I will miss working with her. In our short time, Lourdes help guide me with her sound and professional advice and kept me out of budgetary trouble. I know you will do a great job for Dean Ashenbaum and the College of Business. I also met with Diana Molina-Barragan, who will be helping me with the Provost’s budget going forth. I look forward to working with Diana. At the end of the day, I attended the Art Museum’s new Summer 2023 Exhibition entitled, “Specter” by Cara Despain with Chancellor Gouge, First Lady Susie Gouge, and Regent Chair Ammu Devasthali. I want to thank Art Museum Director Marisa Sage and Department of Art Head Margaret Goehring for accompanying us around the exhibit. I highly recommend viewing the Cara Despain exhibit. Her work displays the nuclear experience in the southwest. I asked her if she had ever been to Hiroshima’s Peace Park and she had. It moved her to illustrate the nuclear era. If you ever visit Japan, I highly recommend visiting the Hiroshima Peace Park. It will impact you in untold ways and solidify why we should never use nuclear weapons again. I will be the first to admit that I am not an art connoisseur, however I suspect art is a very intimate experience and what appeals to an individual is intensively personal.
On Friday, I had a number of 1:1 meetings prior to attending a Deans only meeting with the Chancellor. Most of the day was devoted to administrative activities until the afternoon when I attended General Counsel, Roy Collins’s retirement party. I wish Roy all the best as he ventures into the next phase of his life. Following the retirement party, I attended the Hispano Chamber Gala and dinner at the Hotel Encanto with VP for EID, Linda Scholz, Honors College McNair Scholars Director, Marko Mohlenhoff, along with Assistant VP for Student Success, Tony Marin and Extension Family and Consumer Sciences Professor, Merranda Marin. It was a fun evening and nice way to end the work week.
NMSU’s Unsung Heroes
This week, I received three recipients for being NMSU Unsung Heroes.
Candace Gray (Apache Point Observatory Support Astronomer) – As Jamey Eriksen shared, Candace, who received her PhD from the NMSU Astronomy Department does a tremendous job with training the next generation of undergraduate and graduate Astronomy students for all the institutions that use the 3.5m ARC telescope at Apache Point Observatory (APO). Candace’s enthusiasm, knowledge, and teaching ability combined have led to the creation of a training program that is both technical and fun for the students. Candace works with the leader(s) of each group and plans out the nighttime observing activities as well as daytime activities; tours of all the telescopes at Apache Point Observatory and Sunspot Solar Observatory as well as sledding at White Sands National Park (which to be honest, everyone should do whenever they have a chance). The dedication and care that Candace shows about training the next generation of Astronomy students makes their trip to APO something they remember and comment on for years. Mahalo Candace for exemplifying the NMSU spirit to making learning fun and enjoyable!
Hilda Nevarez (Senior Event Planner, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences Cooperative Extension Service (CES)) – As Associate Dean and Director of CES, Jon Boren noted, Hilda is dedicated to supporting the mission of the Cooperative Extension Service. In addition to planning educational events, conferences, and other events, she serves as a primary point of contact and liaison between the office and external constituencies, dealing with wide-ranging administrative inquiries and challenges. She coordinates and oversees the day-to-day operations of the CES Director’s office, and she does it with warmth and humility. She also has been a resource for the LEADS 2025 Goal Team 3 Committee and was critical to the success of the NMSU Outreach Conference. She is exceedingly professional but brings humor and playfulness to everyday tasks. She takes on any new assignment with enthusiasm and is highly respected by the many department heads, agents, and specialists that rely on her assistance for a variety of support tasks. Hilda is a valued member of the CES team. Thank you, Hilda, for all you do for ACES CES. NMSU leadership is very proud of you!
Tribal Extension Team in the Northern District – As Northern District Director Christina Turner shared Cooperative Extension Service is proud to recognize our Tribal Extension Team. This team, under direction of Kathy Landers (Tribal Extension Coordinator) consists of five individuals that directly serve the Tribal communities throughout Northern New Mexico. The team include Charlene Carr -Southern Pueblos 4-H/Ag Agent; Michael Richins - Northern Pueblos 4-H/Ag Agent; Richard (Bud) Lopez - Navajo Ag Agent; Shellby Tacheney - Navajo 4-H Agent; and Jesse LeFevre - Jicarilla Apache 4-H/Ag Agent.
These individuals work, not only to bring extension programming to the most remote areas of NM, but to tailor those programs so that they are relevant, timely, and impactful for the people they reach. Tribal Extension is dedicated to incorporating the values and traditions of these communities as they introduce new and innovative ideas that enhance the lives of their clientele. Some of the areas that Tribal Extension focuses on include food security and sustainability, economic and community development, expanding opportunities for future ag producers, enhancement of traditional ag production, and positive youth development programs through 4-H. Tribal Extension is the face of NMSU in these communities and we are proud to carry out the ideals of Cooperative Extension Service through our work. Congratulations Tribal Extension Team! I saw your work firsthand and you do NMSU proud!
Kudos
Congratulations to Ermelinda Quintela for being elected as a Board member to the Association of College and University Policy Administrators (ACUPA). Ermelinda will start a three-year term starting July 1st.
Shout out and cheers to Astronomy Assistant Professor, Dr. Juie Shetye and Oana Vesa, Astronomy Ph.D. candidate for studying the impact of these massive storms both in the solar atmosphere and ultimately on Earth. Imagine a tornado the size of Texas. Now imagine studying 86 of those tornadoes on the surface of the sun. “It’s a relatively new field,” Shetye said. “Oana is looking at data from multiple data sets, multiple viewing angles to see if we can better understand these phenomena. This is the first study that has a statistically significant number of events. Studies in the past have had maybe 10 or 12 events. Oana has 86 events.” Previous studies have centered on data from Europe but Vesa’s research uses data from the Dunn Solar Telescope, now managed by NMSU. The solar observatory is in Sunspot, New Mexico in the Sacramento Mountains. The university also manages three other telescopes at the Apache Point Observatory a few miles away.
This week I learn that Polly Wagner (Executive Director of Environmental Health, Safety, and Risk) and Andy Bowen (Chief of NMSU Police) were selected to participate in the NACUBO Fellows program for 2023-24. Congratulations Polly and Andy!
