Alan's Monday Message for October 9th
Today is National Indigenous People’s Day. As NMSU strives to become a Native American Serving, Non-Tribal institution, I believe we must strengthen and foster more meaningful relationships as an institution. This is a complex and multi-faceted challenge for NMSU. I am hopeful over the next few years, we can make tangible progress. To start last Monday, I attended President’s executive and cabinet meetings. Afterwards, I had a number of 1:1 meetings followed by a meeting with the President and faculty senate leadership.
On Tuesday morning, CES Associate Dean Jon Boren and I drove to Eunice, NM to attend the Eunice High School college fair with NMSU recruiter, Stephanie Legarreta. We met with some of the students and to our surprise, a number of students were unaware of the opportunity scholarship that provides free tuition and fees to New Mexico residents. Following the Eunice High School college fair, we drove to Carlsbad and met with the Eddy County Extension office staff. Most of the staff were at the Eastern New Mexico state fair in Roswell, so we saw them the following day. We were able to tour their renovated space. Their new color scheme reflects NMSU’s crimson red and it looks awesome!
To start Wednesday, we attended the Carlsbad High School college fair and I met with the Carlsbad Superintendent Dr. Gerry Washburn. We had a very productive meeting. He is interested in seeing how we might partner to help his students catch up in critical academic areas like math and reading. As he shared COVID adversely impacted students in academic as well as social/emotional ways. After our meeting, we drove to Artesia and attended the Artesia High School college fair. Following the college fair, we drove to Roswell. We met with eastern Director Leigh Ann Mares, the Chaves and Eddy County as well as the rest of the Eastern New Mexico country extension agents, 4-H and FFA students and NMSU ACES ambassadors. We enjoyed an ice cream social with them at the Eastern New Mexico state fair. I was able to walk around enclosures where the pigs, cows, and sheep were kept. In the evening, we attended the New Mexico Military Institute’s (NMMI) college fair. We met with NMMI Superintendent Major General Jerry Grizzle. He was very enthusiastic about possibility of partnering with NMSU. We subsequently met with some of his officers and they were excited about the prospects of collaborating with NMSU on a number of fronts including recruiting more of their students into our ROTC program and partnering on certificate programs. They expressed a strong affinity towards NMSU, so we hope to capitalize on their interest to work with NMSU. When I got to back to my hotel room, I connected the relevant NMSU people to NMMI’s officers by email, so I am hopeful we can develop a strong relationship with them. This coming Wednesday, October 11th, the football game against Sam Houston State University is dedicated to Military appreciation day. I am hopeful NMMI will visit NMSU and enjoy a football game.
On Thursday morning, I popped into a zoom meeting with the HEST search committee for their Associate Dean for Research. This is their second attempt to fill this position and it is critical for this search to be successful. I shared the importance of doing proactive recruiting. In my experience, placing ads in publications like the Chronicle of Higher Education tends to have minimal impact in contrast to making personal outreach to prospective candidates. I shared with them that I thought the three most important qualities for this position are: 1) have a demonstrated record of receiving external funding, ideally from federal sources like NSF, NIH, or Department of Education; 2) be a full professor in the ideal circumstance, although a strong associate professor may be appropriate; and 3) does the applicant have a servant leadership mentality and want to help HEST faculty be successful in garnering external funding and supporting their research efforts. This last quality is probably the most important in my eyes. Afterwards, we attended the Roswell High School college fair. We left a bit early to meet with the Roswell Independent School District Superintendent, Brian Luck. We discussed ways how we might be able to work together. He recommended I talk to all the superintendents (80 in total) either via zoom or in person with Secretary of Public Education Arsenio Romero.
Based on my experiences on this road trip, I gained a heighten awareness of the importance for NMSU to be visible and present in connecting with local communities. I also gained an appreciation for the work our recruiters do at college fairs. There is an art to connecting with high school students and meeting them where they are. Stephanie Legarreta did a great job attracting students and is a great NMSU representative. While I didn’t have to walk in Stephanie’s shoes, I saw how effective she is in connecting with prospective students.
To start Friday, I played golf with Patricia McClure (DACC professor), and Richard Heath as part of a team for the DACC 50th Anniversary tournament at NMSU’s golf course. It was the first time I have played golf since moving to New Mexico, so it was nice to play NMSU’s golf course. The course is challenging, especially for a first time player. After the tournament, I drove to the office and attended a meeting about achieving the Seal of Excelencia with VP for EID Linda Scholz and Dean Enrico Pontelli. I am supportive of their efforts to make NMSU the only institution in the state to receive this recognition.
Kudos
Vice President for Research, Creativity, and Economic Development Luis Cifuentes shared this past week that NMSU preliminary research expenditures for FY23 has reached $128,120,733. Congratulations to all the Deans, Associate Deans for Research and researchers for achieving this great feat. As the graph below shows, NMSU has been on a nice upward trend for the past six years.
Quote of the Week
"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it." — Maya Angelou
