Dear colleagues,

Last week, Dean Yoshi Iwasaki announced his decision to step down from his role as dean to pursue his research interests. Please join me in extending our gratitude to Dean Iwasaki for his dedicated service over the past two years and in wishing him success in his new endeavors at NMSU. To ensure a smooth transition, I will work with College of Health, Education and Social Transformation faculty and staff to promptly identify an Interim dean. Following this, we will initiate the search process for a permanent dean for the College of HEST.

I am pleased to share that last week’s operational learning session on student advising and mentoring was met with considerable praise. Dr. Marissa Fowler and Dr. Tony Marin from the Office of Student Services presented on the processes and initiatives in place to help our students. Last year, the Central Advising Center managed approximately 5,106 appointments related to schedule changes, including Add/Drop/Withdraw. In response to a recommendation from the task force established earlier this year by former Provost Shoho, we are moving forward with plans to designate retention specialists. They will be housed within the colleges and will report directly to the deans. These specialists will collaborate with OSS to tailor advising services to the specific needs of their respective programs.

In addition, we will adopt a targeted recruitment approach, encouraging colleges to actively implement their own program-specific strategies and work with OSS recruiters to meet their goals. This alignment will ensure that central services are integrated with unit-specific strategies, allowing colleges to take greater ownership of their retention and recruitment goals.

Increasing system-wide enrollment is a critical priority for NMSU. And it is important to recognize that enrollment increases in our programs come from a combination of retention and recruitment efforts. Some programs are excelling in retaining students but need greater emphasis on recruiting freshmen and transfers. Conversely, other programs are seeing success in recruitment but are facing challenges with student dropouts. To address these issues, our programs need a balanced approach that integrates both recruitment and retention strategies. This requires a collaborative effort between departments, colleges, and central student services to effectively implement these strategies.

We are committed to working together to collectively pool our resources at all levels and meet the enrollment challenges. We are NMSU.

Lakshmi N. Reddi
Interim Provost
New Mexico State University