Dear colleagues, 

The reception last week for incoming President Valerio Ferme marked the beginning of a new chapter for NMSU. Let us come together to warmly welcome President Ferme and pledge our full support and cooperation as he leads our university forward. This is indeed an exciting period for all of us at NMSU.

The doctoral program in school psychology in the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology had its accreditation site visit last week. I extend my gratitude to Dr. Lisa Peterson for her coordination of this visit. The accreditation team had an excellent experience on campus, and my conversation with them was both meaningful and productive. 

Accreditation and assessment are essential to demonstrate our commitment to student learning and continuous improvement. Recognizing the importance of continuous engagement, our Office of Institutional Effectiveness developed a framework that empowers departments to document and support continuous improvement, align with institutional priorities, evaluate key performance metrics, and make data-informed decisions focused on program learning objectives. Each month emphasizes a specific area – such as program quality, student outcomes, or academic transparency – ensuring compliance with accreditation standards while fostering excellence and ongoing development. 

The framework also enables us to provide data for our annual college reports while giving departments the opportunity to address each component over the course of the year, rather than tackling everything at once. Our HLC Quality Initiative, "Aggie Insights," supports this framework by identifying and providing access to data tools that meet the needs of faculty and staff working to enhance student outcomes. 

This approach ensures that our work is meaningful, our decisions are informed, and our focus remains on helping students succeed. I encourage new department heads and faculty who have questions about our approaches to reach out to Deputy Provost James McAteer, Associate Provost Cecilia Hernandez, or our data coordinator, Sashidhar Chintalapati. Together, we remain committed to leveraging data-driven practices to continually advance our mission and foster success for every student. We are NMSU.

Lakshmi N. Reddi
Interim Provost
New Mexico State University