Alan's Monday Message for March 4th

Last week started with breakfast with the first Presidential candidate, Dr. Wayne Jones. The schedule had each candidate having breakfast with the Deans, VPs, and other leadership each day. Following Monday’s breakfast, I attended the President’s weekly executive meeting. Afterwards, I attended the open forum for the first candidate. I wanted to attend in person, because it is a very different experience when you present in front of a live audience versus on zoom. Following the forum, I had a 1:1 meeting with a direct report and after lunch, I met with another direct report to review their APR evaluation form followed by a small group meeting. For the rest of the afternoon, I reviewed more tenure and promotion cases. My goal is to complete all the tenure and promotion cases by early March at the latest. I will let all faculty candidates know by the end of March/early April of my final decision on their cases.

On Tuesday morning, I attended the breakfast for Dr. Richard Williams before attending the Justin Ballenger’s workshop (see below) in the Corbett Center. Later in the morning, I attended the 2nd candidate’s public forum before I attended Dean Enrico Pontelli’s critical dialogue on artificial intelligence at the Fulton Center (see below). In the afternoon, I had the Deans meeting followed by a 1:1 direct report and APR review meeting.

Wednesday morning started with breakfast for the 3rd candidate, Dr. John Volin. Following this I attended the Regents Student Success meeting. Afterwards, I walked to the Corbett Center to attend the Post-docs lightning talks (see below). I was really impressed by the quality of the presentations and the impact of the work our post-docs are undertaking. Afterwards, I walked to Atkinson Recital Hall to watch the open forum. Following the forum, I had an interview with a consulting firm working with NMSU’s Foundation to re-imagine our brand and better tell NMSU’s story. After lunch, I walked to Gerald Thomas to attend the Operational Learning session by Dean of Students, Ann Goodman. Following this, I returned to my office for the Provost staff weekly check-in. Afterwards, I was interviewed by a UTEP researcher on the role of a Provost in supporting the HSI/MSI designation and vision.

To start my Thursday, I had breakfast with the 4th candidate, Dr. Michael Galyean. Following this, I had my performance review with President Gogue. Afterwards, I attended the open forum before returning to the office to do my last annual performance review for one of my direct reports. I then drove to the Fulton Center to attend VPEID Linda Scholz’s critical dialogue. Afterwards, I went to pick up and escort our keynote speakers, State Demographer Robert Rhatigan and Senior Researcher Jacqueline Miller to Hardman-Jacobs Learning Center auditorium. They addressed the demographic landscape in New Mexico and fielded a number of questions. Following the talk, I took our guest speakers out to dinner at Lescombes. I encouraged the State Demographer to spread their message far and wide, and to collaborate with economic development forecasters to better inform policymakers, so they can act upon this information in a timely way to position New Mexico for the more prosperous future.

On Friday, I started the day with breakfast with the fifth and final candidate, Dr. Austin Lane. Following this, I had breakfast again with ACE VP Mushtaq Gunja, Luis Cifuentes, and James McAteer. Afterwards, I walked to Domenici Hall to attend the 3 minute thesis competition sponsored by the Graduate School. Following this I walked to the Atkinson Recital Hall to attend the open forum. I returned to the office to do some work before I drove to the Fulton Center to facilitate a critical dialogue involving UTEP’s Dr. Anne-Marie Nunez and American Council on Education’s Vice President Mushtaq Gunaj on the subject of what kind of R1 does NMSU want to be. My role was to lay out the context for R1 institutions and then facilitate the conversation. Upon returning to the office, I had a 1:1 meeting and a small group meeting. The rest of the day was devoted to reviewing tenure and promotion cases and attending to administrative duties.

To end the work week on Saturday morning, I welcomed prospective students at the Future Aggie College Camp/Hispanic Scholarship Fund in the Corbett Center. There were close to 500 plus students and their families in attendance. We were honored to have New Mexico Secretary of Education, Dr. Arsenio Romero attend and give some inspiring remarks to the audience. Following this, I walked to O’Donnell Hall to participate in the “Learn a Palooza” led by HEST with the support of a number of our colleges. It was a fantastic and energizing event. The campus was buzzing on Saturday with the 500 plus students in Corbett Center and the well over 1,000 participants at Preciado Park, O’Donnell, Rentfrow, Science Halls and the Engineering Complex. Everyone I talked to was excited to be a part of this event. My kudos go out to the College of HEST Dean Iwasaki and the entire Learn a Palooza organizing team. It must have taken great coordination, effort, and partnerships to create this awe-inspiring event.

Announcements

This month the operational learning sessions will be on Wednesdays, March 13th and 27th in Gerald Thomas Auditorium Room 194. On March 13th, ACES Dean Rolando Flores (11am to 12pm) will present information on the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences. On March 27th, CAS Associate Dean Joe Lakey and others (1pm to 2pm) will present information on course and classroom scheduling issues and how we are trying to create more classroom availability.

Associate Dean for Graduate School/International Affairs Search

The Graduate School is hiring an Associate Dean of the Graduate School and International Affairs. This role will report directly to Dean/Associate Provost Ranjit Koodali and will be at the forefront of driving excellence in the Graduate School, International Student and Scholar Services, Education Abroad, and Passport Services offices. For more information or to apply, we encourage you to visit the link above. This posting will close on March 8th at 23:55 MT and is open to regular NMSU employees only – temporary/term employees are not eligible.

Article addressing why Black and Hispanic students are more liely to drop out

Black programs Director Cecil Rose shared this recent article in Inside Higher Education with me and I thought it was worth sharing with the campus community. The three most common reasons Black and Hispanic students drop out were emotional stress and personal mental health, followed by financial issues.

Quote of the Week

“You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing things with logic. True power is restraint. If words control you that means everyone else can control you. Breathe and allow things to pass.” Warren Buffet