Dear NMSU friends, 

It is my privilege and honor to serve NMSU as provost for the next few months. One of the most rewarding aspects of the position so far has been attending staff and faculty award ceremonies, celebrating promotion and tenure achievements, and watching more than 2,500 students graduate from NMSU over the weekend. Witnessing these milestones reminded me of the profound change we live.

We transform our students’ lives. We adapt how we teach, reimagine scholarship and research, and help shape the future of our state. We create new academic programs, discover new knowledge, and modernize agriculture and industry. We believe deeply in the transformative power of higher education. We live change.

As a land-grant, Carnegie R1, HSI, and Carnegie Community Engaged university, change is what we provide. While others may aim at providing a comprehensive suite that creates impactful change across the triumvirate of teaching, research, and engagement, we just live that change. It is what we do.

Indeed, we must learn to live with change in higher education. As a force for public good, we can only move forward to address national challenges such as the demographic cliff, the decreased confidence in higher education, the reduction in both federal funding and indirect cost recovery, as well as the influence of AI, if we are prepared to look inside ourselves first and foremost. We must see those challenges as opportunities and we must be prepared for, and open to, change. Usually, there is no going back, and standing still is problematic.

However, we need to recognize that change can be hard, and confusing, and annoying. It can lead to a sense of helplessness, anxiety, and worries about extra work. And, perhaps worst of all, it carries with it the risk of failure.

From my friend Samuel Beckett, "Ever tried. Ever failed. No Matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

And we do not like failure.

Further, while we know we are part of that change every day, it can appear that we only are open to change when external disruptions hit – COVID-19, financial pressures, AI. So, while we do live change, and while we often worry about it, we also get accused of not being open to change ourselves. It is frustrating when others see us that way.

From my friend, Robbie Burns, “O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us, to see oursels as ithers see us!”

Our resistance to change, whether it be real and internalized, or externally and falsely applied to us, does seem to be a frequent condition that we see present in higher education. If so, then what is the cause? Is just fear of failure? And, if so, how we do overcome it?

Do we push back on change, do we close ranks, or do we run at it? When I was young, I distinctly remember that the Irish cow would see a change in weather coming (i.e., inevitably, it was going to rain in the next few minutes) and it would just sit down in the spot, so it would have a dry place to rest. In contrast the American bison and buffalo instinctively turn toward approaching storms to minimize their exposure time to harsh weather. Which approach should we take?

I do not presume to have the right answers to any of these questions, but I do look forward to having more conversations about change and exploring together the changes we can embrace at NMSU. It is both a privilege and an honor to do so. Because, ultimately, change is not only what we do. It is who we are.

Sincerely,

Dr. James McAteer
Acting Provost & Chief Academic Officer