Dear NMHU Community,

A shorter message this week as we go into the holiday season. I’ll be away from campus for Thanksgiving visiting family in San Francisco, but I wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on my first semester here at Highlands.

It’s gone fast–I’m guessing that many of you feel the same way. We’ve had our challenges, certainly, but I’m impressed and grateful for the team approach to solutions with our shared governance, union, and our community partners. Over these past few months we’ve built upon our existing relationships and are working toward an even stronger University. I’m more optimistic today about our future as I’ve gotten to see and experience your commitment to Highlands and our students.

Amongst many things, we’ve kicked off a strategic planning effort, started a strategic enrollment management council, embarked on a budget audit and created an institutional budget committee, strengthened partnerships throughout the state, and even started a policy council–most exciting! We are also improving our intentionality around being a Hispanic Serving Institution and are making progress on becoming a Non Tribal, Native American Serving Institution. Thank you all for your continued efforts.

After Thanksgiving, we go right into finals, and winter break is shortly after that. We’ll be suspending our bi-weekly messages until January. Please spend this time to rest and recharge for another great semester in the coming new year!

Respectfully,

Dr. Neil Woolf
President
New Mexico Highlands University