Dear NMHU Community,

The semester is off and underway and it’s been great to see all the life on campus. While we won’t know the final enrollment numbers until after census day in a few days, it’s looking like approximately 2% overall enrollment growth and 5% enrollment growth here on the Las Vegas campus with significant growth in new students. Online enrollment has also grown while we are seeing some reductions in enrollment at the centers. That’s a substantial increase to the amount of activity we’ll see all around us. 

If there’s one piece of advice I give our students, it is to get involved, and this advice applies to all of us. There are so many things happening at New Mexico Highlands University and so many different ways to engage academically, socially, and culturally. In these bi-weekly e-mails, we try to capture a small slice of our vibrant campus culture. Let’s take a few minutes this week to highlight all the different ways you could get involved.

Join a club! Last week, we held the Club Expo. Michelle Bencomo, the Director of the Center for Professional Development and Career Readiness, and her Assistant Director, Lyla Maestas, oversee the many different clubs and campus organizations we have on campus. You can find a list of clubs on our Engage platform here, https://nmhu.campuslabs.com/engage/organizations, and you can find out more information about joining or starting a club on our website at https://www.nmhu.edu/campus-clubs-and-organizations/. Clubs are a great way to meet fellow students and engage with the community. Here’s Michelle at the table during the Club Expo:

Go to a show! Along with clubs, we have a full range of Campus Life events, such as our Arts@HU series, which brings comedians, magicians, music acts, and other forms of entertainment to campus–and these are always free for NMHU students! Dan Smith, a comedian with several national TV appearances, performed in the SUB Ballroom last week:

John Pizzi, a comedian, magician, and ventriloquist, will be performing on Wednesday September 10th, in the SUB Ballroom, at 6:00 PM. Students can get their free tickets through Hometown Ticketing, at https://events.hometownticketing.com/boxoffice/nmhu, which lists a number of upcoming NMHU events and games. You can also check out the Event Calendar, https://www.nmhu.edu/events-calendar/, to know everything that is happening on campus.

Attend a game! Let’s go Cowboys! The fall season is off to a great start, with strong performances by football and cross-country. NMHU football defeated Eastern New Mexico in Portales last Saturday (8/30)–we had a good showing of NMHU supporters at the game. NMHU played a great second half behind 227 rushing yards and three touchdowns by freshmen Jeffrey Jones in a 34-28 victory over ENMU, our first win over ENMU since 2013:

In men’s cross country, Weldon Chebon placed 5th in the 5K at the Lori Fitzgerald Open down at New Mexico State. A huge shoutout to Weldon as he continues to dominate!

You can find news about NMHU athletics and the complete schedule at the athletics website: https://nmhuathletics.com/index.aspx. We have women’s volleyball, women’s soccer, cross country, and football events all throughout the week. Tomorrow (9/6) we have women’s soccer taking on ENMU at noon and the next football game is against Western New Mexico at Sanchez Stadium at 6:00 PM. Come out and join us! 

Engage academically! Your professor and all the staff at NMHU are here to support you academically as you further your studies. Academics is the heart of the university, and there are many ways to engage with your studies, whether going to one of our tutoring centers, talking with your professors, or visiting the Donnelly Library, where we have many study rooms and other resources available. 

At Highlands, we’re always trying to dream about what’s possible. While at ENMU for the game, we toured the Golden Library there. One of our big projects over the next few years is to try and fund a remodel of our own library to make it more modern, accessible, and welcoming for students. For a successful renovation, we’ll need the full engagement of our faculty, staff, and students to think about what a 21st century academic library should look like. We will also need the support of our regents and our statewide legislators. Here’s our new Provost Dann Brown before an installation of student artwork on the wall of ENMU’s library:

This weekend, a team from NMHU will be travelling to Puebla, Mexico, to work on signing an MOU with Anáhuac University, which would allow for student and faculty exchange. This will be a great opportunity for students from Mexico to visit and learn on our campus, and students from our campus to visit and learn in Puebla. Many thanks to Business Professor Dr. Luis Flores Porras for initiating this potential partnership. More details to come!

Support the Foundation! On Thursday, we launched the public phase of NMHU’s first ever comprehensive fundraising campaign, a drive to raise at least $10,000,000 to support the university and our students. We are actually close meeting our goal with approximately $9M of the $10M already raised. This Highlands Elevated event was held at the Governor’s mansion, where Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham addressed the gathering, as did Vice-President of Advancement Paul Grindstaff and me. It was a great event, and you will hear more about the campaign and the generous contributions of our donors soon:

Attend Homecoming! Hard to believe, but Quality Care Highlands Homecoming 2025 is almost here, starting on Wednesday September 17th and leading up to the game against South Dakota School of Mines on September 20th. There will be activities that whole week, including an Out of the Darkness 5K, an H Club Golf Tournament, the Cowboy Lounge, Volleyball Alumni Day, and of course the Homecoming Parade on Saturday the 20th at 10:00 AM. Check out the Foundation website for all the info, https://nmhufoundation.org/event/homecoming-september-17-20_2025.

Thank you to everyone for your support of NMHU and the many great things we do as a university! I hope to see you at one of our many events.

Respectfully,

Dr. Neil Woolf
President
New Mexico Highlands University