Dear NMHU Community,

We’ve had some beautiful weather here in February as we move towards midterms and Spring Break. I know all the students and faculty are working hard to get ready for next week, and it’s hard to believe that we’re at the halfway point of the semester. Next week, I’ll be heading to Washington, D.C., with Vice-Presidents Dave Lepre and Paul Grindstaff, to meet with our federal delegation and to continue our federal lobbying. After that, I’ll be taking some time with my family, so we’ll skip the biweekly message during Spring Break, which begins in two weeks.

On Friday, we had a Board of Regents meeting. Regents Grace Herrera and Elaine Luna were sworn in before the meeting. Regent Herrera begins a one-year term as the student regent, and Regent Luna begins a six-year term.

At the meeting, the Board passed several action items, including the renaming of the Staff Advisory Senate to the Staff Senate and approval of three new or modified degree programs (the Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, the Dual Master’s Degree Program in General Psychology and Criminology, and revisions to the Computer Science and Innovation MA/MS). Since 2017, we have been working to refinance the bond that covers several campus projects, and we finally completed that refinance at this meeting, saving the university several hundred thousand dollars over the next decade.

The Board also approved the renaming of three buildings, with more details here, https://www.nmhu.edu/nmhu-renames-wilson-complex/. The Wilson Complex is now the Wilson Center, and, based on the generosity of our donors through the Foundation, Sininger Hall has been renamed Quintana Hall, and the basketball locker room has been renamed the  Larry “Sal” Nunez Men’s Basketball Locker Room.

Men’s basketball has qualified for the RMAC playoffs, for the first time since 2021-2022! The team will be on the road in the first round, with their opponent and location still TBD, but we should know this weekend. The women’s team is still in the mix, pending the results of this week’s games. Stay tuned, and Go Cowboys!

Some Recent Highlights:

There was a great turnout at the library for a talk by Adelita M. Medina and Dr. Myrriah Gómez, about Chicana Activism in Las Vegas, NM, during the 1960s and 1970s. The talk was put on in conjunction with an article about art and activism at NMHU in El Palacio magazine, https://elpalacio.org/2025/12/art-and-activism-at-highlands-university/. That’s a great read about the history of NMHU. Our very own Emily Withnall, who used to work for University Relations under Sean Weaver, is the current editor of El Palacio, so it’s great to see Highlands highlighted by this publication from the Department of Cultural Affairs. As you can see, the third floor of the library was packed.

Upcoming Events:

The Science Fair is this Saturday. Drop by and support all the students from local middle schools and high schools as they compete. Things kick off with an opening reception in Kennedy at 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m., where Science Fair students, families, and friends are invited to enjoy hot cocoa and cookies while taking in 1900: the Awakening, a print show currently on view in the gallery. Stop by, warm up, and celebrate creativity and discovery!

Congratulations:

Congratulations to Dr. Steven Karpowicz, Associate Professor of Chemistry, who published an article in the peer-reviewed journal Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - General Subjects, entitled: "Thiotaurine is a sulfane sulfur donor to the biological thiols glutathione and cysteine."  https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1mbqn15Dr%7EvM0O

This manuscript describes antioxidant-related chemistry, which had been suspected, but never directly observed until now. Supported by an NM-INBRE grant awarded to Dr. Karpowicz, the research was conducted entirely on-campus using instruments and facilities in the Hilton Science Building.

If you have any congratulations you’d like to share, please let your VP know, and they can forward the information for inclusion in the biweekly message.

Respectfully,

Dr. Neil Woolf
President
New Mexico Highlands University