Hundreds of students and faculty from the College of Santa Fe rallied at the state capitol Feb. 10 in support of an acquisition by New Mexico Highlands University. “This is a very important time for the college,” said David Chase, chairman of the College of Santa Fe’s Board of Trustees, told hundreds of cheering students in the capitol rotunda. “We put our total endorsement behind the effort that New Mexico Highlands is making to acquire the college. We support it wholeheartedly, and we’ll work endlessly to get this done.” New Mexico Highlands President Jim Fries said an acquisition of the College of Santa Fe by the university makes sense. “New Mexico Highlands University has been Northern New Mexico’s University for 115 years,” Fries said. “And Santa Fe has long been a part of Highlands’ service area. We’re eager to embrace the arts programs that are a major component of the College of Santa Fe. “There is a great deal of historic parallelism between the two institutions,” Fries said. “Many of the Christian Brothers (who founded the College of Santa Fe) got their education through Highlands. There are many, many ties. It’s a fit.” Click image to view video