Dear NMHU Community:

A shorter message this week. It’s been tremendously busy meeting faculty, staff, and students as everyone comes back to campus. Whether during professional development days, our new faculty dinner, or move-in day with students, it’s been invigorating to see how much life and energy everyone brings to campus.

Recent Highlights:

• NMHU hosted a portion of the Higher Education Department hearings on campus last week. Many thanks to Sylvia for organizing this event. The HED Secretary, Stephanie Rodriguez, toured our campus and then the NMHED committee heard presentations from universities across New Mexico about their requests for construction projects. HED has been a strong supporter of our campus infrastructure. As part of the tour, we got to see Sininger–it’s getting closer to being done and we should be able to open this building sometime later in the fall semester. It’s going to be a great building; here’s a picture of one of our new classrooms:
  
• Our first annual Staff Development Days was an enormous success last week–good conversation, good food at Buffalo Hall, and a great way for the staff to come together. Thanks to Robert Anaya and Veronica Black for spearheading that event, and I look forward to many more to come.
• The gym floor is currently being replaced at the John A. Wilson Complex. The project is taking a little longer than anticipated, but we want to thank everyone for their patience while we work out the schedule with the contractor. For now, we anticipate the gym floor section will be closed through the month of August; however, the upper courts and overall building is still open for classes.
• I went with my family to Highlands Day at New Mexico United. It was a little hot, but there was a great turnout, and it was fun to connect with our alumni down in Albuquerque.
  
• Last weekend, I had a chance to tour Star Axis. It’s quite the project—artist Charles Ross has been constructing the installation since the 1970s. Find out more about it here, https://www.staraxis.org, and there may be some opportunities for collaboration with NMHU.
• You may have seen a recent article in Inside Higher Education about food insecurity in New Mexico. It’s an important issue that we will continue to provide resources to alleviate.
• Lasty, I was impressed by how smoothly Professional Development Days went. Another big thank you to Veronica Black, Roxanne Gonzales, and the whole team at Academic Affairs. It’s quite the undertaking to bring the campus community together for something like that, and I enjoyed the chance to speak with all of you and to meet many of you during those days. I appreciate that Mayor Romero and and County Commissioner Garcia were able to attend!

  
  

Recent Steps Taken:

• Please join me in welcoming Marco Aragon to NMHU. Marco is our new Communication Specialist and officially joins the University Relations team on Monday, August 12. He’s available Monday thru Friday from8-5 p.m. and can also be contacted via email at mvaragon@nmhu.edu. Please stop by his office (3021 Mass Communications West) to introduce yourself!
• The FirstGen Forward Network announced NMHU as a new member of for 2024-2025. To be selected, NMHU displayed a demonstrated commitment ot improving experiences and advancing success for first-generation college students. See our news story for a few more details, https://www.nmhu.edu/new-mexico-highlands-university-recognized-for-commitment-to-improving-experiences-and-advancing-outcomes-for-first-generation-college-students/. Congratulations to Dr. Kim Blea and Leon Bustos for taking the lead on this!

Upcoming Events:

• We have a meet the president event, sponsored by our alumni association, in Santa Fe at Nuckolls Brewing on Thursday, August 15th, 5:00 PM.
  Be sure to attend the Athletics Fall Sports Preview this Saturday, noon, in Sanchez Stadium. Some of our fall sports are beginning within the next few weeks, including our first home soccer game on Friday, August 16th, 3:30 PM, in Sanchez Stadium.
• We’ll be hosting the magician Stephan Knight in Ilfeld auditorium at 7:00 PM on August 16th.
• Our first Presidential community forum will be on Tuesday, August 20th, in Stu Clark. Hear directly from me and meet our new coaches!
• We will be hosting comedian Ralph Barbosa on Saturday, September 28th, in Ilfeld Auditorium. Tickets go on sale today and can be purchased here, https://www.nmhu.edu/ilfeld-auditorium/tickets/. Don’t wait to get your ticket as this show is likely to sell out.

If you have an item or event you’d like to be featured here, please forward that to your relevant Vice President.

Respectfully,
Dr. Neil Woolf
President, New Mexico Highlands University