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Students in Assistant Professor of Biology Eric Casler’s BIOL 2642L Plant Form, Function and Diversity Lab have an opportunity to conduct original research this semester. The assignment, said Casler, is to come up with an original experiment on seed germination. “In teams of two, they have designed their own experiment,” he said. “They challenge the seeds in different ways, and then they are going to write a scientific paper.” The level of responsibility required by the assignment is unusual for entry-level biology courses, indicated Casler. “We begin preparing for the experiment five weeks before it starts by reading and analyzing a scientific paper, after which the students submit proposals for their own experiments, meet with me individually, then revise their proposals,” he said. “We offer extra credit if the students choose to present their research at the student symposium that is held on campus at the end of each semester.” Students have developed a...

Western New Mexico University encourages all registered voters to cast their ballots. If you have not yet voted and need a ride to a Grant County polling location, Student Life is offering free rides at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM. Meet in front of the Student Memorial Center. An Election Night Watch Party will be held in Miller Library from 5:00 to 9:00...

The road that brought Edward Apodaca to higher education has been a winding one, but it has taken him to the cusp of graduating from Western New Mexico University. Apodaca plans to graduate in December with an interdisciplinary degree in Law Enforcement and Chemical Dependency. Apodaca, who is of Jicarilla Apache, Diné, and European descent, grew up in various communities in northern New Mexico, eventually settling in Las Vegas, NM. “We lived on the outskirts towards the mountains,” he said, “so I was able to hike all the way through the Pecos Wilderness. I had a really good tie with the earth.” Despite this connection to the land, Apodaca decided to uproot himself and join the Marine Corps, where he served along the Korean Demilitarized Zone. He would later understand that his time in the service gave him post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but he did not know this when he was younger. “Back then,” he explained, “PTSD was not even considered as a...

National Native American Heritage Month is observed each November to recognize the rich history and culture of Native Americans, Alaskan Natives and Native Hawaiians and to reflect on their many achievements. Western New Mexico University values the contributions of Native American individuals and celebrates the resilience and strength of Indigenous communities. WNMU remains committed to fostering an inclusive environment that honors the voices and experiences of Indigenous...

A new large-scale sculpture will greet visitors arriving to the campus of Western New Mexico University. The new sculpture, Collaboration, is the culmination of four years of design and fabrication by Professor Emeritus Michael Metcalf, who taught in the Department of Expressive Arts for three decades. Constructed of steel and stone, the sculpture consists of three arced spires, between which is suspended a five-thousand-pound boulder of local Burro Mountain granite, courtesy of the United States Forest Service. Metcalf, who retired from WNMU this year, received a sabbatical leave in 2021 to begin work on the sculpture. The sabbatical was his only compensation for the work. He also worked closely with WNMU President Joseph Shepard and the university’s Art Acquisition Committee to ensure that he had the necessary approval before launching the project. Metcalf said that the sleek look of the stainless steel is consistent with his other sculptures. “I like a minimalist...

In New Mexico, there are only enough licensed child care spots for about 50% of infants and toddlers whose parents work, according to the NM Early Childhood Education and Care Department, suggesting an urgent need to increase capacity in early childhood care and education. Western New Mexico University aspires to do its part to reduce the need by constructing a new Child Development Center using funding from this year’s General Obligation Bond 3. The need for this expansion becomes clear when one considers that in the first few years of life, over 1 million new neural connections develop every second, a pace never repeated again, according to UNICEF. Quality early childhood care and education while these neural connections are forming can impact the entire trajectory of a child’s life. One of the crucial effects of quality care and education in early childhood is that it improves children’s foundational skills and school readiness, according to Cynthia Martinez, Dean of...

Western New Mexico University Artist-in-Residence Elizabeth Gerdeman is well familiar with art residencies, having traveled as far as Armenia and Switzerland on previous residencies. Her current position at WNMU, though, is her first in the American southwest. “I knew that I wanted to do an artist’s residency in the southwest—I was looking particularly in New Mexico—but I hadn’t found that nice combination of what this residency seems to offer: to be immersed within both an academic and local community imbued in the arts and surrounded by wilderness,” she explained. The university’s location is especially important to Gerdeman because of the nature of her work. “I am driven by places that exist at the intersections of nature and culture,” she said, “where my interdisciplinary practice of painting, installation, and site-specificity continues to evolve from experiences in such varied and complex areas of the world.” Gerdeman, who holds a BFA from the...

Western New Mexico University has a lot at stake on this November’s ballot. In addition to General Obligation Bond 3, which would fund the construction of a new Early Childhood Center for infants and toddlers, the university is also invested in General Obligation Bond 2, which benefits libraries statewide. GO Bond 2 funding is designed to support supplemental library acquisitions, including books, equipment, electronic resources, collaborative library resources and information technology projects. Bond 2 would provide approximately $19 million for public libraries, school libraries, tribal libraries and academic libraries. If it passes, $6 million would go to fund academic libraries across the state, according to Samantha Johnson, the director of WNMU J. Cloyd Miller Library. A portion of that money “would be spent on library databases purchased by a statewide consortium and available to all public higher education institutions in New Mexico,” said Johnson. These...