Author Archives: Linda Brown

This fall, 371 students earned degrees or certificates from Western New Mexico University, and the Mustang community celebrated their achievement through a hybrid commencement ceremony that once again allowed for the participation of both graduates on campus and those living and attending WNMU at a distance. Of the graduates who received diplomas from WNMU this fall, 206 chose to participate in this year’s fall graduation ceremony on December 8, 2023, with 141 walking across the Fine Arts Center Theatre stage and 65 participating over Zoom. WNMU awarded 78 associate degrees, 119 bachelor’s degrees, 136 master’s degrees, 49 graduate certificates, 10 undergraduate certificates and 13 fast track certificates. Additionally, 77 WNMU undergraduates across all programs graduated with honors, including members of the WNMU Honors Program. To earn the distinction, students in a graduate program must receive a 4.0 GPA, and students graduating with an undergraduate degree or...

The Western New Mexico University Board of Regents awarded emeritus designation to two retiring WNMU employees, approved new programs as part of the university’s five-year plan and heard from faculty, staff and student leadership representatives during their meeting, conducted in a hybrid manner, Thursday, December 7, 2023. With no old business to consider, the regents spent a portion of the meeting hearing updates from across campus as presented by Faculty Senate President Dr. Scott Smith, Staff Senate President Adele Springer and Associated Students of WNMU President Elizabeth Gonzales. Regent Chair Dr. Mary Hotvedt presided over the meeting from the Seminar Room located in the university’s Student Memorial Building along with Student Regent Trent Jones, with Regents Dr. Lyndon Haviland and Dal Moellenberg joining virtually and Dr. Dan Lopez not present. During his report, President Dr. Joseph Shepard informed the board of a recent article regarding the university’s...

When Kimberly Woodard (BS ’03, MAIS ‘08) began work as the WNMU Student Services Coordinator in August, she had never run a food pantry before. Now, managing the One Stop on campus is one of her essential job responsibilities. Woodard, whose background is in social work, has embraced the challenges of her new position enthusiastically. In particular, she has established, or in some cases re-established, relationships with a number of statewide and community partners. One of those partnerships is with Roadrunner Food Bank, the largest food bank in New Mexico, which currently makes deliveries to the One Stop twice a month. “In December they will be bringing a mobile food pantry to campus,” Woodward said. At this mobile event, each household served will be eligible to take home 40 pounds of food. The One Stop also partners with St. Francis Newman Center, the Gospel Mission and the Commons Center for Food Security and Sustainability. The latter has a commercial kitchen,...

The 19th WNMU Academic and Research Symposium and Career Fair was held Tuesday, Nov. 28 and Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023. The symposium, which provides a showcase for student academic and creative achievement, took place in the J. Cloyd Miller Library. Occurring in conjunction with the symposium was a career fair that brought in a number of area employers. Students had an opportunity to learn about working for the various employers and about openings available. According to Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Kate Oubre, the symposium provides students with an opportunity to become more confident public speakers. “It is an opportunity for students to practice public presentation in a different way than they do in a classroom,” said Oubre. Oubre acknowledged that presenting one’s work publicly can feel quite daunting, so the organizing committee works to ensure that the symposium brings some levity and fun. “We have a...

WNMU held a town-hall style discussion on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023 to share information and gather input regarding a new initiative on food security and sustainability. The meeting was well attended by community members, including representatives of a number of potential collaborative partners. “While I am pleased by this, I am not surprised by because of the community in which we live,” said WNMU President Joseph Shepard in his opening remarks, “We live in a community that really has a robust care for each other.” The need for solutions to food insecurity are increasingly pressing, said Dave Chandler, the Director of the Commons Center for Food Sustainability and Security, who was asked to speak at the town hall. “We are seeing unprecedented need in the classroom,” he stated. Another guest at the event, Sarita Cargas, Associate Professor of Human Rights at UNM, provided some background on how widespread food insecurity is among college students, faculty and...

Like many student organizations, the Native American Student Alliance (NASA) lost momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic. A new group of students, however, have re-chartered the organization and are already knee-deep in coordinating this year’s activities, according to NASA President and graduate student in Early Childhood Education, Rebekah Stevens (Choctaw). The signature event for the fall semester was Native American Day, held on November 15. NASA worked with dining hall staff to coordinate a lunch of traditional indigenous foods based on recipes provided by NASA students. The day also included a screening of the award-winning film “Smoke Signals.” The highlight of Native American Day was a forum on “Navigating Native American Culture Today.” The panelists for the forum included Dr. Perry James (Navajo), WNMU Adjunct Faculty; Bill Bradford, Chiricahua Apache Nation Attorney General; and Joe Saenz, Chiricahua Apache Nation President. The forum was moderated by NASA...

Brooke Rodgers started her college career in San Francisco, California, but when WNMU Head Women’s Basketball Coach Josh Pace reached out to her, she was ready to make a change. She was anxious to leave the big city, to be closer to her family in Phoenix and to find a university that would allow her to better balance her academic life with the demands of playing collegiate basketball. “I knew Coach Pace would get me to where I wanted to be as a player,” she said. The one wrinkle in her plan was not about basketball but about academics and career preparation. “I want to become a screenwriter after I graduate,” said Rodgers. At her previous university, her major was Writing for Film and TV, a program not offered at WNMU. Luckily, she was able to design her own degree program through the WNMU Interdisciplinary Studies program with concentrations in English and Psychology that will allow her to continue developing as a screenwriter. “I was always told that I was a good...

WNMU is closed for Fall Break, Nov. 20-24. Please enjoy the late fall color on...

WNMU Museum Director Danielle Romero has a chapter in the forthcoming book “Mogollon Communal Spaces and Places in the Greater American Southwest,” published by the University of Utah Press. The chapter, titled “Pipes, Palettes, and Projectile Points: Great Kiva Rituals and Ritual Paraphernalia at the Harris Site,” was coauthored with Professor Barbara Harris of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and archeologist Ashley Lauzon. Romero explains that “Our chapter focuses on specific artifacts that were found in kivas and domestic pithouses at the Harris Site, a Late Pithouse period (AD 550-1000) village in the Mimbres Valley. Using our excavation data and ethnographic information from the modern pueblos we discuss the links between ritual performance, household sponsorship, and community integration.” The chapter, and indeed the entire volume that includes it, began as a presentation for a conference that was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One...

A production team from the hit Amazon Prime TV show “The College Tour” wrapped up a week of filming on the campus of Western New Mexico University on Friday, November 10, 2023. The show was in town to film ten WNMU students telling their Mustang stories. The series introduces its audience to colleges and universities across the country. Each episode of “The College Tour” focuses on a single college or university and is hosted by Alex Boylan, who won CBS’s “The Amazing Race” at age 23 and has gone on to have a highly successful career both in front of and behind the camera. The concept for the “The College Tour” was inspired by Boylan’s niece, who, several years ago, was deciding where to attend college but could not afford to take numerous trips around the country to find the right match. “So few students . . . have the resources to travel wherever they want and check out campuses,” said Boylan. He noted that it is ideal if a student can physically...