Press Releases

The twelve student participants in the Western New Mexico University outdoor program’s first ever wilderness orientation returned to campus healthy and enthused Monday. Many of the freshman on the multi-day backpacking trip through the Gila Wilderness signed up to try something new and branch out. “I thought it would be a new life and wanted to start with something different and see how it went. It was great — better than I expected,” said Luis Chavez, who plans to be a wilderness orientation leader next year. Raegan Carpenter from Los Angeles County, California, said, “I’ve always wanted to do something outdoorsy so when my advisor told me about this trip, I thought, ‘That’s pretty cool.’” Over several days, the group hiked 40 miles from TJ Corral toward Woodland Park, through The Meadows, down the Middle Fork of the Gila River, and then out of the wilderness via Little Bear Canyon Trail. “I’ve been hiking and to camp but nothing as crazy as...

The Western New Mexico University Board of Regents approved the post-tenure review for Dr. Manda Jost, the Revised Five-Year Capital Outlay Projects and Institutional Capital Projects and Infrastructure Projects, and the 2018-2033 Master Plan during their telephonic meeting on Friday, August 10, 2018. Regent Chair Janice Baca-Argabright; Regent Vice Chair Dr. Carl Foster; Student Regent and Secretary/Treasurer Arlean Murillo; and Regents Dr. Dan Salzwedel and Jerry Walz were all in attendance by phone. The board unanimously approved Dr. Jost’s post-tenure review, following WNMU President Dr. Joseph Shepard’s praise on her performance in the realms of teaching, scholarship and community service. “She is eligible to continue her tenure appointment,” Dr. Shepard said. In the summer hearings, the regents added three critical projects to the university’s 5-Year Capital Outlay Projects & Institutional Capital Projects & Infrastructure Projects plan. The request for...

Western New Mexico University students will celebrate their return to school with the annual Welcome Back Bash in The Hub Plaza at the corner of 6th and Bullard streets in downtown Silver City on Friday, August 17. WNMU’s Welcome Back Bash begins at 5:30 p.m., and WNMU President Dr. Joseph Shepard will give his State of the University address first thing at Power & Light Press. The bash continues with music by DJ Aero, dancing, games and face painting until wrapping up at 8 p.m. “The beginning of the fall semester is my favorite time of year, because it means that our students are back in the community. We hold the Welcome Back Bash to give students and community members an opportunity to interact and to update everyone on WNMU’s plans and progress,” President Shepard said. Students and members of the public are encouraged to purchase dinner from the establishments in The Hub Plaza, as they will run specials and discounts for the Welcome Back Bash. Every student will...

At the conclusion of Western New Mexico University’s 25th annual basic rural economic development course last week, students presented prescriptive economic development strategies for three New Mexico communities — Doña Ana, Sierra and San Juan counties — to three of the top economic development minds in the state, who were hypothetically seeking to underwrite the implementation of these plans. Using real data, the students assessed each communities’ strengths, needs and estimated what it would take to bring the necessary number of jobs to completely wipe out unemployment and boost the economy overall in their respective communities. Their presentations are archived here. The group assigned to assess Doña Ana County wrote a jobs-focused plan to enhance and strengthen the economy over ten years. They guessed the county would need to add 14,115 jobs to sustain growth in a decade and assessed that the county will likely get a majority of those jobs from the employer...

Laurie Ware, a graduate of Western New Mexico University’s Elementary Education program, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and traveled to Central Asia with three professors and 11 other secondary teachers from New Mexico and Arizona this summer. Ware wrote an extended curriculum unit for an English Language Arts workshop that she brought back to the States and will implement in her New Mexico classroom. “I will also be creating a module to expose my students to the Kazakh language,” she said. In addition, Ware took close-up pictures of her students’ faces as well as portraits of students in the villages along the Silk Road. “Some scholars believe that the Navajo people may originate from a mountain region in Mongolia and think that many native people in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan look similar to Navajo people,” Ware said. Her goal is to have her students write narratives based on these comparisons. Her superintendent recommended she apply for the...

Western New Mexico University Assistant Professor of Philosophy & English Dr. Phillip W. Schoenberg was awarded a fellowship to attend National Endowment for the Humanities’ Summer Institute for College and University Faculty called Reviving Philosophy as a Way of Life this month. Hosted by Wesleyan University, the institute includes scholars from around the country who are interested in exploring proposals that philosophers and philosophic traditions have suggested for living well. About a quarter of those who applied were selected for this fellowship, and Dr. Schoenberg was chosen in part because of his role at New Mexico’s only public Applied Liberal Arts and Sciences university. He was hired at WNMU last fall in order to update the humanities curriculum and build a philosophy minor, which is important to WNMU as it builds an identity as a liberal arts institution. Dr. Shoenberg said the two-week summer institute is about teaching and sharing ideas to bring back to...

Western New Mexico University is one of just a couple institutions in the nation and the only university in the state offering formal outdoor behavioral health and wilderness therapy training for social workers and other helping professionals. With two outdoor behavioral health classes fully developed, WNMU is ahead of the curve in this emerging field. It will add an adventure therapy class in spring 2019, and two additional courses — Individual and Group Skills I & II — will open for enrollment soon. The classes provide students and current practitioners a foundation in outdoor behavioral health, which is defined as the prescriptive use of wilderness experiences by a licensed mental health professional. “This is a field that’s been effective for years, and it’s beginning to be considered by third party reimbursement — private insurance and Medicaid — in New Mexico,” said WNMU Assistant Professor of Social Work Eric Moore, who is instrumental in writing this...

The Western New Mexico University School of Business has recently been granted Full Reaffirmation of Accreditation under the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP). This is the third reaffirmation of the WNMU School of Business, and the accreditation runs for ten years. Associate Dean of the School of Business, Dr. Miguel Vicéns, attended the 30th Annual ACBSP conference to accept a certificate of WNMU’s accreditation and continue learning with School of Business faculty from all across the nation. “I am extremely happy to have achieved full reaffirmation of our accreditation. The ACBSP assures the quality of our degrees, as well as the international recognition of quality in our programs. As part of this reaffirmation, the School of Business has established a five-year strategic plan, a marketing plan, and an assessment plan to ensure continuity of quality programs,” Dr. Vicéns said. The ACBSP Baccalaureate/Graduate Degree Board of...

Western New Mexico University professor of sociology and Co-Director of the Center for Gender Equity and Social Justice, Dr. Emma Bailey, is currently a Fulbright Scholar and worked in Xalapa Veracruz, Mexico, for the spring 2018 semester. She formally taught two courses this past semester — U.S. Interventions in Central America and U.S. Cultural Regional Differences — and is teaching U.S. Latinos, a short course, in June. Dr. Bailey also gives presentations at the Universidad Veracruzana. Her speaking topics include “Donald Trump’s First Year of Government,” “Gender in Intercultural Communication” and “Being Feminist in the United States.” Dr. Bailey also participates in the International Relations Program and North American Studies at the university. International partnerships remain at the core of the Fulbright mission, and Dr. Bailey has worked with alongside Mexican students and faculty, not to mention the other Fulbright Scholars in Mexico. “I have...

In order to continue the progress being made on the campus underground utilities and College Avenue beautification project, College Avenue will be closed to all traffic just west of the Cooper Street intersection and just east of the D Street intersection. The closure begins Monday, June 11, and will remain in effect through the duration of the project. Traffic will be rerouted on 8th Street via Cooper Street (southbound) and Bayard Street (northbound) and via D Street, however the public should avoid the area while the project is underway. Access to the Student Memorial Building/Brancheau PE Complex/Light Hall/Castorena Hall/Felipe de Ortego y Gasca Cultural Center parking lot will be available through the west entrance, as the east entrance will remain closed until the project’s completion as well. The normally one-way exit will function as a two-way entrance and exit, so courtesy and caution should be exercised. During this road closure, the sidewalk is also closed to...