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Western New Mexico University President Dr. Joseph Shepard hosted a delegation of administrators from the Autonomous University of Chihuahua to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two universities, July 16, 2024. The memorandum provides a pathway for academic, scientific, and technological collaboration between the two institutions, including the opportunity for students at either university to earn dual degrees. The memorandum also provides for research projects and activities engaged in by faculty, staff, or researchers from either institution conducted at the other, and it encourages the joint development of seminars, conferences and workshops. WNMU has dozens of MOUs with international universities, corporations and countries. Other MOUs have led to a number of international students studying at WNMU, WNMU students studying abroad, faculty exchanges with international universities, and collaborative, co-hosted events on the WNMU campus. WNMU President...

The Western New Mexico University Board of Regents met on Monday, July 15, 2024, and presented their evaluation of university President Dr. Joseph Shepard for the 2024 fiscal year. They rated his performance as exceeding expectations and meeting the conditions of a retention bonus stipulated in President Shepard’s contract. Regent Vice Chair Lyndon Haviland provided an overview of the extensive review process and shared the board’s conclusions. “We were unified in our assessment of Dr. Shepard,” she said. “We collectively believe that in this time, Dr. Shepard has been extraordinary.” The board also set performance objectives for the coming year. In his report, President Shepard provided updates on a number of university events and initiatives and said that the university’s enrollment numbers for the fall semester showed an increase of approximately 70 students over the same time last year. “Our enrollment continues to track in a favorable direction,” he said....

Several WNMU students are enjoying the opportunity to study abroad this year. The university’s study abroad program offers opportunities for students to study a variety of subjects in countries such as Mexico, Costa Rica and Spain. One student who has recently returned from studying in Mexico, Solomon Lazzell, said the program he was in was challenging but rewarding. At WNMU, Lazzell is studying nursing, but at Anáhuac University Cancún, he was in a medicine program. “It was a lot more difficult because I was dropped into a program for medicine students,” he said. “That was very difficult. I had to work really hard to catch up.” Lazzell said that while the experience was challenging academically, it was enjoyable to have the opportunity to practice conversation. “I had a roommate who was from Peru, and he only spoke Spanish,” he explained, “so I was really pushing myself out of my comfort zone—trying to communicate with people that I would not otherwise be...

Western New Mexico University and Freeport-McMoRan have taken a significant step towards promoting sustainability and reducing carbon emissions by installing four electric vehicle (EV) chargers on the WNMU campus. Each charger is capable of charging two vehicles at a time. These chargers, which are free to use and available to the public, are intended to support the community in transitioning towards a more environmentally friendly transportation system. Located in the Fine Arts Center Theatre parking lot, near Ben Altamirano Field and the solar array, the EV units are Livingston Chargeport rapid chargers, offering a charging power of 50 kilowatts, according to Kevin Matthes, Assistant Vice President of Facilities and Operations at WNMU. With a total budgeted cost of $406,731, this project demonstrates the university’s commitment to investing in sustainable infrastructure for the benefit of its students, faculty, staff, and the wider community. Since the first charging session...

WNMU offices will be closed July 4-5 in observance of the national...

WNMU graduate student and College of Education Academic Advisor Juanwon Anderson-Verdell was recently invited to give the commencement speech for Centinela TK-8 School in Inglewood, CA. Anderson-Verdell graduated from the school himself, and was invited back by his former 6th-grade teacher. His former teacher felt that the speech would be a good way for Anderson-Verdell to give back to his community. “That is something I really value,” he said, “knowing the circumstances in my community and how students don’t see people like me come back.” That community, Inglewood, is part of the larger Los Angeles metropolitan area and has seen a number of social challenges over the years. “Inglewood is a high-level gang activity place with a strong police presence,” said Anderson-Verdell, “It was hard navigating that” growing up. Succeeding in that environment was especially challenging for Anderson-Verdell because he grew up without his parents as part of his life....

On Wednesday, June 26, a fleet of four trucks and a large passenger van made their way from the Western New Mexico University campus to Ruidoso and the Mescalero Apache Reservation to deliver donations to benefit those affected by the South Fork and Salt Fires. The donations were the result of a partnership with a number of area agencies and individuals, including Freeport-McMoRan, Walmart, Albertson’s, the Food Basket, the Commons Center for Food Security and Sustainability, the Silver City Gospel Mission, the families of the WNMU Early Childhood Center and the 24 Club. In addition to corporate and agency gifts, numerous Grant County individuals donated items that included nonperishable food, water, sports drinks, clothes, pet items, toiletries, and hygiene products. The South Fork and Salt Fires were first spotted on June 17 on Mescalero Apache land. As the fires approached Ruidoso, Ruidoso Downs and other population centers, approximately 8,000 people were evacuated from...

The WNMU Museum has recently acquired a new collection of Mimbres Mogollon artifacts, the Disert Ranch Collection. The collection comes from a pueblo in the Mimbres Valley on land that was owned by the Disert family from the 1970s to the 1990s. The collection was donated by members of the family. The objects in the collection were found at the Perrault site on the family’s property. In the early twentieth century, Mimbres ruins were often excavated by collectors untrained in archeological methods, and that was what happened at the Perrault site. The pueblo had been heavily looted during the 1930s, said WNMU Museum Director Danielle Romero. When the Disert family moved onto the property in the 1970s, they collected the artifacts left behind in the disturbed areas. The fact that the site had been looted is reflected in the kinds of pots that are part of the collection. “We are not seeing a lot of figurative items , because that would have been the market in the 30s,” she...

Western New Mexico University Alum Lynisha Dishta (MAT ’24) is a member of an all-women music and dance group, the Zuni Olla Maidens, which was recently awarded a highly prestigious National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts. The Zuni Olla Maidens are one of only ten individuals or groups awarded the nation’s highest honor in folk and traditional arts this year. The group was founded by Dishta’s great-grandmother, and it has remained a family affair ever since. The members of the group are Dishta’s aunts and cousins. The Zuni Olla Maidens perform social dances with water jars, or ollas, balanced on their heads. They dance in traditional regalia, including the turquoise jewelry that Zuni jewelers are known for, and they use drums, rattles and wooden rasps to accompany their songs. The group pays homage to the ancestral women of Zuni, who have traditionally been the ones to collect and carry water in ollas for their families. The pots that the...

The WNMU One Stop—a pantry providing food and other necessities free of charge to students, staff, and faculty—has opened its second location in the WNMU Mimbres Learning Center in Deming. The new branch is set up very similarly to the original One Stop on the Silver City campus, said Student Services Coordinator Kimberly Woodard. Like the Silver City location, the One Stop—Deming has a commercial refrigerator, a freezer, and shelving to hold products. Also like the main campus location, the Deming branch is available to everyone at the university—students, staff and faculty. Another similarity, said Woodward, is that “There is no limit on the number of visits or the amount of items they can take.” Woodward does expect there to be some differences in the types of products stocked at each location. “We are trying to cater more toward what Deming students are needing,” she said. “On the main campus, we have a lot of students in dorms that have very different...