News

It is not every day that a student receives a syllabus for the semester from the University President. At least 25 students are experiencing just that this semester with President Joseph Shepard as the professor of a developmental math class. “It’s not something that I expected when I enrolled so I think it’s a good surprise that the President is teaching our class,” said freshman Alex Sarkissian. “We know he’s the President, but when we are in class he feels just like any other professor.” President Shepard decided to return to the classroom, his first time teaching a course for Western New Mexico University, since he arrived in 2011 to serve as WNMU’s 15th president.  For Shepard, teaching a course, especially a math course, is familiar territory. He has taught at both graduate and undergraduate levels in quantitative methods, public finance and business leadership at other universities. He has also taught internationally in Mexico. “I went into the world...

The Francis McCray Gallery of Contemporary Art is pleased to present a solo survey exhibition of paintings by Michael Cook titled “Michael Cook: The Notion of Landscape” featuring his work from 1981-2009. An opening reception featuring the artist and his work will take place Friday, September 12 from 4:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at McCray Gallery. Cook’s art making practice broadly explores the understanding of landscape and visual perception in a variety of media and from diverse perspectives.Throughout his work, Cook has conflated painting pictorial conventions and practice to question their distance from authentic experience. This work and other projects have explored the definition of landscape. Expanding the understanding of " landscape" beyond the literal image of geography has been at the core of his concerns by employing a method of visual semiotics. As Kathleen Stewart Howe wrote in her essay on the exhibition Veneer, “What are the conditions under which objects...

School of Nursing students facilitated the annual Well Child Check on September 2at Western New Mexico University’s Early Childhood Programs Child Development Center. Each year, students in the nursing program provide a series of screenings to the children at the Child Development Center to insure a healthy start to the year. The second year nursing students practice their skills at the center and throughout the community providing screenings at the public schools and El Grito Headstart. The check up included measurements and heart beat...

A recent push by foreign countries to send students to study abroad has helped galvanize efforts at Western New Mexico University to expand services to international students. The new Office of International Studies opened this fall semester with a purpose to facilitate registration to WNMU by international students and provide support services for these students. Currently at least 19 countries are represented by WNMU’s student population and Dr. Alexandra Neves, professor and director for the new office, hopes to see that number increase. “We want to internationalize the university,” Neves said. “If you look at all other universities in New Mexico, they have such an office and so we were falling behind in that sense.” Neves is pushing one of the university’s priorities to continue to grow partnerships with foreign institutions of higher education. Recent agreements with universities in Brazil, Mexico and Spain mark the beginning of such...

Debbie Maldonado, Director of Adult Education Services for Western New Mexico University, has been elected as the president-elect for the New Mexico Adult Education Association (NMAEA). The NMAEA board supports adult education communities throughout New Mexico. Maldonado leads the Silver City-based center, one of 26 in the state. WNMU’s Adult Education Services provides free adult learning programs to residents of Grant, Hidalgo, Luna and Sierra counties. “This is a great opportunity to connect with other adult education leaders in the state as we continue to expand services and programs that are needed in our communities,” said Maldonado. Nearly 400 community members enrolled in WNMU’s adult education programs in the 2013-2014 academic year. Those programs included technology courses and prep courses for the high school equivalency exam, formerly known as the G.E.D. As president-elect, Maldonado will work with members of NMAEA, assist in coordinating conferences,...

For the fourth consecutive year Western New Mexico University will team up with the Silver City MainStreet Project to host the Bash on Broadway on Saturday, August 16. Offering socialization for both new and returning students, the event signifies the exciting arrival of the fall semester with music, games and dancing in historic downtown Silver City. WNMU President Joseph Shepard will deliver a State of the University Address at 5:30 p.m. in the Silver City Museum outdoor patio.  After updating the community with an account of current and future happenings, Broadway Street will be closed between Bullard Street and Texas Street from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. Live music will be provided by local band Hell To Pay. Community groups and small businesses can register to have free booth space by contacting 575.538.6336 or news@wnmu.edu. The fall semester begins Monday, August...

A public forum is scheduled for Wednesday, August 13 at 5:30 p.m. for community members to give input regarding scheduled campus lighting updates. One of the university master facilities plans and sustainability goals is to explore a campus wide and complete LED lighting upgrade on the exterior of all campus buildings and parking lots. This includes replacing existing outdated, problematic and inefficient light fixtures throughout the campus exterior in efforts to positively enhance a sense of wellbeing, safety, clarity, and improve energy efficiency that will dramatically lower the university’s operating cost. WNMU is inviting members of the community to share ideas and concepts that will help maximize the goal of enabling the university to be a more night sky friendly campus to its neighbors and community. The meeting will take place in the Global Resource Center auditorium. For more information, please contact 575.538.6336 or...

This year’s Silver City Clay Festival’s Clay Archaeology Panel, Clay is Life, will once again be hosted by Western New Mexico University Museum on the WNMU campus at the Besse-Forward Global Resource Center Auditorium on Saturday, August 2 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. The 2014 Archaeology Clay Panelis designed to be a free-flowing panel discussion and audience Q&A with prominent archaeologists conducting research in the American Southwest on the many forms of clay found in archaeological sites throughout the prehistoric Southwest. The panel moderator will encourage audience members to ask questions relating to panelist’s research, current and past, and special topics. Special topics include the visibility of children in prehistory in the ceramic record; the analyses of pollen and other residues recovered from ceramics and the insights these analyses have into prehistoric cultural social networking, dynamics, and interaction when combined with other information and...