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Learning in the Gallery: English Composition Students Follow a Long Tradition of Writing about Artwork

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From John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” to Anne Sexton’s “The Starry Night,” writers have often taken their inspiration from other works of art. This kind of writing—called ekphrasis—is at the heart of a recent assignment that Associate Professor Roberta Brown gave to students in her English composition class. Brown said the assignment was not originally one she had planned for the semester, but rather one that emerged on the opening night of the recent McCray Gallery of Contemporary Art retrospective of the art of former WNMU art professor Cecil Howard. One of Brown’s students, Brandy Lynn, was also at the opening reception, and Lynn told Brown that she wished the class could write about Howard’s art. Brown agreed that the exhibit would serve as an excellent subject for the students in her English composition class, and she quickly amended her course plans to include the new writing assignment. Ekphrasis, explained Brown, “is a form handed down to us from...
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Teacher Residency Program Provides Mentorship for New Teachers

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The WNMU School of Education is in its second year of offering a Teacher Residency program that allows students finishing their coursework to earn $35,000 for a two-semester guided apprenticeship in which they work alongside mentor educators. The program was created following the passage of House Bill 13, the Teacher Residency Act, which in 2022 established funding and guidelines for offering teacher residencies across the state. According to Assistant Professor of Secondary Education Stephanie Fanselow, who directs the program at WNMU, lawmakers created the program as a measure to grow and diversify the teaching workforce. “They want teachers who look like the kids in the classroom,” she said. What that means can vary in different parts of the state, depending on the local population, said Fanselow. The residency is a two-semester program that pairs each teacher resident with a mentor teacher who works in a New Mexican public or tribal school. Students planning to teach at...
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From Regular Patrols to Flat Tire Fixes, Campus Police Work Toward a Safe Campus

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While the Campus Police force is small, with only six staff members, they play an outsized role in keeping the WNMU campus safe. “We are a full-service police department,” said Barbara Perez, WNMU Campus Security Specialist, “We handle all the cases, whether they are an offense report or an accident report, or just general information reports, we take care of all of it.” The officers are all retired from other police forces, said Patrolman Joseph Arredondo. “We do come with a lot of experience,” he said, “Any situation that arises, it’s not new to us.” All of the officers are certified through the state of New Mexico, Arredondo added. According to Perez, the most common type of crime on campus is theft, which is also the easiest to prevent. “We try to put it out there to make sure your doors are locked,” she said. Arredondo added that when crime occurs, it is commonly because the dorm entrance doors are propped open. While the exterior doors lock...
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An Eclectic Mind: MA in Interdisciplinary Studies Grad Uses His Degree to Teach College Classes in Diverse Areas

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When Jon Weiss (MA ’21) found the Master of Arts program in Interdisciplinary Studies at Western New Mexico University, he did not just find it serendipitous. Said Weiss, “I read the description , and I thought, ‘That can’t be right. That’s too close to what I want. I must be reading something incorrectly,’ It didn’t seem possible that there was something that put together … what I was interested in doing.” What Weiss was interested in doing was getting a degree that would allow him to explore his diverse interests. Having worked for many years as a mediator in Chicago and not ready for retirement, Weiss explored work in information technologies, tutoring, and teaching high school before deciding he wanted to go to graduate school. He had already earned bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Information Technology and taken numerous science classes, and he was ready for a new challenge. After finding the MA program in Interdisciplinary Studies at WNMU,...
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Looking to the Past and Future to Reignite MEChA

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Students at WNMU will be continuing a long-lived student organization this year as they revitalize MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán). MEChA began in the 1960s as a national activist and educational organization that was fueled by the civil rights movements and especially by the Chicano Movement. Today it has over 400 loosely affiliated chapters, many of them on college campuses, including the chapter at WNMU. While the organization lost momentum on campus in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year, student leaders are determined to bring new energy to the group. MEChA President Anais Orantez, an English major with minors in Communications and Music, was recently elected to her position after serving in an interim role. She was asked to serve as Interim President by the previous president who no longer had time in his schedule to serve. While Orantez, who is in her second year at WNMU, did not see herself stepping into the role of President so soon,...
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WNMU Takes Part in the Border Archives Bazaar

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WNMU was well represented at this year’s Border Archives Bazaar, held September 23 at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces, where both the J. Cloyd Miller Library and the WNMU Museum had table-top displays of the university’s archival treasures. Hosted by the Border Regional Archives Group, the event brings together resources from more than a dozen libraries, archives, and museums of the borderlands. The library’s display was drawn from the Juan Chacón Collection, which focuses on organized labor and mining in southwest New Mexico as well as on the film “Salt of the Earth.” Librarian Andrea Jaquez said that in deciding what to feature from the library’s collection, she decided to focus on “what we are known for,” which is the Juan Chacón Collection and related materials connected to mining history and labor. Jaquez noted that it is sometimes a challenge to present the library’s rich resources in a way that is visually engaging, as at...
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Miller Library Hosts Event in Recognition of Banned Books Week

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The American Library Association’s annual Banned Books Week was observed this year with an event at WNMU J. Cloyd Miller Library. Sponsored by the library and the Humanities Department, the event drew a record crowd this year, with an estimate of ninety in attendance. Director of the Library Samantha Johnson opened the event by welcoming the audience and engaging them with questions about book banning and book challenges. WNMU Writer in Residence JJ Amaworo Wilson then spoke on the history of book bans. Mentioning both ancient and more recent history, Wilson said that “Tyrants, dictators, autocrats—they are still trying to silence writers . . . When we read, we become aware of alternative ways of thinking, alternative ways of living, alternative ways of being. When we read, we learn to understand that the world could be different.” This is precisely what those in unearned positions of power fear, said Wilson. “Tyrants, dictators and autocrats,” he said, “have to...
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Transfer Students from Sonora Get a Taste of Homecoming, WNMU-Style

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Hollywood has given moviegoers a sense of what Homecoming should be. Whether it involves Peter Parker getting grilled by his date’s villainous father while being chauffeured to the big dance in “Spiderman: Homecoming” or Wendy Wu campaigning to become Homecoming Queen in “Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior,” films give us expectations about this uniquely American phenomenon. “We saw it a lot in movies when we were growing up,” said Mariana Torres, a recent transfer student to WNMU from Universidad de Sonora, “so we had a bit of knowledge about what Homecoming was about.” For Torres, this fall’s Homecoming at WNMU was the first she has experienced in person. She said her expectations about it came primarily from one source: “Disney Channel,” she explained with a laugh. Torres’ fellow student Beatriz Olivas feels the same. “I did know about it but have never experienced it,” she said. Torres and Olivas are in the same position that two other transfer...
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Mathematics and Statistics Professor Presents at International Conference in Nepal

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Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics and Statistics Sundar Tamang presented a paper at the Third International Conference on Applications of Mathematics to Nonlinear Sciences, held this summer in Pokhara, Nepal. His paper, “The Inverse Volatility Problem for Currency Options,” which was coauthored by his former Ph.D. advisor, proposed a new computational inverse algorithm that can help better predict financial markets. Tamang’s travel to the conference was partly funded by the Department of Math and Computer Science and partly by a Faculty Development Fund Award. Tamang, who is originally from Nepal, had visited Pokhara before but still marveled at the natural beauty of the area, which features not only Himalayan peaks but also scenic lakes. Tamang said that his favorite part of the conference was “meeting with all the great mathematicians.” Because he is at the beginning of his academic career, he feels it is very important to meet other mathematicians with...
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WNMU Board of Regents Meet, Approve Revisions to the 5-Year Capital Outlay Plan

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The Western New Mexico University Board of Regents met on Thursday, September 28 on campus in Silver City and virtually. Present at the meeting were Regent Chair Mary E. Hotvedt, Regent Lyndon Haviland, Regent Dal Moellenberg and Student Regent Trent Jones. In the president’s report to the Board of Regents, WNMU President Joseph Shepard highlighted the university’s fall enrollment numbers, noting that overall enrollment had increase by approximately 6% and freshman enrollment was up 37%. The board approved the FY24 Q1 Financial Certification required by the New Mexico Higher Education Department and a revision of the 5-Year Capital Outlay & Infrastructure Projects Plan. New to the plan were a food sustainability initiative and the addition of a PE and student complex as well as eventual demolition of student housing that will be retired in the future. Also approved were a revised Capital Project Transmittal for safety and site improvements to Old James Stadium and a...
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