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When Timothy “TJ” Gomez returned to his alma mater, Morenci High School in Morenci, AZ, to teach history, he realized that many of the co-curricular activities that were available in his youth were no longer offered to students. “We had a choir, marching band, concert band, theatre, art,” said Gomez. By the time he returned, most of those programs were gone, and even the band program was dwindling. Anxious to change that, Gomez decided to form a mariachi program at the school. Not sure where to start, Gomez reached out to his cousin, Raymond Gomez, who is an adjunct professor of music and Assistant Director of Mariachi Plata de WNMU who in turn spoke with Bryant Chaffino, Music Director and Director of Mariachi Plata de WNMU. Since that time, Gomez and Chaffino have collaborated to grow the mariachi program at Morenci. Each year Chaffino and Mariachi Plata de WNMU travel to high schools, including Morenci, to work with the students. “We are always ready to go help...

After several years working with youth in residential treatment in Albuquerque, WNMU alumna Shelby Wilkie (BSW ‘16, MSW ’18) returned to Silver City looking for a change of pace. “I wanted a more peaceful environment,” she said. Wilkie began working for WNMU in August 2023 as the university’s new Mental Health Therapist. Wilkie was sold on WNMU even before her interview for the position was over. As part of the interview process, she was asked to give a presentation to students on mental health, and was surprised by the responsiveness of the students involved. Unlike previous generations, said Wilkie, today’s college students are often more willing to seek mental health assistance. “I can get behind people who want help,” she said, “and I can help them all day long. That is what I was meant to do. . . It’s incredible how brave the students here are.” Wilkie said she is interested in “dismantling that classic idea of what mental health is and what a...

Now in their second year, the WNMU graduate certificate programs in Bilingual Education and Teaching English to Students of Other Languages (TESOL) prepare teachers who already have a teaching endorsement in another area to gain endorsement in bilingual education or TESOL. The courses are taught at WNMU Deming by adjunct instructors who already have at least a master’s degree as well as an endorsement in one of the subjects, making them convenient for teachers in the Deming Public School District. “We have a good relationship with the Deming District. Most of our teachers are placed there,” said Professor Alexandra Neves, “Most of our alternative licensure teachers . . . are placed in Deming, so we already had this good relationship.” Creation of the programs was partly spurred by the ruling in the Yazzie/Martinez v. The State of New Mexico legal case, Neves indicated. The judge in that case ruled that the state was insufficiently preparing students, especially English...

A summer monsoon did not stop the WNMU community and the family of the late Pam Kuthe from dedicating a sculpture of the former WNMU professor and nurse on August 28, 2023. The bronze sculpture, titled “Nursing Is a Calling,” was commissioned by the university and created by the team of sculptors at Made in Silver City, Colette Beers, Chelsea Boone, Maurice Camacho and Michael Metcalf. Kuthe, who retired from WNMU in 2007 and passed away in 2020, was a long-time Silver City nurse, a dedicated educator and a valued colleague. WNMU Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Jack Crocker welcomed those attending the event and spoke of the qualities that nurses possess and that Kuthe embodied. Nurses practice “the best qualities of humankind,” said Crocker, “ intelligent, ethical, committed persevering.” Among the others speaking at the dedication was retired physician John Bell, who worked with Kuthe for many years at Gila Regional Medical Center and its...

The WNMU Francis McCray Gallery of Contemporary art is exhibiting a retrospective of the work of Emeritus Professor of Art Cecil Howard. The exhibit, which includes pieces spanning from 1955 to 2023, focuses on collage, assemblages, painting, sculpture and ceramics, and it will be on display until October 5, 2023. The retrospective exhibit has been in the planning stages for a long time, said Director of the McCray Gallery Jill Winburn. The idea of the retrospective exhibit came from Faye McCalmont, who was Special Assistant to the President for Cultural Affairs from 2015 to 2020. “She had a number of exhibits planned when COVID hit,” said Winburn. Those exhibits were all delayed, and the retrospective of Howard’s work is the last of a series of pandemic-delayed gallery offerings. Expressive Arts major and McCray Gallery assistant Jasper Eyrich-Bingham, who helped install the exhibit and attended the exhibit’s opening, found the exhibit inspiring. “What inspires me...

Students at the WNMU Silver City campus are likely to be well familiar with the Juan Chacón Building. Housing the Offices of the Registrar, Student Success, Admissions and Recruitment, and Academic Advising, among other offices, the building is well used by students and staff alike. While the building itself does not have the long history of many other buildings on campus, it does have its own tie to an important chapter in American history, a tie that is relevant to the university’s status as an Hispanic-Serving Institution. Dedicated on September 14, 1985, on the eve of what was then known as Hispanic Heritage Week (now Month), the newly constructed building at WNMU was named for Juan Chacón, a Chicano labor leader and social activist. Chacón is best known for his role in the 1950-1952 strike against the Empire Zinc Company in Grant County, NM, and for starring in “Salt of the Earth,” an iconic film based on the strike. The 1954 film was blacklisted at the height of...

As the Hispanic population in the United States continues to grow, the role of higher educational institutions in educating this population becomes even more important. There is no time this is more apparent than this week, September 11-17, 2023, which is Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Week. HSIs are defined as having 25% or more undergraduate Hispanic student full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollment. The percentage of FTE undergraduate Hispanic students at WNMU is 55%. The HSI designation was recognized by the United States Congress in 1992, following a push by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), an organization that advocates on behalf of Hispanic students. “In 1992, HACU led the effort to convince Congress to formally recognize campuses with high Hispanic enrollment as federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institutions and to begin targeting federal appropriations to those campuses,” wrote Felipe de Ortego y Gasca in 2015. Ortego was Scholar in...

Most people would not think that being a pastry chef and being a ceramic artist have a lot in common, but WNMU post-baccalaureate student Hugh Remar knows otherwise. After living in New York City for the past thirteen years, eight of which were spent as a pastry chef in fine dining venues, Remar decided he wanted to focus on his art practice. “Working as a pastry chef, there’s a very technical and tactile aspect to that is directly related to clay,” said Remar, “So many of the sculptural things I have been working on like wedding cake construction, working with very delicate and sensitive materials.” Now in his second year of the post-baccalaureate program in Ceramics, Remar also takes inspiration from the color and whimsy of pastry in the pieces he creates. Remar, who was an art history major as an undergraduate, explained, “Fine dessert really emerged out of 18th-century France, and I am quite influenced by the visual and material culture of that point in...