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Mustang Alum and Army National Guardsman Shared Intertribal Songs With Soldiers in Saddam Hussain’s Palace and With Students at WNMU A Western New Mexico University alum, Lt. Bill “Cody” Ayon, recently donated to the Smithsonian a drum he played during a Native American Appreciation celebration at Al Faw Palace in Iraq and for events held by WNMU Native American Club on campus. “That drum was the one I took to combat then brought home and used at school while I finished my degree,” he said. Now, it belongs to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Born in Deming and raised in Silver City, Lt. Ayon’s mom is Mexican and his dad is Cheyenne. The family drum he enjoyed while deployed and in school is a large pow wow drum that he learned to play as a child when his parents taught him the language and customs of his relatives. Lt. Ayon joined a Shiprock-based pow wow drumming group called Talking Spirit, and his passion for singing and playing...

The CEO of 3D printing MAKEtake Emerging Objects will present “Alternative Materials for 3D Printing in Design, Art and Architecture” at Western New Mexico University on Monday, November 12, at 6 p.m. The free talk, which is the third in WNMU’s Emerging Technologies and Creative Commerce lecture series, will take place in Parotti Hall (just northwest of the Fine Arts Center Theatre on campus). Guest lecturer Ronald Rael is an associate professor of architecture and holds the Eva Li Memorial Chair in Architecture at the University of California Berkeley, and he is also Co-founder of Emerging Objects, a 3D printing MAKEtank specializing in innovations in 3D printing architecture and building components. “I am very excited to hear Ronald Rael discuss how 3D printing can be used to produce tangible objects for architecture rather than just plastic prototypes. I believe that his expertise with making will be valuable to our community,” WNMU Expressive Arts Department Chair...

A Deming family recently opened an endowed scholarship in honor of Paul A. Feil, M.D., who was a beloved physician in Deming and continues to be involved with Luna County community. The Paul A. Feil, M.D., Scholarship, was established with the Western New Mexico University Foundation in October and benefits graduate students who work in or are natives of Deming and are enrolled at WNMU with plans to enter the medical field. Earlier this year, Dr. Feil established a WNMU scholarship in his late wife’s name. When his children decided to endow a scholarship in their father’s name, they asked whether the alumnus of University of New Mexico and Baylor University College would rather have his scholarship with another university foundation. The 96-year-old said he preferred being where his wife is — at WNMU. “Your names will forever be part of Western New Mexico University,” WNMU Foundation Executive Director Jodi Edens-Crocker told Dr. Feil at the recent scholarship signing...

The Western New Mexico University Foundation celebrated the group of 40 donors who joined the President’s Society during its inaugural year, committing to give at least $1,000 in unrestricted funds annually, with a reception, a lecture, a recognition wall reveal and an al fresco dinner on campus in August. “This is the beginning of a community we hope continues growing,” WNMU Foundation Director Jodi Edens-Crocker said. The Foundation created the President’s Society to honor those who demonstrate support of WNMU through annual unrestricted gifts. “Unrestricted donations allow the university flexibility as needs evolve,” Edens-Crocker said. Some of the inaugural President’s Society members gifted as much as $75,000 in this first year, while many of the gifts were between $5,000 and $10,000 apiece. “These amounts are good indicators of people’s desire to be part of the positive changes happening at WNMU,” Edens-Crocker said. Each inaugural President’s...

The Life Quest Scholarship in special recognition of Dr. Richard F. Rodriguez was established with the Western New Mexico University Foundation in late September. The gift to the WNMU Foundation was presented in a ceremony, which included four other community organizations that received donations from Life Quest, Inc., which closed due to loss of funding from the state and so distributed its liquid assets to area nonprofits in order to continue Life Quest’s legacy in Grant County. “It’s a lemons into lemonade day,” said Debra Frasca, former CEO of Life Quest, Inc. Funded through an initial gift of $104,000, the endowed scholarship was created by Debra Frasca and Pam Gibson on behalf of Life Quest, Inc., and its board of directors. The Life Quest Scholarship in special recognition of Dr. Richard F. Rodriguez is meant to support WNMU students pursuing careers in special education and also WNMU students who have disabilities and are majoring in any field. “A university...

The Western New Mexico University Museum in Fleming Hall will reopen to the public on Monday, October 8, 2018. It will be open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. while the transformation is being completed. The WNMU Museum’s new exhibits are being installed through this winter and next spring, so lower floor rooms will open in phases over the next few months. The WNMU Museum, which opened in 1974, will celebrate its 45th anniversary with a grand reopening black-on-white gala during CLAY Festival 2019. The date when the WNMU Museum’s collections will reopen to research, loans and tours will be determined as the transformation progresses. Home of the world’s largest collection of Mimbres artifacts, the WNMU Museum was temporarily closed while its official home, historic Fleming Hall, underwent a $3.2 million transformation funded through WNMU’s allocation from the 2016 General Obligation Bond for Higher Education. Updates on the WNMU Museum’s transformation and...

Western New Mexico University Cultural Affairs will present a retrospective exhibition by Edwina Milner at the Francis McCray Gallery of Contemporary Art. The public is invited to the opening reception on Thursday, October 4, 2018, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. The exhibit, called “Seeing it Her Way: The Artistic Journey of Edwina Hawley Milner” will remain up through Saturday, November 3, 2018. The opening coincides with the Silver City Art Association’s Annual Red Dot Weekend at the Galleries, and refreshments will be available from The Duck Stop food truck. Milner’s sustained art practice is represented in this exhibition with an array of drawings, paintings and mixed-media artworks that she created over more than 65 years. “These works embody the joy of art and art-making and also hold the life lessons of a person who always sees the glass as half full,” said Faye McCalmont, WNMU’s Special Assistant to the President for Cultural Affairs. In this exhibition, guest...

The Western New Mexico University Foundation recently awarded four scholarships to nursing students enrolled at WNMU for the 2018/2019 academic year. The scholarships were all made possible by donations from one family that has been providing scholarship support to WNMU students for 17 years. Silver City’s Martin family created the Robert and Ione Martin Scholarship, the Frank and Bernice Parrish Scholarship, the Robert and Ione Martin State Match Scholarship and the Frank and Bernice Parrish State Match Scholarship, which were awarded to WNMU students Jeffrey Arrington, Amanda Mondello, Celina Sircy and Mikaela (Morris) Turner, respectively. “It is our pleasure to give scholarships, and we are proud of all nursing students and the exceptional program offered at WNMU,” said Bob Martin, who is a longtime WNMU Foundation supporter and the owner of Western Bank in Silver City. Recipients of the WNMU Foundation’s Martin family scholarships are selected annually through...

The Western New Mexico University board of regents passed the Revised Capital Projects Transmittal for World Of Wings Café to Einstein Bros. Bagels; decided to award the WNMU president’s bonus only on his annual evaluation for 2018-19 per his current contract and forego any additional bonus outcomes; and approved a new mileage reimbursement rate and meal per diem policy for the university at their meeting on the main campus on Monday, September 17. Collective bargaining negotiations are still underway between WNMU and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, so a new agreement was not ready for approval by the board and the item was tabled. Vice President for Business Affairs Kelley Riddle presented the Revised Capital Projects Transmittal for World Of Wings Café to Einstein Bros. Bagels, which is slated to open later this year in the Brancheau P.E. Complex. The total project budget is $921,613, and WNMU’s current food service vendor, Sodexo, will be...

Western New Mexico University professor Dr. Jennifer Johnston, who studies the relationship between news coverage and mass shootings, addressed the federal commission on school safety in Washington, D.C., this summer. Dr. Johnston had the ears of U.S. Education Secretary and Commission Chair Betsy DeVos, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar II and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen while briefing the commission on her research, which points to a possible three-fold decrease in mass shootings if the media did not name shooters. “From 1950s to the year 2000, there were only about two incidents per year. Last year was a record of 30 mass shootings in 2017,” Dr. Johnston said. “In an examination of the usual suspects and potential causes of mass shootings, media contagion is the one potential cause that has a corresponding meteoric rise.” Eleven studies, including Dr. Johnston’s out of WNMU, have...