Leadership Insights

Change is not easy, but it’s worth it (March 10, 2023)

The New Mexico State University system is experiencing a moment of transition. As a community, we have undergone a lot of change recently, and we know that more change is on the horizon for us. I invite us all to welcome this change, as it brings transformative potential. (Read more)

Learning from our complex histories during Latinx Heritage Month (Oct. 21, 2022)

Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 marked the United States’ observation of National Hispanic Heritage Month. While Hispanic Heritage Month is the official government designation, on various college campuses, the month is also referred to as Latin American Heritage Month or Latinx Heritage Month, to be gender-neutral and non-binary. The U.S. national framing of this month dates back to 1968 under President Lyndon Johnson, and began with a weeklong acknowledgment of Hispanic heritage. On Aug. 17, 1988, under President Ronald Reagan, it was enacted into law and was expanded to a monthlong recognition. (Read more)

Reflecting on my first year at NMSU (July 29, 2022)

Next week marks one year since I officially joined the New Mexico State University system as its first vice president for equity, inclusion, and diversity. As a Hispanic-serving and Minority-serving Institution, NMSU is a place filled with potential – the potential to center servingness for all of our students and to leverage the richness of experience brought to the table by both our dedicated faculty and staff and by our students themselves. (Read more)

In the wake of recent tragedies, a call for community (June 3, 2022)

Often, the start of the summer is a time for family and celebrations – a time for trips, gatherings and being together, even as COVID-19 continues to be a concern. But that summertime transition, which could have been quite joyful, has again been overshadowed by recent mass shootings – most notably in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas. (Read more)

Exploring the value of Ethnic Studies (April 14, 2022)

In recent systemwide presentations, I have shared bell hooks’ insightful words on building community, taken from her book, Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope. She said, “To build community requires vigilant awareness of the work we must continually do to undermine all the socialization that leads us to behave in ways that perpetuate domination.” Among many, one premise of her book is that teaching does not just happen in a traditional classroom, but happens in all spaces. This highlights the value of the experiences students had prior to entrusting us with their education. It begs the question, as higher education professionals (this means all of us who work for the institution, regardless of staff position or rank), what can all of us who work at NMSU do to center servingness by honoring, respecting and drawing on the lived experiences that students bring to this educational environment? (Read more)

Centering ‘servingness’ at NMSU (Feb. 25, 2022)

New Mexico State University is a Hispanic-serving and a minority-serving institution – federal designations that reflect the makeup of our student population. An HSI is defined as a nonprofit, degree-granting postsecondary institution that enrolls at least 25 percent undergraduate Latinx students. Systemwide, 64 percent of our undergraduate students are Hispanic/Latinx, and 73 percent of our undergraduate students are people of color. (Read more)