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Category: Front Page News Front Page News
Published: 14 August 2017 14 August 2017

Photos and article by Mary Alice Murphy

Prior to the student-centered festivities of the 2017 Western New Mexico University Welcome Back Bash, WNMU President Joseph Shepard gave a state of the university presentation.

He rhetorically asked the audience gathered inside at Syzygy Tile how many people thought he would stay this long.

"I love it here," Shepard answered his own question. "I'm now working on my seventh year here. I'm here to talk about Western and what's happening here and in New Mexico and in higher education."

He said more than 11 million jobs have been created since 2008, and only 80,000 were for a high school level degree or less. He said that welders, or plumbers or electricians could make good money, but "an associate's degree or above is still very important."

"A good university is culturally sensitive," Shepard said. "It must engage the community."

He recognized Faye McCalmont, who organizes events, lectures and concerts for Western. "She did a phenomenal job of creating Fiesta Latina, as well as the lecture and concert series."

"A university is more than teaching algebra," Shepard said. "The question for Western is our relevancy. Many universities will go away because higher education is going to online courses and the economy will force it. Our enrollment is fairly stable, around 3,500. This year we are a couple of hundred lower, but classes start on Monday and we'll see how we're doing. Online courses are caused by the disruption of tech. The question for Western is our relevancy. Who are we and where are we going?"

He said universities in New Mexico are not fortunate because in the past 12 months, the state has cut higher education funding by 9 percent. "In 2012 we brought in new revenue streams and cut expenses by $5 million. We had to build our reserves to protect faculty, staff, jobs, the university and the students. We had to lay off a couple of departments, but not huge layoffs like they've seen at New Mexico State and the University of New Mexico. We did things proactively, so we are financially healthy. We made a commitment, in 2012, to, within five years, have $5 million in reserves. We missed it by a year. We have $6 million in reserves now. We have enough to make sure we can deal with more cuts. It takes a process of about 1½ years to shift money to recurring costs. We have to think like a business. Our business is about the public good."

He said one would assume that it would require cutting programs. "This university once cut the music program. We have it back. The Mariachi group, all in purple, won first in competition in Albuquerque. That branding gets attention."

"You never know where you might find a donor," Shepard said. "I send out poinsettias to people over the holidays. One Friday, the mail had come in and I got a certified letter. Like everyone, I thought which law firm is this from. I opened it and it said: 'Please accept this cashier's check for $75,000.' She felt like she belonged to the university, because every Christmas for four years, she got a poinsettia."

The president noted that it does take an investment. "The Fiesta Latina cost money, but it brought a strong sense of engagement with the community."

He said that although the state budget looks stable for next year, higher education still received a 1 percent cut.

It relates to the state's economy. "Did you know that 45 percent of New Mexicans are on Medicaid? The two largest businesses in New Mexico, the Los Alamos and Sandia National labs are federal. What happens at the federal level overly affects New Mexico."

Arizona and New Mexico became states the same year, with both in mining and agriculture. "But one diversified its economy. New Mexico relies on the ebbs and flows of mining and oil and gas. Our reserves are down to nothing at the state level."

He brought up tuition, even though some protest that Western does not have the lowest rates. "Our tuition for 30 credits a year is $6,200. The average nationally is $9,400. We have students online from New York. Our out-of-state tuition is cheaper than their instate tuition. For education, New Mexico allocates 12.1 percent of its budget, although it used to be 15 percent. With our fees and tuition, plus what we receive from the state, it's about $15,000 per student per year, which is about right. If the state cuts more, then we have to raise tuition. It's $11,500 instate at the University of Arizona."

"College algebra is the same material at Western, as at the University of Arizona or at Harvard." Shepard said. "We are looking for a finance professor. For a fresh out of graduate school with a Ph.D., the market value is $145,000. The reality is that we are lucky to pay here $90,000 or maybe $100,000. We need to do a better job of paying our faculty and staff. We have to find more recurring revenues. We are doing a good job at the assistant professor level, but we may find the assistant professors making more than the full professors who have been here for many years. This is the same problem at other New Mexico institutions. We will have a conversation about this at the next legislative session."

He said universities are economic drivers. "We build things. We built the fitness center, fixed Light Hall and created the Gardens. We have been fortunate to get our fair share of GO (general obligation) bonds. I would like to thank Grant County residents for their support by voting for the GO bonds."

"I would also like to thank the city, who partners with us," Shepard said. "The city had to replace water lines on College Avenue. They will repave the street from Black alongside the university. You have money; we have money. Let's work together. We will help drop the electrical lines underground and put up nice lights to make it pedestrian friendly. We will have more gardens for curb appeal."

The renovations at the university museum will be complete next year, but, according to Museum Director Cynthia Bettison, it will take a year to get the exhibits back in place, so it should open to the public again by fall 2019. The sciences building, Harlan Hall, is also under renovation construction, with a new building being readied for storing chemicals. "It's best practice to keep them away from the building. We will also create another garden space between the museum and Harlan. We believe in conversation spaces."

Shepard said that at the last legislative session, Western was designated a Public Applied Liberal Arts and Sciences university. "A graduate may know how to solve a math problems, but does he have communication and complex thinking skills? We think they form an important skill set. We need a degree in what it means to be human, to be creative in our thinking."

He said the U.S. is ranked 28th in education, with China at the top. "But, in China, only the top 1 percent of the population gets to go to university. If, in the U.S., our education is so bad, why do the Chinese send their best and brightest to get an education here. It's because we teach creative thought. We, as a society, are made greater by allowing us the freedom to say what we want to."

Shepard said an applied liberal arts and sciences degree would allow a graduate to go design the next iPad. "We are the only one in New Mexico. Fort Lewis is the designated one in Colorado."

"We are looking at our identity, not for today, but for 20 years from now," Shepard said. "Rural education. Do you know how hard it is to recruit teachers to go to Reserve, Glenwood or even Silver City or Cobre? It's tough. Arizona is taking our teachers by offering a premium in salary.

"We also need to support Gila Regional Medical Center," he said. "If it goes away, many of you of the gray heads I see in the audience will leave. We all want good quality care. We have to figure out a way for our rural teachers to stay here and to develop telemedicine to keep health care here."

He said the university is also pursuing the international piece to develop more revenue streams. "We are going to Mexico to get them to come here where we can teach them English. They pay us. I was in Mexico last week. They are beautiful people. We share the same culture."

Shepard said he wasn't going to get caught up in immigration issues. "The better educated we are on both sides of the border, the better off we all are. There are 300 million people from the border to the tip of South America who speak Spanish, leaving out Brazil, where they speak Portuguese."

"When I came here in 2011," Shepard said, "we weren't interacting with the Gila National Forest and Wilderness. We have 3 million acres, and now our students interact with the Gila Wilderness. They go camping. I've seen the difference in students after one night spent in the wilderness. A student who comes here from Los Angeles or Phoenix has never seen the Milky Way."

On the topic of sports, he said everyone thinks about football, "and we have some really good football players, but we also have nine other sports. We have the lowest budget for athletics in the Lone Star Conference. We have half as many scholarships as Eastern New Mexico University has, because we have fewer students and fewer fees. My philosophy about athletics is that for the most part it's warped. I want to focus on the GPA, retention and graduation rate, making the athletes good students. I'd rather we were 4-6, but had great student athletes out mowing your lawn than be 8-2 and have a bunch of thugs. We're student athletes and some great ones."

"Your involvement at the university is critical," Shepard said. "Go to the football games, go to the lectures. We are inviting you to become a part of us because we want to be part of you."

He opened it to questions.

A man said the cost of living was lower here and so paying $99,000 would be a lot.

Shepard disagreed and said: "When I came here, I took a pay cut, because in Florida there was no income tax. Yes, you can get housing for less, but the lower cost of living does not equal the $50,000 difference in salaries."

Another man said he really like the changes along College Avenue. "It has changed the appearance of the neighborhood."

Shepard said the most used assets on campus are two purple swings.

A man asked if anything had been determined about the university posting banners on 12th Street and on College Avenue. Shepard said this year is the 125th anniversary of the university, but "some ordinance or something limits how long the banners can stay up." The same man said he had talked to Mayor Ken Ladner who was in favor of the university banners.

"I think the challenge for the town is if they let the university put up banners, and not someone else," Shepard said.

Lynda Aiman Smith, town councilor, asked about what was the trend for online courses. Shepard replied that in the past 10 years, online courses have grown from 6 percent to 45 percent. "It will continue to grow. About 83 percent to 85 percent online students are instate students, with the exception being social work, which is predominantly out-of-state students. Some students move into the dorms and then take only online course. They still want the college experience."

Shepard said the next thing is virtual reality, where the students will feel like they are physically in the classroom. "The challenge is our bandwidth. It's a one laner coming in. Because we're not on a major highway, we pay for bandwidth four times what they pay in Albuquerque. We need redundancy and more bandwidth. It's our highest priority."

A man asked if the university had any connections with Spaceport America. Shepard said no, the university has no connections. "We've tried, but we've gone nowhere. The Spaceport is probably more interested in research universities, like Tech and State."

As a closing, Shepard thanked the community for keeping him sane, during the difficult divorce from his wife. "I couldn't be living in a better city than Silver City for your support assisting me mentally and physically with the process."

He invited everyone to go outside into the Syzygy parking lot where the festivities of the Bash were going on and to chat with students and faculty and staff members.