A quarter-million dollar gift from Karen Becklin, a former New Mexico State University employee, will help create the Becklin Public Policy Endowed Professorship in NMSU's College of Business and Domenici Institute. The gift will be formally announced at the College of Business Hall of Fame ceremony later this evening.
"I've spent my life working in policy management," Becklin said. "I want this professorship to encourage merit and to inspire the next generation to see public policy development as a rigorous and challenging career path and one needed at all levels of society."
Becklin is retired after a career in higher education at both the state and university levels. She holds a doctorate from NMSU and spent 20 years working on college and university policy and funding issues in New Mexico, with positions at the Commission on Higher Education, the Legislative Finance Committee and NMSU. She retired from NMSU in 2001.
"Karen Becklin is a dear friend, both to the College of Business and to New Mexico State University," said Garrey Carruthers, dean of NMSU's College of Business and director of the Domenici Institute. "This gift will help us to retain top-quality faculty members and to teach students the skills necessary to effectively analyze and develop public policy."
NMSU's Domenici Institute hosts a yearly public policy conference, various public policy forums and sponsors public policy research projects. Its goal is to engage the general public and encourage them to discuss and take part in issues of public interest, specifically when it comes to important policy matters.
In addition to the Becklin Professorship, the NMSU College of Business has six other endowed professorships, including the Chevron Professorship, the Lionel Haight Professorship, the Robert O. Anderson Distinguished Professorship, the Bank of America Professorship, the John P. Loveland Professorship in Quality Management and the Wells Fargo Professorship.