Today, I am announcing that I plan to retire as New Mexico State University Chancellor on July 1, 2018, at the end of my contract period.
I have tremendously enjoyed my time here at NMSU, as a student, professor, dean and for the past four years serving as chancellor and president of this great university. I’m enthusiastically looking forward to what we can accomplish in the next 11 months.
I was named as NMSU’s president and chancellor in 2013. Since that time, I have focused on a number of important projects, including student recruitment, fundraising, marketing, strengthening connections with the community colleges in the NMSU system, improving efforts to foster student success and making the university more entrepreneurial.
I am particularly pleased with our student recruitment efforts, which will result in a substantial increase in this year’s incoming freshman class. We’ve also been mindful of our students’ success once they arrive on campus. That’s why we’ve implemented a central advising center, early warning indicators, a first-year residency requirement and other efforts to make sure the student experience at NMSU is the very best.
Fundraising has been a key focus area during the time I have spent as chancellor, particularly to support student scholarships as well as the university’s teaching, research and outreach functions. NMSU publicly launched its Ignite Aggie Discovery campaign earlier this year – the most ambitious campaign in NMSU system history with a goal of raising more than $125 million in cash and pledges. To date, the campaign is more than 62 percent complete, having raised nearly $77 million. Those funds benefit students across the entire NMSU system, including each of the university’s community colleges.
One of the largest projects we have overseen is the Transforming NMSU into a 21st Century University initiative – a massive effort to seek efficiencies by examining and overhauling the way the university does business, from its organizational structure to the way it handles purchasing, finance services, information technology and other areas. Projected savings from the project total more than $10 million. The savings from this effort are especially important in the face of declining appropriations from the state.
We have sailed this ship together through some stormy seas. When we hit some calm, it was amazing to discover just how well we had charted the course and how successful we’ve been in transforming NMSU into a 21st century university.