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October 21 – 25, 2013

President – Garrey Carruthers, Ph.D. The Board of Regents met on Monday at the Dona Ana Community College. If you

haven’t been to the East Campus of DACC drive by and visit. It is a very attractive campus. The Regents, by separate but less than unanimous votes, indicated the Administration could apply for liquor licenses for the Pan American Center and the School of Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Management. We already serve alcohol (beer and wine) at both facilities but we are dependent at the Pan American Center on the use of picnic licenses from local businesses. In addition, I briefed the Board on the Mission Specific Performance Funding model which all of the Presidents of higher education institutions are supporting and asking that it be used for higher education funding in the future. There has been some push back from the Higher Education Department because this model does not have their requested 5% of budget at risk.

I met with the Town and Gown Committee and updated them on activities at NMSU. Topics of discussion included our new tag line – NMSU, it is all about discovery, Aggie Pride Fridays with an encouragement for the business community to dress in Aggie gear, a report on the first 100 days of this administration, and an enrollment update.

The Regents Real Estate Committee met to review a consultant’s report on how we should manage our real estate assets. Principle findings included greatly improving our student housing to include new facilities and the prospects of a new Greek housing area along University Avenue, an aggressive effort to improve the University Avenue corridor, and the hiring of another consultant to plan the development of NMSU land on the east side of the Interstate Highway.

Several officials of NMSU met with Scott Verhines, the New Mexico State Engineer, regarding proving up about 8,000 acre feet of NMSU water rights. We need to do this by 2020 or we will lose the rights. Scott was very helpful and suggested some work we might want to do in water banking. I will be visiting with the Mayor and City Manager soon as they could have a major role in perfecting our 1890 (very old) water rights.

At the request of one car rental company, we will issue an RFP for car rental services to see if there are savings by reducing our fleet and/or by sending all of our rental business to one vendor.

It was wall to wall Homecoming Activities. I attended the following events: 1. The NMSU Foundation Board where I discussed our discovery theme and

related to them that a good distribution of effort for them would be 10% allocated to managing our investment portfolio, 30% to Alumni relations, and 60% to fund raising. I proposed a $125,000,000 major campaign but most

New Mexico State University Activity Report

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there wanted to have a much more aggressive campaign. We continue to disagree over a centralized versus mixed model for engaging all in the fund raising activities.

2. The Honors College picnic which was very well attended. 3. Class of 1953 reunion, which was a real hoot as we remembered NMSU in

the good old days. One 1953 graduate had not been back to the campus since his graduation. All were surprised to see all of the changes at NMSU over the years.

4. The ACES Alumni Breakfast where I was honored as the Distinguished Alum from the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Business.

5. The Alumni International Board, where we listened to what works in bringing alums together in several cities.

6. The College of Business Scholarship luncheon where donor Bobby Lutz and student Zach Quintero both received standing ovations for their presentations.

7. The Provost and I attended alumni receptions at Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Business, and Education.

8. The Homecoming parade where I did show off my 2002 fire engine red Thunderbird.

9. The Golden A’s luncheon for all having graduated 50 years or more ago. I was delighted to see an old friend Dick Johnson who graduated from NMSU in 1936. He was still up and after them!

10. The football game where our team prevailed but it was a heart stopper. Congratulations to the team and coaching staff.

Executive Vice President and Provost – Dr. Dan Howard Attended the Board Meeting of the Arrowhead Center. Among items of discussion

were possibilities for future development of the Center, a fundraising initiative to generate more venture capital for the Center, and the workforce needs of the city, region, and state. The Arrowhead Center is the only regional commercialization center in the state and has become quite sophisticated in helping to bring intellectual properties to the market.

Vice President Bernadette Montoya and I met to discuss a number of issues, including: admission standards, loan repayments, and the importance of rigorous preparation in high school for students seeking an NMSU degree.

Met with several people over the course of the week to discuss distance education. The vision the President and I have is quite straightforward. Incentivize and build complete distance degree programs in high demand areas. We are particularly interested in incentivizing master’s degree programs. We are willing to provide incentives to currently existing programs, as long as they are completely online, are QM certified, and will be expanded so as to bring in new students.

Also discussed the development of a pre-orientation program with a number of individuals. The purpose of such a program is to enhance retention of our first year students. One model endorses bringing incoming first year students onto campus a

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week early and having all of them take a basic college survival course and one course relevant to their major. A broad, common theme will help students to form a more cohesive community.

Spent the latter part of the week going from one Homecoming Event to another. All in all, it was great fun. Especially memorable events were the Class of 1963 reception and dinner, the Homecoming Parade, and the young alumni brunch.

SVP Administration and Finance – Angela Throneberry Employee Action Council – A&F has established an Employee Action Council which is

comprised of a representative group of employees working together to increase staff engagement and support a culture of pride across the division. The Council provides a path for division staff to participate in decision making feedback, promote staff visibility, foster a supportive work environment, and help develop a sense of community among all employees within the division. Members of the A&F Employee Action Council are: Esther Amezquita, Candace Aragon, Leonard Banegas, Ben Boone, Lorraine Cisneros, Phillip Cordero, Michelle Corella, Bruce Ernst, Araceli Hernandez, Kathy Linville, Samantha Lish, Jennifer Montes, Omar Moreno, Joni Newcomer, Debbie Paz, and Michelle Stark.

Bags to Benches – A&F participated in the City of Las Cruces Plastic Bag Recycling Challenge sponsored by Trex Co. A&F had a Bags to Benches Competition between the four units: Auxiliary Services, Business Affairs, Facilities & Services and Information & Communication Technologies (ICT). The Bags to Benches Competition ended on October 18th. A&F was able to save 3228.7 pounds from going into the landfill and was able to collect enough plastic bags to make 3 park benches for the city. The competition winner was ICT which collected a total of 1601.4 pounds of plastic bags. We had amazing participation and effort!

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Auxiliary Services

Adding to the success of the Tough Enough to Wear Pink Week on the Las Cruces campus was a great “Pink Luncheon” put on by Sodexo-Campus Dining. Great job!!

Sodexo would also like to congratulate these prize winners:

Julian Monjaras and Haley Smith won 2 tickets to anywhere in the US, Mexico, or Caribbean that were supplied by Coca-Cola for their early purchase of a Voluntary Meal Plan.

Patrick Pellitier won a Microsoft Office tablet for his amazing bank of knowledge on Brain Teaser Trivia Night. Information and Communication Technologies

As stated above, ICT won the competition with its staff contributing 1601.4 pounds. The staff was great about bringing in bags on a daily basis. The results were

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announced on Campus Sustainability Day October 23rd. A special thanks to Norene Hammond and Christine Quintana for being the ICT coordinators and Suzanne Montes and Joni Newcomer for being the overall coordinators. Thanks to all that participated for keeping 3228 pounds of plastic out of the landfill.

NMSU’s existing Aastra (Ericcson) telephone system which was purchased in 1991 has been designated as end of life by the manufacturer. This means that the existing phone system will stop being supported in 2015. Because of this situation ICT is in the early stages of migrating from the Aastra to a new CISCO Voice over IP (VOIP) solution. This new VOIP system will have a new integrated voicemail system as well as many other features. A few buildings have already been converted during the pilot phase. The next step will be a building by building migration. ICT will be contacting departments to coordinate the migration. This process will take approximately two years to complete. ICT will be sending out a campus wide communication describing the process. We are looking forward to enhancing and improving your voice experience.

ICT takes the responsibility of securing University data very seriously, and it is never ending activity. One of many ways of enhancing protection and ensuring compliance with various data-privacy regulations such as FERPA, FISMA, etc. is via the enforcement of technical password security policies via our network active directory (AD) authentication system. This week, ICT sent notices to the various University-wide Domain Administrators with recommended password security settings based on central ICT’s recommended practices to ensure consistency and standardized application of security settings University-wide. All Administrators have either changed the settings to mirror those of central ICT or submitted implementation plans, which are expected to be fully implemented by the end of the year. However, it should be noted that securing NMSU Data is a responsibility that we all must share.

Facilities and Services

FS Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) was awarded second place in the University Research Council poster fair for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) presentation. The educational PPE posters are displayed as greater than life size images in several Chemical Engineering and

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Chemistry lab corridors. The new approach to engaging students and employees in a positive Safety Culture comes through education and collaboration with NMSU Department Leaders, interested students and local business partners. The posters were discovered when EH&S collaborated with student photographer Susan Rockstraw (BFA 2013 Photography, BFA 2013 Graphic Design), model Pamela Esparza (BA 2012 Accountancy & Business Administration), model Aaron Wheeler and Jeremy Goins (Print Ninjas).

Jack Kirby, Assistant EH&S Environmental Director, is mentoring two Industrial Engineering student interns in storm water improvement projects including inventory and cataloging of structures and developing technical options related to mitigating runoff from the farm animal pens. The 2013 annual report of NMSU Storm Water Management Plan, as required by EPA, is posted at http://ofs.nmsu.edu/SWMP.html

FS EH&S Lab Safety Specialist Derrik Wootton completed inspections of 440 laboratories over the past five months and the summary chart shows a trend of improvement in laboratory safety compared to previous two years. The number of labs scoring excellent is increasing. Approximately 95% of the labs were average to excellent and only 5% required an EH&S re-inspection of the area this year.

FS EH&S would like to remind everyone that pedestrian walkways and green landscape areas are off limits to regular motor vehicle driving and may only be used for permitted work, special deliveries and emergency access. Operation of motorized vehicles on sidewalks is a direct conflict with their primary intended use for pedestrian traffic. To improve pedestrian safety, the Police and Parking Departments will be increasing their enforcement and citing drivers of vehicles being driven or parked in these restricted areas. Warning notices will be given initially for 30 days, followed by citations that will be issued to drivers along with the associated ticket fee.

The second annual Campus Sustainability Day (CSD) was a great success! Tabling in the morning had posters in the trees and 15 educational tables with non-profits, NMSU departments, and student groups showing what they do to be green. The lunchtime webinar was very educational, focusing on what other colleges around the nation are doing to plan for climate change. A well-attended evening forum was a great success with an eye-opening introduction by the Provost, an overview by Joni Newcomer, Sustainability Manager, on what NMSU is doing to be green, and then three fantastic panelists discussing how NMSU deals with CSD topic “Climate

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Adaptation: Resilient Campuses and Communities”. Thanks to everyone for participating!

Assistant Director Boyd Poirier is heading up the programming effort for the proposed $21.5 million improvements at the Engineering complex. The project is part of NMSU’s 2014 capital outlay request and if appropriated, the funds would be part of the 2014 State General Obligation Bond election in November. The focus of the project will be on Jett Hall and Annex. Due to the prominent location of Jett Hall, some limited exterior cosmetic may be considered. However, emphasis will be on systems (HVAC, electrical, fire protection, etc.). There is the potential to include a new entrance (may be dictated by egress considerations) and lecture hall, and converting select spaces to flexible/active learning classrooms.

Project Manager Jon Padilla continues to move along quickly with the renovation of the Hershel Zohn Theater to become the Institute of Public Policy (IPP). In the following picture we have IPP below ground CMU wall within the Renovation interior of the Hershel Zohn Theatre. In addition, the completion of the Branson library interior finishes is taking place and at the end of this month and we will be closing out the Branson contract soon.

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FS Fire & Emergency Services student firefighter, Philip Laier, received his Firefighter II IFSAC certificate on Oct. 4th, 2013. This is a nationally recognized certification. Philip has been a Student Firefighter since February of this year. He is majoring in Mechanical Engineering Technology, with an anticipated graduation of December 2015.

We welcome Fire Station Tours! Come and discover how we teach prevention and

safety. All ages are welcome. Every tour is customized for appropriate age groups

and designed for each season. Call our office at 646-2519 to schedule a tour. Our

continued theme this month is home fire safety. More than 3,400 Americans die each

year in fires and approximately 17,500 are injured. An overwhelming number of fires

occur in the home. Be sure to have a working smoking alarm and carbon monoxide

detector! Be safe in your home!

SVP External Relations / Chief of Staff – Ben Woods Accomplished BoR meeting logistical support at DACC East Mesa for the October

meeting.

Called the Hotel committee together and developed the consensus approach on procurement among NMSU staff. Began working with Central procurement on draft of the RFP.

Attended the NMSU Foundation Board meeting and participated in the first reveal of the Legacy Wall in the Ed Services Building.

Spoke to Class of 1953 at their reunion dinner on Aggie history.

Will speak at the Celebration of Aggie Traditions on Saturday morning.

Coordinated October Town Gown Meeting.

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VP Student Affairs/Enrollment Services – Dr. Bernadette Montoya Dr. Montoya updated the Board of Regents on October 21 about enrollment.

Although enrollment is down, this is consistent with nationwide trend of decreasing enrollment.

Dr. Montoya held the first meeting of the Legislative Lottery Scholarship work group tasked with creating NMSU's response to upcoming changes to the Lottery Scholarship. The taskforce has representatives from finance, academics, governmental affairs, ASNMSU, and student affairs.

At the staff picnic on October 25, SAEM staff voted on a new mission and vision statement and enjoyed wonderful barbeque from Rudy’s.

Marilyn Alejo from Career Services and Monica Dunivan from Military and Veteran’s Programs received the SAEM Staff Recognition Award, which recognizes staff members who exhibit exceptional performance above and beyond their normal job duties. The winners each received a $500 award.

Dr. Montoya attended the Aggies for Kids luncheon as an Advisory Board member and to support the Myrna's Children's Village.

University Admissions, Ms. Valerie Pickett

Admissions Advisors from El Paso Community College were on campus Friday to learn more about NMSU programs for prospective transfer students. Advisors were given information about the NMSU system. They also toured campus and had lunch at the Fulton Center.

SAEM staff and student employees at our annual picnic.

Marilyn Alejo (left photo) and Monica Dunivan (right photo), 2013 recipients of the SAEM Staff Recognition Awards.

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Recruiters attended college programs in Nevada, Colorado, plus northern and eastern New Mexico.

University Admissions hosted students and families from the Arrowhead Early College High School for a Homecoming barbeque on Thursday, October 24. Members of the DACC Dual Credit Office and Associated Students of DACC were on hand to help welcome families to the NMSU system.

University Financial Aid and Scholarship Services, Ms. Janie Merchant

On October 18, Ronnie Aguirre and Sandy Byhower attended the New Mexico Association of Financial Aid Administrator’s Decentralized Training and Annual Meeting in Albuquerque. They learned about Title IV funding plus updates to the Direct Lending program. Additionally, New Mexico Higher Education Department representatives addressed concerns surrounding the Lottery Scholarship, the New Mexico Scholars Fund, the Graduate Scholarship Fund, Loans for Service, and the Viet Nam Veterans Scholarship.

On October 16, Joseph Molina and Marlene Melendez attended the Immigrant Student Issues Committee’s conference, which addressed issues that undocumented students face when applying for admission and financial aid at institutions of higher education. Topics included the Non-Immigration Waiver (Senate Bill 582), deferred action, and campus resources for academic and financial support.

On October 22, Financial Aid staff system-wide attended the Financial Aid Directors Roundtable at the Doña Ana’s East Mesa Campus. Topics on the agenda included Selective Service requirements, incarcerated students’ eligibility for financial aid, plus standardization and improved access to important policy and procedural information.

Aggie Ambassadors gave campus tours to returning alumni as part of

Homecoming.

Students from Arrowhead Early College high school played Aggie Twister at the Homecoming BBQ.

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Student Engagement, Dr. Terry Cook

Dr. Cook attended the NMASAP Symposium "Crossing the Finish Line: Graduating and Retaining our Students" on October 17 and 18 at the University of New Mexico. The symposium focused on the future of student affairs on university campuses.

On October 22, Dr. Tony Marin of Student Engagement and Dr. Esther Devall, of Family and Consumer Sciences co-facilitated a Department Head Academy presentation, "How To Effectively Supervise Staff" at the Teaching Academy.

Student Life, Dr. Michael Jasek

The ASNMSU Department of Community Outreach hosted Keep State Great on October 19, at which student organizations helped clean up campus.

Kylie Arrieta, music director at KRUX 91.5, received the Best Taste in Music award presented by the College Music Journal at a conference in New York City from October 14–18.

Lori Haussamen, a social worker at the Student Health Center, hosted a presentation on the Affordable Healthcare Act on Wednesday, October 23. She was joined by a presenter from the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty.

Health and Wellness, Ms. Lori McKee

Alexandra Smirnova-Garcia and Michelle Mason, program coordinators for Rec Sports, presented at the second American Red Cross Preparedness Training System in Albuquerque, on October 17–19. The two are members of the New Mexico Red Cross Health and Safety Supervisory Committee.

On October 17, Rec Sports sponsored Glow Volleyball in recognition of Tough Enough to Wear Pink. About 175 players from 25 teams participated. Student employees, interns and Health & Wellness staff participated in education events during Pink Week to promote breast cancer awareness and prevention.

Pictured left to right: Tiffiny Perales, Chelsea McCoy, and Amanda Getchell

all members of the ASNMSU Department of Community Outreach.

Health and Wellness students during Pink Week.

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Office of Student Diversity and Outreach, Ms. Christina Chavez Kelley

On October 17, Laura Gutierrez Spencer, Director of Chicano Programs presented “Working with First-Generation and Minority Students” to the Ph.D. interns of the Counseling Center. On the 18th, she presented “Hispanic Culture: Stereotypes and Gender Roles” to the faculty and graduate students of the Communication Studies Department.

Staff Highlights

Brenda Blackburn, Director of the Academic Programs & Services Center for Athletics, has accepted a new position with the University of Nevada, Reno as the Associate Athletics Director for Academic Services.

Interim VP Economic Development – Dr. Kevin Boberg Economic Policy Analysis

Policy Analysis Director Jim Peach presented a talk on “The Southern New Mexico Economy” at The Role of Southern New Mexico in the Economy conference, sponsored by NMSU’s College of Business and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, El Paso Branch. The conference focused on recent economic trends and the future of the region’s economy.

Arrowhead Innovation Network

Arrowhead hosted a Usability Testing Workshop on October 23rd, focusing on methods and tools to improve ventures’ sites, apps, user interfaces, and other business elements. The workshop presenters were Deborah Winters, a Certified Human Factors Engineer who has consulted for top companies around the world and William Graves, an applied researcher and current independent usability contractor for Hewlett-Packard.

AIN hosted a members’ Roundtable meeting, gathering partners from across the network to develop solutions to key challenges facing the region’s startup culture and the entrepreneurial ecosystem. More than 20 participants attended the meeting, which included breakout sessions to discuss points recently raised by the AIN Advisory Council, including:

o Access to Investors o Faculty Awareness and Participation in Translational Research o Connections to Industry o Team Talent for Startups o Awareness of Commercialization and Entrepreneurial

Opportunities/Resources A number of interesting recommendations and suggestions were generated by each group; these will be integrated into AIN operations and strategic planning. An Arrowhead-hosted reception followed the meeting.

Visiting Partners

NMSU College of Business Hall of Fame inductee and serial entrepreneur Brad Gordon visited Arrowhead Center, offering his guidance and expertise over two days

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of meetings, workshops, and events. Mr. Gordon made a recent contribution to Arrowhead (please see NMSU news release at http://business.nmsu.edu/2013/08/28/gordon-family-gift-inspired-by-arrowhead-centers-potential/); his continued interest in and support of our programs has been incredibly valuable.

.

VP Research – Dr. Vimal Chaitanya Vimal Chaitanya hosted Associate VP Carlos Romero from UNM to discuss

partnership opportunities between the three research universities of New Mexico. Carlos met with the Council of Associate Deans of Research and researchers belonging to six interdisciplinary areas namely biomedical sciences, space and aerospace, computer science and engineering, energy, water, and STEM.

MCA held its first regional biomedical symposium at Camino Real Hotel in El Paso. NMSU faculty and students participated in large numbers. Rebecca Palacios moderated round table discussions while Mary O'Connell, Brad Schuster, Ou Ma, and Immo Hansen delivered focused talks. NMSU students presented their biomedical work through posters.

Pat Hynes will be traveling to Washington, DC to report on the NMSU research task being funded by the FAA Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation. The research tasks are: Integration and Evaluation of ADS-B Payloads partnering with NMSU College of Engineering and Develop Framework for Commercial Spaceport Operations that creates a Body of Knowledge that captures Best Practices partnering with NMSU Library.

Pat Hynes appeared on KSNM Radio with Eric Montgomery discussing the economic development in the Mesilla Valley and the role of Commercial Space.

PSL has been contacted by a film crew from the Science Channel to come to Las Cruces to film a segment on unmanned aircraft to highlight the evolution of technology. Current plans are for this Los Angeles based crew to arrive next week and be on site for two to three days.

PSL supported the International Telemetry Conference this week. Due to the recent sequestration and government closure, attendance was down by approximately 30 percent.

OGC delivered PHS conflict of interest training to faculty members.

OGC prepared a preliminary plan for distributing OGC staff to service centers.

Sam Fernald attended the Board of Regents meeting that included approval of consent item with revised legislative funding expansion request for WRRI.

At a meeting between NMSU and OSE, regarding NMSU water rights, WRRI was given the lead to initiate effort focused on groundwater banking; set up initial meeting to be held in November.

Sam Fernald met with Jon Boren and Lou Swanson, CSU VP of Engagement and Extension Director about opportunities for water research collaboration with CSU, NMSU, UTEP, and TAMU.

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Sam Fernald met with Wayne Savage of Arrowhead to follow up on ways to help NMSU water faculty engage in entrepreneurial side of water research through Arrowhead Center.

Sam Fernald led a meeting of the USGS-NIWR Partnership Committee. In an effort to bolster NIWR (National Institutes of Water Resources) budget request through USGS by February 2014, gave Earl Greene, national research leader for water from USGS, compiled examples from state water institutes of research funded by 104b funding that supports USGS mission areas.

This week, sponsored awards totaling $ 824,586 were received.

Interim VP University Advancement – Dr. Tina Byford The annual Aggie Basketball Tip-Off Banquet was held at the Pan American Center. I

joined the many Aggie supporters to celebrate the start to another exciting year of men's basketball. Chris Woods and I had our photo taken with Sim Bhullar, our 7’5” sophomore center. He is quiet tall.

We kicked off homecoming week with a reception honoring NMSU Foundation Board members and their spouses at my home. There were 65 in attendance and it was a great opportunity for our board members to enjoy social hour.

I enjoyed the 1963 50th Reunion dinner. Great stories were exchanged and it was good to visit with NMSU Foundation Board member, Charles Tharp and NMSU Foundation Board member Emeriti, Libby Pruett.

I participated in many homecoming events such as presenting a University Advancement update to the Alumni Association International Board of Directors at their annual meeting, as well as attending the 2013 Scholarship luncheon hosted by the College of Business. Other events I attended were NMSU Foundation Board member Dion Messer’s presentation which was a part of the Chemical Engineering Senior seminar hosted by Dr. David Rockstraw, Academic department head; the 2013 Distinguished Alumni reception hosted by College of business in honor of NMSU Foundation Board member Lee Ellen Banks and Raul Prieto; the Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni reception and dinner; the Homecoming parade; and pre-game tailgates.

NMSU Foundation Board of Directors held their Fall Board meeting at the Las Cruces Convention Center. President Carruthers made the opening remarks to board members, college deans, university development and gift officers and other staff. The Board transacted business and passed a resolution to fill nine vacant seats with a starting term of January 1, 2014.

The Alumni Association held a week-long Homecoming open house and partnered with the Admissions Office and the NMSU Police Department to provide campus tours Oct. 24th and 25th.

Mallory Driggers, Associate Director, represented the NMSU Alumni Association and provided Homecoming details on 101 Gold with Mike McCay and KC Counts Oct. 21.

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An article on the Alumni Association Celebration of Traditions, written by Charlotte Tallman, Senior Alumni Relations Officer, ran in the Las Cruces Sun-News October 20.

The Alumni Association and Charlotte Tallman welcomed ten 2013 Distinguished Alumni, one James F. Cole Memorial Award for Service recipient and one 2012 International Distinguished Alumni during Homecoming week.

Con Alma Health Foundation awarded a $12,000 grant to NMSU Foundation for KRWG. Fred Sandoval, Program Director of Con Alma Health Foundation shared that the proposal we submitted was the second highest rated of all proposals received.

Barbara S. Wise, Director, Regional Advancement, made five alumni discovery visits in Houston resulting in identification of 2 major gift prospects and 3 annual gift donors. Barbara Wise also attended the College of Engineering Scholarship breakfast and various receptions and the Alumni tailgate.

Each year, ASNMSU hosts the annual community service event Keep State Great. As a part of the program, the NMSU Foundation sponsored a community service activity for more than 150 students. In addition to learning about philanthropy, participants wrote nearly 2,000 Thank You cards to alumni donors who would not normally receive direct communication from a student.

The VPUA office chaired, in conjunction with the colleges/units, two task forces aimed at process improvement. These procedures are pending the VPUA, deans and directors approval. The task force review methodology is a prime example of the collaboration of development activities across campus.

The Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR) team is working on several projects. One with the colleges/units to coordinate the El Paso Electric request for 2014 and another in developing a proposal with a faculty member in the College of Ag for Coca-Cola (working through NMSU Foundation Board Chair-Elect, John Cordova) Moreover, the CFR team is working on a scholarship proposal with a local chile processing company that is looking at offering scholarships to children and grandchildren of its employees. The CFR team has also finalized and submitted a request to State Farm on behalf of the College of Education in support of the Service Learning program and has brought in a $10,000 gift from Hatton Sumners Foundation to support the Domenici Conference.

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Athletics Director – Dr. McKinley Boston, Jr. Dr. Boston attended off-site meetings including the D1 Leadership Council Meeting

in Indianapolis, IN.

The Aggie Men’s Basketball Program hosted their annual Tip-Off Dinner & Auction. The 2013 WAC Championship rings were presented to the players. The event was very well attended.

We had a number of Alumni athletes that returned for both the Tennis reunion and the Softball reunion during homecoming week.

Associate VP University Communications – Maureen Howard For the week of October 14 - 20, news stories in both local and national media

totaled 246 placements. The top story of the week told about an episode of “This Old House,” which featured NMSU’s Chile Pepper Institute.

This week’s Eye on Research in the Las Cruces Sun-News highlighted the recent University Research Council’s Research and Creative Activities Fair Oct. 4, which included poster presentations on 44 research projects across the university. The event demonstrated the wide array of research activity at NMSU and provided an opportunity for faculty members to see other research or creative scholarly activity taking place on campus, which opens the door for potential collaboration between research projects.

This week’s Sunday feature in the Las Cruces Sun-News focused on NMSU’s Extension efforts to tackle the issue of New Mexico’s food deserts in Hidalgo County. The USDA defines food deserts as “urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy and affordable food.” According to the USDA map, much of the state of New Mexico is considered a food desert. NMSU Extension Agriculture Agent John Allen has created a Youth Demonstration Garden to provide access to fresh produce and teach area students and seniors how to grow their own gardens.

Asst. Athletic Director for Media Relations Tyler Dunkel handled the statistical input of all scores for the 2013 Herb Wimberly Intercollegiate Golf Tournament on campus this week, including news releases and twitter announcements. The men’s golf team won the event for the first time since 2008 and NM State’s Brett Walker won the individual title.

University Communications handled all media relations efforts for Monday’s Board of Regents meeting, including preparing a backgrounder on priority agenda items, live tweeting from the meeting, issuing a news release, assisting with media interviews at the conclusion of the meeting and updating the Above and Beyond website.

The news team coordinated a TV appearance for director Josh Chenard and actors in the upcoming performance of “James and the Giant Peach” on KTSM TV (Channel 9). The interview aired on Oct. 28.

Melissa Chavira, Director of Web Communications, finalized the web stylesheet and static HTML templates for campus-wide use and is working with ICT to create a

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global location for easy maintenance and governance. The finalized static templates provide campus developers with 6 different design layouts, which include horizontal and vertical navigation options and are designed to display on a variety of screen sizes and mobile devices.

KRWG has received preliminary notification that they will be receiving a $12,000 grant from Con Alma Health Foundation to produce a series of programs concerning Hispanic mental health issues. Pending coordination with all the partners, the programs should begin airing in late January 2014.

Assistant VP Government Relations – Ricardo Rel State-Related Activities

The New Mexico Department of Agriculture, the Cooperative Extension Service and the Agricultural Experiment Station presented their budgets before a subcommittee of the Legislative Finance Committee on October 25, 2013.

Director/Secretary, NMDA - Jeff M. Witte This week I had the honor of speaking at the Sierra County Farm and Livestock

Bureau annual meeting. This is a great group of folks who have strong ties to agriculture and are doing many great programs to promote their industry in the area. A highlight of the meeting was a presentation on connecting with your education by NMSU's Dee Wear, Sierra County Cooperative Extension Service agent.

The Rounders Award, named for novelist Max Evans’ modern-day cowboy story about two hard luck buckaroos, will be presented at the Governor’s Residence on November 14. The award recognizes those who live, promote, or articulate the Western way of life.

Staff met with local pecan growers regarding the China Marketing Project. The project is designed to entice buyers to purchase smaller nuts from New Mexico. Staff also assisted nine companies at the Produce Marketing Association Tradeshow. Results were very positive with high interest in New Mexico products.

Staff participated in a Dona Ana County Food Protection Alliance meeting. Discussions included the Food Safety Modernization Act, Good Agricultural Practices, and a tour of NMSU’s shrimp production research project.