ENMU president talks education

Editor’s note: Steve Gamble has been president of Eastern New Mexico University since August of 2001. Prior to ENMU, Gamble, who earned a doctorate degree in U.S. history from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, also worked seven years as vice president for academic affairs at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas, and taught at Angelo State University.

We asked him a series of questions about the state of higher education.

What do you see as the biggest needs/ requests/ goals for the variety of students who choose to attend Eastern New Mexico University?

Our mission is to provide the best educational experience for the students who come to Eastern New Mexico University. Everything else at the university is second to that. Tying in with that goal is the fact that our students come here with their own individual goals. I think it’s our obligation to try to help our students meet whatever goals they have for themselves. Sometimes that’s a college degree; sometimes it isn’t. But again, that’s what they want to achieve while they’re here; we need to try to help them do that.

Are you seeing more students choose to begin their undergraduate education at community colleges now, rather than enroll in a four-year university after high school?

Possibly so, but I’m not too certain about that. If you look at the last couple of years in the state of New Mexico, anyway, the community colleges are declining, some of them substantially in enrollment, and so are four-year institutions. I do think there’s probably a trend that’s starting to develop for students to find the quickest way to get a credential that will get them a job. They need the money; their family needs the money. And if a one-year program or a two-year program offered by the community colleges is available to them, that could be the way they go.

Are you seeing any increase/changes in the number of older, non-traditional students? What services does ENMU offer non-traditional students to assist them in returning to the higher education environment and to help them be successful?

I’m not sure we’re seeing an increase in the numbers, but we do get a good number of non-traditional students coming back to the institution. The number of degrees that we grant at the institution, that we award to students, has increased to where it’s over 900. Today we’re approaching 1,000 in terms of associate degrees, bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees given out and a whole number of those are to students who have come back to school. The resources we have are the counseling — financial aid counseling and personal counseling — and opportunities to find on-campus employment. In other words, we do everything we can to try to help them be successful, including veterans.

On the other hand, what sort of dual-credit enrollment programs are available at Eastern New Mexico University for high school students in the region? Are you seeing an increase in the number of high school students seeking dual-credit programs to get a jump start on their college education?

I think we’re probably about at our maximum with the way the state of New Mexico does dual credit. I think dual credit is a wonderful program. I’ve seen the difference in a student coming from, say Portales High School, who has had dual credit and somebody that hasn’t taken dual. I think there is a significant difference in the higher success rate for those who took dual credit, as opposed to those who didn’t. We offer dual to area high schools, the ones closest to us. If they’re closer to Clovis, Clovis Community College would offer that to them. If they’re closer to Mesalands (in Tucumcari), then Mesalands would offer it to them. So we just have certain high schools that we are responsible for.

We do have one statewide program, though, that has really gone well for us, and that is dual credit in agriculture. Not too many institutions offer agricultural courses. We offer a good variety of them and we have taken those statewide.

The cost of attending college can be a challenge for most students. What is ENMU's recent history in the last few years when it comes to tuition costs and any increases?

We’ve gone up and we just feel we’ve had to in order to maintain the quality of our programs. Now, we still have the fourth-lowest tuition and fees of any four-year university in the Southwest. So we’ve done everything we can to be affordable. We are still below $5,000 in terms of tuition and fees for the year. We are only one of four schools in the entire Southwest that are below $5,000. So I think we have done a very good job. But every time we’ve had to go up, it’s to protect the quality of our programs. Our state appropriation today doesn’t equal what it was back in 2007-2008, so we’re not back to where we were before the recession hit.

Has ENMU considered the possibility of a "locked-in tuition" program, such as the one recently adopted at Western New Mexico University? It would allow students enrolled at ENMU who maintain a certain grade-point average to pay the same tuition rate each year they are at ENMU. If not, why would that not be a feasible program for ENMU?

No, we’re not going to consider that and here’s why. The people that benefit from that are the people who come in during that first year. We, like any other school, have to have a certain amount of money to be able to maintain the quality and offer what we’re doing. So you’re not going to get it from that year’s freshman class as they go forward, so you go up substantially on the people who come in that next year. And then the people who come in that third year really get it. And by the fourth year, your tuition is approaching sky high. That’s a gimmick, and we don’t do gimmicks at Eastern.

One of the pressing issues facing higher education in New Mexico is the fate of the New Mexico Lottery Scholarship program, which helps many in-state students attend college. What do you see ahead for the program and what do you think are the biggest challenges regarding the program?

First of all, it’s becoming more difficult for the students to get the lottery scholarship initially and to keep the lottery scholarship. They’ve gone up on the number of semester credit hours that have to be passed, but they had to. This is one of the most generous things I’ve ever seen a state do for its citizens, especially in regard to higher education. So I really admire what the state of New Mexico has done. The solvency is an issue, where they’re giving out more money than they’re able to take in. We just were notified that the lottery scholarship for the spring semester will be funded at 95 percent of tuition, as opposed to the traditional 100 percent, mainly because they didn’t have enough money to do 100 percent.

What is the status of any projects at Eastern that were made possible by the last General Obligation Bond election (prior to this year's election)?

The previous money we received was for the Jack Williamson Liberal Arts Building renovation. That is finished on time and on budget. The first classes will be held in there this January. It’s a wonderful, beautiful, state-of-the-art facility, and we’re really proud of it. We’re really happy that the voters in the state of New Mexico, the citizens, felt we were deserving of that money. We try to be very good stewards of the state money, and I think the Jack Williamson Liberal Arts Building renovation is a good example of that.

How specifically will the recent passage of the GO Bond for New Mexico higher education in the November 2014 general election help Eastern New Mexico University and its students?

We received $11 million for a renovation and conversion of certain parts of the Golden Library.

When the New Mexico Legislature meets in Santa Fe beginning in January, the 60-day session will allow for more legislation to be considered. What are the legislative priorities this time for ENMU?

We have the same priorities established as do the other higher education, four-year schools. Number one on that list is compensation for our people. Our folks really haven’t had hardly any pay raises in higher education from the state. Now, we’ve been able to manufacture some pay raises because of our growth here at Eastern. But number one is to try to help our people. They need the help and we’re trying to get it to them.

Now that the fall 2014 semester is finished, what do you consider the biggest accomplishments and challenges right now at Eastern New Mexico University?

By far, the biggest accomplishments are the students that we turn out as graduates. We’ve given them an education that they can go out and compete with the graduates of any other school. When we hear about our students getting into medical school, law school, the graduate school they wanted, getting that first teaching job they aspired to or going to work for a bank or an accounting firm, that’s what makes my job worthwhile. That’s what really validates the quality of a degree from Eastern New Mexico University. That is always the highlight for any year that we have.

Our enrollment now for all three campuses (ENMU-Portales, ENMU-Roswell and ENMU-Ruidoso) is over 11,000. On the ENMU-Portales campus, our enrollment was 5,887 for this fall semester. We have grown for 18 straight years in the fall semester, so that’s something else we’re proud of.

— Compiled by Janet Bresenham, correspondent