ENMU candidate grilled on arts, retention

PORTALES — A varied set of questions awaited the third candidate for Eastern New Mexico University president as he was greeted with concerns surrounding fine arts, liberal arts, retention and more.

After giving a brief introduction of himself in which he shared an extensive background in New Mexico and Texas, including four degrees from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, Charles Crespy of Michigan answered questions from faculty members Wednesday afternoon.

"As we're looking at them (the state) shifting the way they're using gen. eds. (general education requirements) or the way they're viewing a college degree, what we're seeing is the humanity programs are suffering, not just in terms of people not taking the same amount of gen eds, but students not even knowing what degrees in certain areas mean," said Liberal Arts Department Chair Carol Erwin. "I'm wondering what your philosophy is but also ways in which you see trying to bridge the divide between the way state legislators are looking at higher education and the ways in which at least faculty view the value of — especially liberal arts — education."

"I believe at least part of the problem is the way we define what liberal arts education is and how we define what counts," Crespy replied.

He said a university in Miami wanted to influence student in the College of Business in liberal arts education, and formed a partnership with the English program to teach English classes in the College of Business.

"It was a powerful interaction between English and the College of Business that broadly defined liberal arts education," he said. "I think a lot of it is how we frame the problem. From the legislators that I know, I think they're enlightened enough if you said, here's the outcome we see, here's the problem, if we frame the problem this way, I think you'll more clearly understand the value of what we're trying to do and help us support that. I would argue that a lot of the ownership is on us to re-define. If we got over some of that and worked across colleges, I think we could win more of these battles."

Geni Flores asked Crespy what responsibility or obligation or lack thereof does a university have towards undocumented students.

Crespy said universities went through a phase with LGBT students where they ignored, then denied, then accepted some, then realized the merits of the students.

"I think we're still in infancy with how to deal with the undocumented immigrant challenge," he said. "We will work our way through this issue. I think we're on our way to a more enlightened policy, and I don't think that's going to happen over night. From a personal standpoint, I don't want to be at the forefront of enforcing taking a law abiding, undocumented immigrant out of the classroom."

When Flores asked candidate John Fritch the same question the day before, Fritch gave a similar answer, saying "my notion is we're a university. The job of the university is to provide learning and help people make their lives better. We should also provide support for students, so they can be successful at our university."

Jon Barr asked Crespy where he sees ENMU being 10 years after Crespy becomes university president.

"This is an important institution in the state, so I think its viability and its service to the two branch campuses is important. I would like to see Eastern at a point where you really don't see the difference between the three campuses 10 years down the road; it is an integrated unit."

Crespy said, for example, offering the program at the Roswell campus for wind farm technicians at the Portales campus and offering Portales programs at the other two campuses.

"Five or 10 years down the road, it would be nice if all three campuses possibly had partnerships with other universities in the state to work to build programs that were blended where there's some face-to-face learning ... with some blended learning of the skillsets that exist on this campus (and others)."

He added that he would also like to see the university be progressive enough to realize that careers that don't exist today, might be programs to offer years ahead.

At the start of the forum, Crespy told faculty members that along with a love for smaller communities, the thing that drew him to Eastern was that it relates to the part of his career he found most rewarding.

"The most rewarding part of my professional career was when I was at an institution that clearly identified what its mission was," he said. "Shepherding those students about whether they can make it through college to a professional career that they're proud of and how transformational that is, not only for the individual but for the family — it has been the most rewarding experience of my life."