Fresh faces starting at next ENMU regents meeting

PORTALES — When the Eastern New Mexico University regents meet this week, they’ll do so with plenty of new faces.

Confirmed to positions Monday by the New Mexico Senate for six-year regent terms were former Public Education District 9 Commissioner Trish Ruiz and former Central New Mexico Community College Vice President for Student Affairs Phillip Bustos. Also approved was ENMU vocal performance major Chandlar Head for the two-year student regent term.

They will replace Terry Othick, Ed Tatum and student regent Joseph Gergel.

The board has a training work session set for Tuesday and its regular monthly meeting Friday. The News spoke with each new regent over Wednesday and Thursday before they officially begin their duties as regents.

Phillip Bustos

Bustos’ career began in drug and alcohol counseling, followed by service in student affairs at the University of North Texas, the Auraria Higher Education Center in Denver, and finally CNM. He is involved in numerous volunteer and aid organizations in the Albuquerque area.

Bustos, who retired from CNM in October 2019, had made occasional visits back to the ENMU campus where he graduated in 1978 as a double major in speech communications and psychology.

“It was a great time,” Bustos said. “I was there when it was a dry county, so all you really had to do was study. I was able to play baseball and I met my wife (Joan) there. I just got a quality education there; the instructors were very good.”

But he never thought about being a regent until former CNM president Katharine Winograd called him up.

“That sounds like fun,” Bustos remembered thinking to himself.

Bustos believes the 23 years he spent with CNM will help in various ways, as the university system has a pair of two-year branch campuses and partnerships across the state.

“What needs to happen,” Bustos said, “is creating partnerships so students can find pathways to their goals. If you fashion your path correctly, you can get through school without debt. We still have that opportunity here, especially thanks to the (scholarship funds generated by the) lottery.”

He believes the system’s key concern will be sustainability as the educational model changes.

“Competition isn’t going to just be from other schools, but it’s going to be from the private industry,” Bustos said. “The private industry is not going to tolerate how long it takes a student to get through the degree process. They want their workforce now.”

Trish Ruiz

Ruiz has served as member and officer of the board of directors for the National Education Association New Mexico (NEA-NM), former vice chair and treasurer for NEA-NM’s National Hispanic Caucus, member of the New Mexico Public School Insurance Authority (NMPSIA), vice president of the board of trustees for Con Alma Health Foundation, and chair of the Lea County Democratic Party. She recently completed a term on the New Mexico Public Education Commission, District 9, and was the commission’s vice chair.

Ruiz was born in Texas, but claims New Mexico and Hobbs as pretty much her lifelong home. She has been a counselor and test coordinator with the Hobbs school district for 20 years, and earned her master’s degree at the University of the Southwest.

Ruiz did attend ENMU for its speech language pathology program, and did finish her undergraduate work and gain acceptance into graduate school. But Ruiz — a bilateral above-knee amputee — made a personal choice not to go further, as it became evident to her being a wheelchair user would make it difficult for her to provide the experience students needed.

Her motivation for the regent’s position comes with a goal of advocacy for all students.

“We have to meet kids where they’re at,” Ruiz said. “We have to ensure we’re responsive in meeting the needs of diversity, inclusiveness, cultural awareness, different populations, different learning styles. What can we do as a community, as educators and as parents to ensure our students are successful?”

Ruiz thinks her time on the Public Education Commission will help her acclimate quickly, as she is versed in the matters of open meetings, finances, budgets and overall collaboration. She believes the previous slate of regents left a great legacy of work, and she wants to continue that.

“It’s humbling to me the governor appointed me to (the board),” Ruiz said. “It just feels like it will be a great transition.”

Chandlar Head

Head is a 2018 graduate of Levelland High School, and her honors during her college career include a first-place award from the Rio Grande National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) in 2019, and was a Vocal Artist Art Song Festival finalist in 2019 and 2020. She has served the Student Government Association since 2019, and serves on the student fees board and the SGA shadow program.

Head chose ENMU as a desire to get a little further from Levelland and based on positive experiences with a sophomore year choral clinic and subsequent choral concerts and campus tours.

“I was completely floored with the caliber of talent they had in this little spot in the desert,” Head said. “I also felt like this university put a real emphasis on their students. No student is just a number, and that was unique (compared) to every college I toured.”

Head said she immediately felt loved and supported when she arrived on campus, and during the pandemic it’s been more evident through instructor efforts to provide virtual experiences even as she said the world feels like it’s falling apart.

“Our audience is our food, and that’s why we do what we do,” Head said of vocal performance. “Even something as simple as standing in the same room as a pianist and singing a song and collaborating in real time is something completely stripped from you.”

Head entered student government her sophomore year, and said she was immediately impressed by the professionalism shown by Joseph Gergel, who preceded her as student regent. She admitted some trepidation in even applying for the position, but realized it was a perfect way to give back.

“This isn’t about a major,” Head said. “This isn’t about furthering my career. It’s about advancing an institution that has given me and other students so many opportunities to succeed.”

When Head first emailed Gergel about her interest in the regent position, she said he responded within five minutes and is still getting her acclimated to the position’s expectations.

Head wants to continue the work Gergel did and “make sure every student on campus is heard and every student is accounted for, regardless of their major or their interests.”

She admits it will be daunting being the student in a board of people with much longer resumes, but it comes down to being bold in both opinions and positions that keep the university student-centered.