ENMU planning in-person commencement ceremony

PORTALES — A May 28 graduation has already been planned, in person and outdoors at the spacious Greyhound Stadium, for Portales High School seniors.

The school will have a good idea of just how to handle it, as Eastern New Mexico University is planning its own in-person commencement ceremony there May 15.

The university has not had an in-person graduation ceremony since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, and the school is mostly in a virtual setting for classes. But Chancellor Patrice Caldwell felt there were plenty of reasons to make a return to in-person commencements, including Roosevelt County’s recent turquoise designation under state gating criteria and the fact the university hasn’t had a new COVID-19 case for three consecutive weeks.

That announcement was part of a six and a half-hour board of regents meeting that touched on many subjects, and functioned as a staff orientation for new Regents Phillip Bustos and Trish Ruiz and student regent Chandlar Head.

In other business at the Friday meeting:

• Roswell branch campus President Shawn Powell said the campus was planning its own in-person graduation ceremony in its performing arts center. The ceremony would have limited face-to-face interactions beyond diploma presentation, and state guidelines for Chaves County would determine what level of crowd the center would hold.

The Roswell Civic Center, which has held previous commencement ceremonies, is closing in April, so the branch campus decided to hold off minor repairs to the performing arts center in order to host commencement. The work, Powell said, was already in a state of delay because building materials are in short supply.

Head asked if delaying the work created any code concerns. Powell said most of the planned work involved simple facility upgrades.

• Vice President of Business Affairs Scott Smart reported the sale of the former Greyhound Stadium turned out well for the buyers as a Christmas light display. The Glitter and Glow Light Show, Smart said, drew about 3,500 cars at a $20 per car admission price. The university sold the property for just under $25,500 in September. The purchasers, Smart said, have inquired about other land near the stadium to expand the show, but they would have to acquire the land via bid process.

Smart said selling a parcel of land here or there doesn’t concern him because the university has enough land surrounding its current footprint to double its campus size and the remaining parcel of land near the old football stadium is of little use to the college outside of some parcels for research and KENW towers.

“I can’t imagine the university ever having a need for that space,” Smart said.

• Smart said the school is seeing promising developments in its plans to build a solar energy farm on campus to reduce reliance on outside electricity. The Southwest Power Pool does not need to do any studies on the project, Smart said, because any excess energy the solar farm would contribute wouldn’t be large enough to have an impact beyond the nearest substation.

Xcel Energy does need to do transmission and distribution studies, and the school can begin the project in around three months.

The school would finance the project with reserves, with Smart telling regents in a prior meeting the school would pay itself back with energy savings and be in a better position than if the money just sat in the bank and collected interest.

Smart also noted that once everything is cleared to begin work on renovations to the presidential residence, work would take about four months.

• During his branch report, ENMU-Ruidoso President Ryan Trosper said the school has hired a tribal relations employee to help with enrollment. He also noted a pair of community programs, a high school equivalency program for 19 detention center inmates and a class on conversational Spanish for hospital employees.

• Caldwell said the spring 2021 enrollment was only down 1% from the prior spring semester, and that the biggest drop was seen in the college’s dual enrollment program. That was not a surprise, Caldwell said, as the participating schools were in remote learning when the semester began.

• Regents approved their annual authorization of compliance with the Open Meetings Act.

Caldwell said the items discussed are already in school policy, including requirements for 72 hours notice for special meetings and 24 hours for emergency meetings. Caldwell doesn’t recall the regents ever needing an emergency meeting, which would generally be for catastrophic events and would require a followup to the attorney general’s office on all decisions made.

• Regents met for 30 minutes in executive session.for a personnel matter and did not take any action when open session resumed.

• The next meeting is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. April 23.