Caldwell highlights enrollment, scholarships

PORTALES -- There are five finalists to replace Patrice Caldwell as the chancellor of Eastern New Mexico University, but not all of them know it yet.

Once all five are notified of their status, the hiring process will become public, Caldwell told attendees Thursday at a Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce luncheon as part of a "State of the University" talk.

"You will know who the candidates are, and there will be public participation in the interview process," she said.

In addition, the candidates will "trek to Roswell and Ruidoso," she said. "We want those communities to know they are involved in the search," she said.

Lance Pyle, president of ENMU's board of regents, said the finalists will be announced on Oct. 30. The new chancellor/president will be announced Nov. 29, he said.

Caldwell, in her speech to the Chamber, highlighted recent increases in ENMU enrollment, especially among freshmen, graduate students and students transferring to ENMU from other colleges.

She said New Mexico's new Opportunity scholarships, which make college tuition free for many New Mexico students, and New Mexico's lottery scholarship, which has brought 400 students to the ENMU campus this year, are helping to increase enrollment.

ENMU is helping the process by "restructuring" scholarships, she said, so that more financial aid covers housing and textbook costs, as well as other costs that students often cannot anticipate.

She said she expects enrollments to rise at all New Mexico colleges and universities.

Over the next 20 years, she said, "every six in 10 jobs will require a college degree. That's the Department of Labor and the U.S. government saying that."

For ENMU students seeking degrees and credentials, she said, "we'd like to help them do it as quickly, as inexpensively and as excellently as possible."

She said ENMU is also trying to encourage more students to live on campus.

"Alums tell me all the time how much they learned in conversations with fellow students sitting on the edge of the bed at 2 in the morning," she said.

Living on campus increases contact with faculty, presence at college events, as well as contact with other students, all of which enhance the educational experience.

Caldwell also promoted a nearly $260-million general obligation bond issue that voters will make a decision on in the Nov. 8 general election.

About $9 million of the proceeds are reserved for renovations to ENMU's Student Academic Services Building.

"This building is the first stop for every student who enrolls in the university online and in person, she said. "It includes admissions, advisors and career services, all in that building."

In addition to technology, she said the renovations will make the building "cool in summer and warm in winter, which it isn't now."

Bond revenues to other educational institutions, she said, will benefit all citizens of New Mexico.

A new children's psychiatric wing at the University of New Mexico's Health Center will be available to all children in the state, she said.

The COVID-19 pandemic, she said, brought children's mental health issues into focus.

ENMU is also actively seeking other sources of revenue and funding for programs.

The university has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy that will fund wind energy education programs on the Portales campus.

At ENMU's Ruidoso campus, a $1.6 million grant is helping the campus recruit and retain students from the Mescalero Homeland, a Native American reservation near the campus.

At ENMU's Roswell branch, she noted, a $70,000 grant will fund a food bank to help financially strapped students obtain good nutrition.

In addition, she mentioned ENMU-branded products, including a white wine produced by Lescombes Family Vineyards at Deming, a red wine produced by Enchantment Vineyards in Portales, and popcorn and green chile pistachio products made by Heart of the Desert, a pistachio growing and marketing firm in Tularosa.

Caldwell also expressed gratitude to legislators for increases in funding to public schools and state colleges and universities, including state Sen. Stuart Ingle and state Rep. Martin Zamora, who attended the luncheon.

Caldwell also pointed out that in the spring 2023 semester, ENMU's education building will be named for Gay Su Pinnell, an ENMU alumna who achieved prominence by promoting advances in reading education.

When Caldwell asked for questions, John Mauk Hilliard of Portales asked about emergency preparedness measures the campus is taking in preparation for "hundreds and thousands of tons of nuclear waste" being transported on railroad tracks, if a nuclear waste storage license is granted in southern New Mexico.

Caldwell said that because the campus is located near railroad tracks, there are plans to relocate people from the campus either to the north or the south if necessary.

Hilliard also asked whether inequities in last year's per-student state funding at ENMU's expense had been corrected.

Caldwell said the inequity was corrected in this year's funding, but funding is an issue "we will have to explore every year."