CEO Weekly Brief :: UNM Gallup | The University of New Mexico

August 24, 2018

WELCOME BACK WEEK ACTIVITIES

I want to wish all our students a hearty welcome as some return from summer activities while others are joining us for the first time. May your semester as a Lobo be one of great learning, growth, enjoyment and success. Many thanks to Jayme McMahon and the student affairs team for coordinating the fall 2018 Welcome Back Activities as we welcomed our nearly 2,000 students to campus by serving 17 dozen donuts, 60 feet of sub sandwiches, 432 cookies, 30 pizzas and 608 scoops of ice cream!

Student Services Staff

FALL ENROLLMENT

Our fall enrollment numbers are up 3% in student head count and down 2% in student credit hours as compared to the same time last year. Our divisions are working very diligently to build a robust 2nd 8-week schedule to help students get seated in high demand classes that are closed with wait lists. The chairs, faculty and our enrollment management team are using data to scientifically work the wait lists to address the pressing needs and save students from losing traction within their programs of study.

POWER OUTAGE

Thanks to everyone for their patience and creativity as we endured yesterday’s campus-wide power outage. The administration was immediately briefed as to the cause and extent of the outage by members of our physical plant team. As I continued to receive regular updates, it became clear that our sewer lift pumps, water pressure pumps and fire suppression systems were down as they are all powered by electricity which created sanitation and safety concerns. Our IT manager let me know the number of minutes we had left of battery power for both the servers and phones. The campus management team then assembled with the physical plant engineers and public relations to create an emergency evacuation plan and by 10:30 plans were put in place to close the campus. Just as this was about to be communicated, however, all power was restored at 10:45 and normal operations were restored. I am pleased that the activation of our emergency plan went so well and we were able to certify that all on campus were safe. Although our Emergency Procedures are posted at multiple sites on campus, I am linking to it below so everyone has access to processes and contact numbers.

CENTER FOR CAREER TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION AND INNOVATION

In 2015, as part of Senate Bill 1, UNM-Gallup was allocated $350,000 to plan and design a career and technology education center. $100,000 of this amount was spent in 2016 on a programming document for the new building, but funding for construction of the actual center was vetoed by the governor earlier this year (link to the programming document is below). We are currently investigating the possibility of looping a new educational partner into the project which would allow us to bring innovative ideas and perspectives into a refresh of the original plan and design. This project is still very much alive and will, in fact, be put in the mix for the 2019 General Obligation bond funding requests.

FACULTY KUDOS

Congratulations to Assistant Professor John Burke on his selection as an Academic Affairs General Education Faculty Fellow for 2018-2019 in Innovation as a primary area of high engagement and Community Engaged Learning and Research as a secondary area of high engagement. This position will afford Dr. Burke the opportunity to work with 25 different fellows across a broad range of academic disciplines as well as in smaller communities of practice in areas of high engagement. In her award letter, Dr. Pamela Cheek, Interim Associate Provost for Curriculum and Assessment notes that the goals of the fellowship are to, “1) bring the services and opportunities that currently sit outside of the curriculum directly into the class experience; 2) link up the phases of the learning experience for students so that general education is connected to the major and even to graduate and professional school.” Dr. Burke instructs within the division of Arts and Sciences where he concentrates in math and chemistry. He is well known throughout the local school district for his interactive science demonstrations at area elementary schools. Through the UNM-Gallup Faculty Assembly, Dr. Burke was voted to serve as one of two UNM-Gallup faculty senators to represent the branch campus at the UNM Faculty Senate.

STRATEGIC PLANNING COMMITTEE

We are beginning the process to refresh our UNM-Gallup strategic plan and I thank John Zimmerman for chairing the committee and Brittany Babycos for providing staffing support. As CEO, I will serve in an ex-officio capacity on the committee. The first meeting will be held today, Friday, August 24th, from 10:30 – 12:00 in the executive conference room. Future meetings will be at the same time and place on the following dates:

September 14 & 28
October 5 & 26
November 9 & 30
December 7

All proceedings are open and all are welcome to attend as the committee collects information, sorts and deliberates to develop a proposal that will drive the construction of the final document. The core committee list includes:

Carmela Lanza
Antoinette Abeyta
Floyd Kezele
Chris Chavez
Cecille Perales
Jayme McMahon
Michelle Lee
Joe-Elliott Nez
Abigail Montoya
Marilee Petranovich

50th ANNIVERSARY WEBPAGE

We will be releasing our commemorative 50th anniversary webpage soon. If anyone has any special memories, stories, memorabilia, pictures, etc. that have significance to the history of UNM-Gallup please share them with Marilee Petranovich.

LOCAL ADVISORY BOARD MEETING

The next meeting of the local advisory board is scheduled for Tuesday, August 28th at 1:00 p.m. in the executive conference room. The meeting agenda has been published online. The majority of my reporting to our board of advisors will involve the presentation of financial and budget data to inform and keep them current on the fiscal health of the institution. Our board is responsible for approving the local budget every year before it goes to the UNM board of regents for final consideration.