Michael V. Martin NMSU President

The 40^th anniversary of KRWG radio provides a perfect opportunity for us to focus an issue of Panorama on NMSU’s many successful journalism graduates. While NMSU may be traditionally thought of as an agricultural or engineering school, journalism is one of the truly outstanding liberal arts majors offered at the university.

Thanks to the excellent opportunities provided by both KRWG radio and KRWG television, NMSU students are able to supplement their classroom learning with on-the-job experience that virtually assures them a job after graduation.

I have had the chance to meet many of our journalism graduates in New Mexico and Texas during my first few months on the job. One of my first interviews was with Hillary Floren, a 1998 graduate who is now a familiar face on the KVIA-TV morning news in El Paso. When I visited KDBC-TV in El Paso, I learned that there were 10 – count them – Aggies working on the news team there. Among them are anchor Shelton Dodson ’94 and news director David Morgan ’93.

Under the leadership of Dean Garrey Carruthers, our College of Business Administration and Economics also is doing an excellent job of preparing graduates to enter the rapidly changing business world. The creation of the Arrowhead Center, new MBA programs that offer specializations in agribusiness and engineering, and a new program that enables students from New Mexico Military Institute to receive a bachelor’s degree in business administration from NMSU are just a few examples of this.

Dean Carruthers has demonstrated his commitment to the College of Business Administration and Economics by making a $500,000 gift to establish a new chair that will focus on economic development. A $1 million match from the state will make this endowment worth $1.5 million.

We are extremely grateful to Dean Carruthers for this gift and for his leadership not only of the business college, but for NMSU’s overall economic development initiatives as well. He recently accepted my request to serve as vice provost for economic development in addition to his duties as a dean.

NMSU’s program for academically talented students was originally called the Honors Program, but it was renamed the Honors College last summer. This name change is more than symbolic. It represents a commitment on the part of the university to developing a program that will attract the state’s best students to NMSU. Under the leadership of Bill Eamon, the Honors College has already made major strides in this direction. It has opened a residence hall designed primarily for honors students and created an office to help academically talented students compete for major national and international scholarships.

We look forward to what the next 40 years will bring for the Honors College, KRWG, the College of Business Administration and Economics and NMSU as a whole.