Points of Pride

New Mexico State University - Unleashing Potential

Founded in 1888, NMSU is the state's land-grant institution, serving a multicultural population through teaching, research and service.
NMSU has an estimated economic impact of about $1 billion in New Mexico.
In addition to its status as a land-grant institution, NMSU is one of 52 institutions in the United States to be designated a Space Grant College. During its most recent review by NASA, the university was one of only 12 space grant programs in the country to receive an excellent rating.
NMSU has been rated as one of America's 100 Best College Buys® for offering "the very highest quality education at the lowest cost" for nine consecutive years.
Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education ranks NMSU as 22nd in bachelor's degrees awarded to Hispanics.
Diverse: Issues in Higher Education rates NMSU as one of the top 30 universities for Hispanic and Native American students.
NMSU was rated in the top 50 colleges and universities in the U.S. by The Washington Monthly for “fostering scientific and humanistic research,” and promoting “an ethic of service to country.”
NMSU graduated its first black student in 1937 – several decades before many other American universities did.
Since its founding, the university has conferred more than 108,000 degrees. It has 83,000 listed alumni.
NMSU plays NCAA-Division 1-A athletics in the Western Athletic Conference.

NMSU is home to New Mexico's only Honors College.
NMSU is home to the oldest college of engineering in New Mexico. It offers the state's only programs in aerospace, industrial and surveying engineering.
NMSU offers the only accredited journalism program in New Mexico. 90 percent of its broadcast journalism students secure jobs after graduation.
NMSU is the only four-year university in New Mexico and West Texas that offers a degree in hotel, restaurant and tourism management. Its program ranks 21st among 115 college programs by the International Council of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Educators.
NMSU's Professional Golf Management program was one of the original four programs nationwide to be recognized as an official PGA program. The PGM program at NMSU is the only one in the state, and its graduates have a 100 percent career-placement rate.
NMSU's College of Education has one of only two people in the state certified to teach adaptable physical education.
NMSU nursing students have a first-time pass rate of 96 percent on the National Council Licensure Examination, exceeding the national average of 83.4 percent.
47 percent of NMSU's student-athletes have a 3.0 GPA or better.
In the past five years, three NMSU professors have been named New Mexico Professor of the Year. The award given by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education., salutes the most outstanding undergraduate instructors in the country.

NMSU is the top U.S. Department of Defense contractor among Hispanic-serving universities.
NMSU is one of the first universities in the country to adopt the concept of "research clusters" to enhance its value to the state and the nation. Current research clusters focus on 21st century aerospace; information sciences and security systems; natural resource sustainability and renewal; biosciences; and Southwest and border regions health, education, culture and development.
The turfgrass used at the Superbowl in 2003 and 2004 was developed at NMSU.
The efforts of NMSU's Physical Science Laboratory and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory are helping to save American lives through the development of the device known as ICE (IED Countermeasure Equipment). The signal-jamming device keeps improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from detonating. IEDs, which are responsible for about half of all U.S. casualties in Iraq, are makeshift bombs often placed in roadways and triggered remotely using garage door openers, cell phones or other electronic signals.
NMSU's Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) is a research training support activity of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, helping to prepare minority students for research careers and to increase the number and skills of scientists from underrepresented minority groups who are engaged in biomedical research.

NMSU's Cooperative Extension Service offers research-based expertise and community education programs for businesses, families and young people in every county in New Mexico.
The Cooperative Extension Service was number one in research and public service of 38 programs in the Commission on Higher Education's last quadrennial review.
The Arrowhead Center at NMSU helps New Mexico entrepreneurs turn their ideas into profit by providing assistance in areas such as identifying markets, verifying new technologies, writing business plans and finding financing.
NMSU is the only university to reach the platinum, or highest, level of service to NASA's Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program (SATOP). The program makes the expertise of corporate and university researchers available to small businesses. Platinum participants contribute more than 1,000 hours a year to the program.
NMSU's College of Education is helping elementary and middle school students in the Gadsden Independent School District understand and build math concepts and raise test scores through the Gadsden Math Initiative (GMI). The initiative is funded by the National Science Foundation.
WERC: A Consortium for Environmental Education and Technology Development, administered through the NMSU College of Engineering, is helping several communities throughout New Mexico remove dangerous levels of arsenic in drinking water and to meet the Environmental Protection Agency's revised arsenic standards.

Administered by University Communications and Marketing Services (505) 646-3221; Fax (505) 646-2099; E-mail: ucomm@nmsu.edu