Office of the President
Monday Morning Memo | April 27, 2009
Dear NMSU Community:
Good morning! The gusty winds of the spring season are subsiding and we are ready to welcome the wonderful days of summer. Taking stock of our semester, I would like to share with you some of the books that have accompanied me during the last few months.
I started the year with Thomas Friedman's book Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How it can Revive America. Our vice presidents and deans agreed to read the book over the Winter Break and met in January for a session that concluded with the declaration of 2009 as "The Year of Sustainability at NMSU."
I particularly enjoy books written by our NMSU authors, like the ones shared with me this semester:
The Half-Known World: On Writing Fiction, by Robert Boswell (English Department) is a great collection of essays on the art he masters to perfection. Dr. Boswell is a prolific writer who has been recognized as one of the finest in the nation. His first novel, Crooked Hearts, was widely acclaimed in 1989 and found its way to Hollywood under the same title.
Winning at Illinois, offers an inside look at the life and accomplishments of Coach Lou Henson (Athletics Department). This sharecropper's son born in Okay, Oklahoma, became a basketball coach and taught in Las Cruces High School before coming to NMSU. One of the few coaches to accumulate over 500 wins, Coach Henson took NMSU and the University of Illinois to the Final Four.
Closing the Chasm, is a powerful memoir written in epistolary style by Dr. Benjamin Diven (Student Success Division). Through a series of letters addressed to his son, Dr. Diven opens his heart and describes the personal and professional challenges that have marked his life while battling a debilitating illness.
Economic Abundance, by Jim Peach (Economics Department) and William Dugger, is just hot off the press. The book offers a fascinating historical and intellectual study about the concept of abundance. The Preface challenges traditional definitions, "The modern world needs an economy based on modern notions of widespread abundance and equality rather than concepts of inequality."
Other books have been recommended by our NMSU people. Mac Adams (Office of Human Resources) introduced me to The Leadership Challenge, by James Kouses and Barry Posner. The book describes five practices of exemplary leadership: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. Interestingly, Dr. Charles Townley (Educational Management and Development) and his class studied the book and offered me valuable advice.
Some months ago, Provost Bob Moulton and Dean Emerita Virginia Higbie (College of Health and Social Services) recommended Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, while Dean Lowell Catlett (College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences) told me about Malcolm Gladwell's The Outliers. Last month, when Dean Bill Eamon (Honors College) invited Salman Rushdie to NMSU, the author persuaded me to read the debut of Pakistani writer Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. Inspired by the Speaker Series, I discovered Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who wrote Banker to the Poor: Micro-lending and the battle against world poverty. Finally, Dr. Steve Loring, Chair of the Sustainability Council, recommended Alan Weisman's The World Without Us and Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.
I have overwhelmed you with some of my readings and would love to receive your recommendations. Let me invite you to, collectively, create the NMSU Summer Reading List. Ford Ballard (KRWG-FM) proposes that the titles be organized by categories and the list will be posted on my Web site.
So, what do you think? What books should we include in our NMSU Summer Reading List? Please send me your favorite author, title, and a brief synopsis to president@nmsu.edu.
Have a great week,
Waded Cruzado
