Office of the President

Monday Morning Memo

August 4, 2008

As I begin my new role as interim president of New Mexico State University, one of my highest priorities is to reach out to our campus community and establish regular channels of communication, and so I welcome you to one such effort: the Monday Morning Memo.

I plan to begin each Monday with a look ahead to the coming week; an update on the progress we are making on important priorities; or discussions of topics on campus of interest to us all.

The Monday Morning Memo will be delivered via e-mail to all faculty, staff and students each week. To be successful, this method of communication must be a two-way street, so I welcome your feedback. Please e-mail your thoughts to president@nmsu.edu.

I would like to include a few thoughts in this first Monday Morning Memo and save a more complete discussion of our priorities until later, when all of our students and faculty are in place as the fall semester gets under way.

First, I would like to say that I am very proud to be serving this institution as its interim president. I am honored to have this opportunity to lead the university, and I pledge to devote my full attention and effort to helping us move forward in the important work, as stated in our mission statement, of meeting the educational needs of our diverse populations. We consistently strive to accomplish this through excellence in teaching, research and service.

Second, I invite the campus community to work with me in the process of moving NMSU forward. Our institution thrives on the concept of collaborations, and I will continue to have conversations and engage different constituents in identifying what our priorities should be.

Third, I am committed to building on our wonderful tradition of reaching out to the broader community and nurturing our bridges of collaboration, whether through our statewide presence at Cooperative Extension Service Offices, Tribal Extension Offices, agricultural science centers, community colleges, the many outreach efforts in place through the individual colleges or other ways we reach our constituents.

We have the start of a new semester at hand, an opportunity, once again, to transform lives. Thank you for all your hard work in the past, and I look forward to your efforts to help this institution be the best it can be as we move forward.

Go Aggies!

Waded Cruzado
NMSU Interim President