Office of the President
Monday Morning Memo
May 4, 2009
Dear NMSU Community:
Good morning! The semester is coming to an end, and of course that means we are excitedly preparing for our spring commencement ceremonies. A highlight of the Las Cruces campus ceremony will be the awarding of two honorary degrees: to former NMSU golf coach Herb Wimberly, as well as NMSU alumna and longtime TV newscaster Carla Aragon. To date, the university has awarded 139 honorary degrees.
The conferring of honorary degrees - recognizing the recipients' unique contributions to society - is an important tradition during commencement. The recipients' achievements and leadership help graduates appreciate the range of opportunity possible for their own futures as a result of their education. NMSU's first honorary degree was awarded in 1927 to legendary researcher Fabian Garcia, inventor of the Number 9 Chile and the Garcia Pecan.
Herb will be honored for his incredible career as both a professional golfer and a champion coach. His 47 years of dedication to NMSU included much mentoring of students and helping to shape the next generation of leaders.
Carla will be honored for her dedication to New Mexico as an outstanding community member and her career as a television journalist, which was launched here at NMSU's KRWG-TV and included many years as an anchor and reporter for KOB-TV in Albuquerque.
Both have done much for the university over the years, and we look forward to showing our gratitude to them with this recognition. In doing the research for today's memo, we came across an interesting sample of Carla's early work here at NMSU. Click this link to watch an NMSU YouTube video that outlines some of the history of the university:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHIT72sHyDc&feature=channel_page.
As mentioned in the video, NMSU's first graduating class, the class of 1893, had just one member - Samuel Steel. Unfortunately, Steel was shot and killed shortly before graduation in what was then still very much the Wild West. The following year we had five graduates. All received bachelor's of science degrees. One of them was the university's first female graduate, Agnes Williams. Another person in that class was Fabian Garcia, at the dawn of his career.
This spring, the Las Cruces campus has 2,003 candidates for degrees and more than 1,400 will participate in the commencement ceremonies at the Pan American Center. An additional 600 students are candidates for degrees at NMSU's community colleges.
Of course, the learning never really ends at NMSU, and what better way to spend some leisure time this summer than reading a good book? Thanks to all the people who already made recommendations for our NMSU Summer Reading List. We have a good start and will take additional recommendations through Wednesday, May 6. Please send me your favorite author, title, and a brief synopsis to president@nmsu.edu. The preliminary list is below, but it is still a work in progress and will be refined, updated with additional recommendations until Wednesday, and then posted on the Web site at http://www.nmsu.edu/president/.
Have a great week,
Waded Cruzado
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