-= NMSU PANORAMA - Summer 2006 =- Lessons of Leadership

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Lessons of Leadership

By Julie M. Hughes '95

Former NMSU student body presidents are making a mark on our world

Cyrus Salazar
Courtesy Photo

One is a first lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps serving in Iraq, one is a Doña Ana County commissioner, another operates a multi-million-dollar child care facility at Nellis Air Force Base, but one thing they all have in common is the belief that serving as president of the Associated Students of New Mexico State University (ASNMSU) had a profound impact on their education and their life.

“So much of what you glean from your service as a student leader can be transmitted to a public service career,” says Cyrus Salazar ’99 ’01, who served as president in 1998-99. Salazar is serving as the Hispanic employment program manager for the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C.

Salazar says he had a yearning to be involved in student leadership because it was an avenue to effect change. He continues his efforts to make societal changes today as he works toward increasing the number of Hispanics employed by the federal government.

“I learned you have to stand up for what you believe in,” he says. “I have been able to pull from so many of my experiences with ASNMSU.”

Salazar says one of the primary issues on campus during his presidency was free speech, which does not differ from the experiences of others including Fernando Macias ’75, who served as president of ASNMSU in 1973-74.

“There were a lot of emerging efforts in the ’70s to give students an overall voice in the running of the university,” says Macias, who was the first NMSU student with a Spanish surname to be elected student body president. “It was a time of unrest in our country and at NMSU; students were pushing to be heard.”

Macias, an attorney who serves as the executive director for New Mexico Legal Aid, says serving as a student leader enriches a person’s educational experience.

Fernando Macias
Photo by J. Victor Espinoza

“It exposes you to so many different kinds of people at so many different levels in a variety of situations,” he says.

Macias, who says he always knew he wanted a career in law and politics, went on to attend law school at Georgetown University then returned to New Mexico where he has served in a variety of capacities including 16 years as a state senator.

“I always knew I wanted to come back to New Mexico,” Macias says.

Bill McCamley ’01 says he too wanted to come back and make a difference locally. McCamley, who served as ASNMSU president from 2000-01, went to the JFK School of Government at Harvard after graduating from NMSU, but returned after earning his master’s degree in public policy “because local politics gives you a direct connection to the people that your actions are affecting.”

“When you do something to help people, you can directly see the changes,” says McCamley, who was elected to the Doña Ana County Commission in 2004. “I used to complain about everyone leaving their communities after graduating, so I decided I better put my money where my mouth is. I love Las Cruces and I want to see it be better.”

McCamley says his biggest growing experience serving as ASNMSU president was learning to work within the system.

“I always wanted to work from the outside, but you can not always do that. I learned that students needed to work together to make changes,” he says.

McCamley says one of his greatest frustrations serving as president was that one year was not enough time to do everything he wanted, a sentiment echoed by many former ASNMSU presidents.

Bill McCamley
Photo by Darren Phillips

Thomas Murray ’71 ’72 ’77 says that is the reason he chose to run for ASNMSU president more than once. Murray is the only person to hold the student body presidency at NMSU three times. He was elected in 1972-73, 1974-75 and 1975-76.

“I wanted to finish projects. A year seems long, but when it ends and you are not finished, you get frustrated,” Murray says.

Murray, a retired teacher living at Caballo Lake, was a non-traditional student as well, returning to college after serving in the military.

“I was married and had three children while I was going to school, but that was not that unusual at NMSU at the time. I remember taking my oldest son to his first day of kindergarten on my first day of classes at NMSU,” he says.

Murray agrees with Macias that it was a different climate at NMSU in the early ’70s.

“I often found myself at odds with the administration, but I greatly admired Dr. Gerald Thomas’ sense of fairness,” Murray says. “Serving as a student leader taught me the art of compromise, patience and negotiation skills.”

Molly O’Nan Hayes ’89, ASNMSU president from 1987-88, has taken her lessons of patience from her days serving ASNMSU and put them to work as an early childhood specialist.

“I worked on special projects while Mitch Lee served as president and he encouraged me to run,” says O’Nan Hayes, who is one of only about six women who have served as ASNMSU president to date.

Molly O'Nan Hayes
Photo by Airman 1st Class Tina Waugh

Budgeting was one experience that O’Nan Hayes, who works for the U.S. Air Force in Las Vegas, Nev., as a civil servant directing one of its largest day-care facilities, says she learned a great deal about while leading ASNMSU.

“Serving as president really broadened my educational experience,” she says. “I would tell anyone who really cares about your fellow students and your university to get involved. Go for it! Anytime you put yourself out there, you gain lifelong experience.”

U.S. Marine 1st Lt. Michael Kozeliski ’96, who served as ASNMSU president from 1995-96, says he still calls every August to talk to the new ASNMSU president.

“They are a little surprised to hear from me. I have been gone a few years now and I need to refer them to the list of past presidents on the wall. It has been a way for me to stay connected,” Kozeliski says. “Being the president of ASNMSU has been one of the top 10 important things I have done in my life.”

That’s quite a statement from a former decathlete who after graduation worked for U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici and U.S. Rep. Joe Skeen and was heavily involved in George W. Bush’s 2000 election and then served as a member of the president’s inauguration committee before being appointed to a Department of the Interior position.

Today Kozeliski is serving his country on a different front – serving on a transition team in Iraq that is training the Iraqi military.

Michael Kozeliski
Courtesy Photo

“If my being over here can keep even one U.S. Marine or soldier from having to leave his family, then it was worth it,” Kozeliski says of his second tour of duty in Iraq, for which he volunteered at the beginning of 2006. “I am advising the Iraqi Army in basic infantry techniques and conducting air support and artillery support as necessary. It’s along the lines of what is taught in civil engineering classes at NMSU.”

Each former ASNMSU president is particularly proud of one or two things from his or her time as the student body leader. Kozeliski says he was glad the student government was able to establish a partnership with the Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce. Salazar is glad his administration was able to establish a climbing wall for students. McCamley is proud of the lobbying the students did to support the establishment of the Lottery Scholarship.

“ASNMSU is a learning laboratory,” Kozeliski says. “You learn to deal with people in a very real world setting and you learn to take responsibility for your actions.”

“It was one of the best years of my life,” McCamley concludes.

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Remember when…

Photo courtesy NMSU Library Archives and Special Collections

Former presidents of the Associated Students of New Mexico State University, standing from left, Fernando Macias ’75 and Tom Murray ’71 ’72 ’77 are pictured here with former NMSU President Gerald Thomas in 1973. Also pictured, sitting from right, are fellow student leader Michael Davis ’75 ’98 and an unidentified student. If you know the unidentified Aggie alum, please let us know at panorama@nmsu.edu

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