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NMSU Albuquerque Center moves to new, larger location

The academic programs and student services housed in Albuquerque have moved to a new location, 4501 Indian School Road. With the move, the Albuquerque Center expanded its classroom capacity from three, 25-student capacity classrooms to 18 classrooms of various sizes, including computer classrooms and others equipped with distance learning technology.

"We had reached capacity in our programs in the old center, located at 2444 Louisiana Blvd., so this will allow us to grow the current programs and add additional ones," said Carmen Gonzales, dean of the College of Extended Learning.

Currently NMSU offers three academic programs, student enrollment services and support for distance education students at the Albuquerque Center. Master's degree programs in social work and criminal justice are conducting on-site classes, while the master's of public health on-line program is coordinated from the center.

NMSU opened the Albuquerque Center in the Compass Bank Building on Louisiana Boulevard in January 2005 as a home for the master's of social work program, which now has more than 100 students.

Students received information and advisory assistance at the new NMSU-Albuquerque Center, located at 4501 Indian School Road. Della Gallegos, distance education coordinator, helps a student with her fall schedule. Currently there are 100 students enrolled in the master's of social work program that offers faculty-led classes at the new facility.

Since that beginning, the Albuquerque Center also housed faculty from the criminal justice department, in addition to staff from the Enrollment Services, NMSU Foundation, University Communications and the Cooperative Extension Services's Strengthening Families Initiative and New Mexico Works programs. Distance education space in the center has consistently been in high demand, particularly for classes in the evenings and on weekends.

This summer more than 300 students took advantage of the new student orientation session held in Albuquerque at the former location to register for the fall semester.

"Having the off-campus registrations allows families from northern New Mexico the convenience of not having to travel to Las Cruces to register their Aggie for school," said Angela Mora-Riley, director of student enrollment services.

The future looks bright for the center as it moves from the 14,000 square-foot facility to the new 40,000 square-feet of space. In addition to the extra classroom space there are four conference spaces, along with offices for academic programs and faculty.

Plans are in the works to expand the Hotel Restaurant Tourism Management program to the Albuquerque facility.

"We plan to offer HRTM degrees through a two-plus-two program with Central New Mexico Community College," said Gonzales. "This new facility will allow us to offer many programs that are not provided in the Albuquerque area."

An open house will be held from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept.26. Tours will be given of the new facilities.

Written by Jane Moorman.