February 14, 2017 – Dona Ana CC Las Cruces & NM State @ Alamogordo

Woke up to Thunderstorms in Las Cruces yesterday.  The bad weather that greeted me entering New Mexico was worse today.  After checking the Doppler I decided it would be best to try and visit the local Las Cruces CC and then head east.  The weather in Las Cruces wasn’t going to let up until Monday evening and there were some clear skies to the east but not the south.  Putting on rain gear and the heated jacket liner I headed out in the wet and cold.

Dona Ana Community College

DACC was laid out for the very hot temperatures in the summer there but it works well for the rain and cold as well.  The layout of the buildings is such that you can travel from one side of the campus to the other indoors and the buildings form light (and rain) filled patios but the gaps between them are short for people in transit from one building to the next.  When I entered the first building it was warm, both physically and ascetically, and impression that would be reinforced by all my interactions with the people working and studying there.  

I wandered further into the main building and found a large triangle shaped lounge space with a café and open tables with lots of light.  It was filled with studying students and staff enjoying their breaks with colleagues.  When I entered it felt like one of the saloon scenes from an old western movie.  One by one, each person there looked up from his or her work to appraise and regard my presence.  I thought what a tight knit community this must be if every foreigner who enters gets the once over by the locals.  Then I realized I was the only 6’4” person wearing bright florescent green motorcycle rain gear dripping with water.  Sane people do not ride motorcycles in this kind of weather, and the insane do tend to pique our curiosity…  

I got a cup of coffee and sat down to warm up.  As I eavesdropped on the conversations swirling around me, as I looked up statistics on my phone.  DACC is a community college of about 8000 students.  It is one block over from New Mexico State University and in Las Cruces really looks like an added wing of NMSU.  If you crossed the street you would be in a university hall.  (Unless of course you crossed the other street then you would be in a livestock feed yard from the university’s agriculture dept.)  I noted the diversity of the people in the cafeteria, there were old and young, mostly young, Spanish and English were being spoken interchangeably and a few women were wearing Hijabs.  The conversations seemed to be about various regulatory issues, one group was listening to a classmate describe his work as a compliance officer; another group of nursing students was studying clinical protocols for a test.  I couldn’t help thinking, all of our job now a days seem to be more about compliance and regulations than independent thought or judgment.

After coffee, I wandered the block long campus, it looked pretty familiar, with allied health in one building, trade skills in another with welders working in the rain while students studying auto mechanics stayed dry in the large garage.  A nice receptionist in the health building directed me to admissions where I had entered when I told her I was interested in finding out how this community college integrates with the university next door.

At the admissions desk I met another exceptionally warm and friendly academic advisor, who invited me into her office for a brief chat.  She explained that in New Mexico the Community College system is part of the university system.  They are accredited independently from the university system but have the same accrediting body.  They offer Associates Degrees and CTE certificates but do not duplicate all the infrastructure because they are all part of the same systems, same HR Dept., same purchasing, same mascots. …“We are all aggies!”…  This organizationally made sense to me on some level why duplicate so much.  This also cuts off a lot of the issues of competition.  The college I visited this morning was very focused on the programs they offered they were clearly defined and they did not need to fund a preforming arts center, or a gymnasium, because that was just next-door.  I inquired as to how governance worked and found out that the Chancellor of the university is also in charge of the Dona Ana and all the other community colleges in the system.  This has both a positive and negative aspect to it.  Its all one system, but one person, no matter how much you pay them or give them their own jet for commuting cannot attend to such diverse educational objectives and I got the impression sometimes the Community College system was not given as much focus as perhaps it deserves at the university level.

What students must get a lot of is warmth, because the people I met, the ones in most direct contact with the students, were so very friendly, open and warm, and willing to give of their time and share their knowledge with me.

New Mexico State University at Alamogordo

Around 90 Miles away from Las Cruces is Alamogordo and I made it there by the afternoon.  Here too I was impressed by how open, helpful, and informative the people I met were.  Having understood that all levels of higher education in New Mexico are part of the same system I was informed that the campus at Alamogordo while titled NMSU was just the community college portion of the system.  They share central functions and can share some online courses with the other community education sites but all of them are like spokes on a wheel and at the center of the wheel is the university in Las Cruces. 

Here I was lucky enough to be welcomed into the Office of the Vice President of Business and Finance, who was very helpful and willing to share his knowledge.  In New Mexico the Community Colleges, which are part of the university system, are funded by a formula.  Much like we in California receive apportionment based on student hours of attendance, in New Mexico the formula for apportionment takes into account outcomes as well.  Individual community colleges receive more funds based on rates of transfer, completion etc.  This formula receives adjustments for student populations with greater need, or for student progression in STEM disciplines and various other adjustors.  Being part of the same system means direction from the university can take the form of changing the apportionment formula.  Need more students completing in STEM disciplines adjust the apportionment so colleges get more resources for that outcome.  I noted we have many other challenges in common with NMSU @ Alamogordo, the difficulty in finding and retaining nursing and science faculty, and the challenge of keeping institutional programs stable in boom and bust countercyclical rhythms in the economy.

As I wandered the wet campus, most of the 1500 students present were in small classes.  Even in this smaller more rural college it was clear from its location high above the cloud-covered plain that these students were involved in their “higher education”, an aspiration punctuated by a sculpture on the front lawn of a fist holding a diploma!

The Ride:

Today I rode just over 200 miles and the conditions were amazing.  The entire day was wet and cold.  However, knowing this was the case from the thunderclap that woke me up in the morning, I prepared myself accordingly with many layers of raingear and heated jacket liner and grips.  By the end of the day I was still warm, dry, and happy from experiencing such a wonderful stretch of riding in such awful conditions.  I decided to head east because the majority of the storm was south.  My only trepidation being if I were to go too far up in elevation the rain would turn to snow.  As I headed out of Las Cruces visibility was not great, but as I headed to the San Agustin pass a massive mountain covered in snow revealed itself before me.  The road I was on was headed right into the center of it.  I swallowed twice, adjusted the heat on my gear and bared forward.  The pass veered off to the side of the mountain but not before elevating to 5700 feet giving me a brief ~20 minute journey riding in snowfall.  As the elevation decreased the snow turned to rain again, with gear and heat holding.  There is a certain smell my bike makes when its ridden hot in the rain.  It is something created by the vaporization of the water on the hot exhaust, something akin to an oily tea steam smell.

The roads were clear with very little traffic all day.  Coming down from the pass I went by White Sands National Monument and the air base of the same name where the US tested its early missals.  I was also greeted by a US Border Patrol inspection point, where every car was asked to stop.  I convinced the patrol officer I was not hiding any illegal border crossers with me on my motorcycle and was allowed to pass.  After visiting the College at Alamogordo, I also visited the International Space Hall of Fame, which is located right above the College.  The museum is a four story square cube building in which you take the elevator to the top floor and walk down though space exploration history.  I particularly appreciated one section with was devoted to Gene Rodenberry and Star Trek with lots of props and original series memorabilia.  

At this point the storm clouds were still hanging overhead, but not dropping rain.  I decided to continue east and was rewarded with one of the nicest rides through the forest in Lincoln County.  This part of the trip also took me through part of the Mescalero Apache Indian reservation.  In contrast to my experiences in Arizona not only was the land and forest spectacularly beautiful, so were the man made structures.  The roadways were decorated with murals depicting life and culture affirming murals.  There were tribal centers and community services and a church nestled in mountain woods that looked like a European postcard.  The fresh cleaning by the rains made the ride and scenery all the more vibrant.  By nightfall I had arrived in Roswell.  With clouds still overhead the sun was setting.  Too late to even examine the town, I will leave it till tomorrow to search for extraterrestrials…