After statehood was achieved, no governor of New Mexico came to the office with more stature than Bill Richardson: congressman, Ambassador to the United Nations, Secretary of Energy. He walked into the Roundhouse with creds. Credibility added to his power, and he knew how to use it. But management and reform of state government were not always his highest priorities and his record shows it. From the beginning, he really wanted to run for President. Like Richardson, Hector Balderas will take the reins of Northern New Mexico College with creds: state legislator, state auditor, attorney general. How he chooses to use this added power is something many eyes will watch.
Credit Balderas: this job entails serious political risk. Richardson became governor in a state that was running tolerably well. Balderas is becoming president as an era of chronic crisis eases at Northern, but is not over. In my tenure as Secretary of Higher Ed (2011-2015) Northern was the only institution that invariably caused eyeballs to roll at the mention of its name among members of the political class. As gossip about Northern became more widespread, I instructed my staff in all seriousness not to roll their eyeballs when discussing issues of regulatory compliance at Northern. Northern was the only institution where delegates representing students and faculty came to me asking for help (there was little I could do—the regents control), and one of the few in which rumors of malfeasance abounded. Just last month a former financial services director pleaded guilty of embezzling money several years ago. In the past six years Richard Bailey, and then Barbara Medina, skillfully steered the institution toward better management. This was an essential step and they each deserve strong praise. However, perhaps wisely, neither addressed even more fundamental issues having to do with Northern’s core academic identity.
The problem arose when Northern became a four-year college after legislation authorized it in 2006. Until then it had been a reasonably well-adapted community college with strong programs in nursing and teacher preparation. But as four-year programs were initiated, conflict emerged within the college. Management began dropping some of its core two-year trade programs, betting the bank on the emerging four-year program. This was followed by pushback from students and faculty of the dropped programs. Accreditation issues surfaced and Northern was unable to attract enough college students or qualified faculty to render the four-year program viable. Enrollment collapsed. Financial mismanagement was evident. The town-and-gown relationship chilled and elites came to view Northern as political baggage.
To slow the bleeding, Bailey instituted managerial reform and restored some of the trade programs. He also established stronger relationships with the community—businesses, local government, legislators. Enrollments improved. But a coherent vision of just what role Northern might play for students, the local community, and the wider norteño community has not emerged. Northern has traditionally acted as a feeder school for local students aspiring to occupy non-scientist jobs as technicians at the Los Alamos Labs, or learn a trade such as automobile repair. This role appears to be on the road to recovery. But what role the four-year college might play–which majors, what academic niche among the region’s colleges—is still in limbo. These are decisions Balderas is expected to make; then he must build. You can’t pull a four-year college off the shelf at Walmart. It must be tailor-made in a competitive environment of 24 public schools of higher learning.
In a larger sense, the identity problem at Northern runs much deeper than finding programs and resources—and above all students–at the four-year level that are sustainable. El Norte is the heartland of a colonist-native experience that began in 1598. Since then, waves of immigrants to the region have brought Anglos, a world-class scientific community following the Manhattan Project, Sikhs, new immigrants from Mexico and Central America, artists, and others, to the region. Not a lot of self-reflection about this intercultural soup has taken place. Is there an intercultural “we” possible in El Norte, or are we doomed to remain locked in our own cultural boxes? Can we improve our weak economic base or are we doomed to remain among the poorest areas of the state? What should we seek in our future relationship with the vast stretches of forest land in the region? Are we doomed to suffer the increasingly dysfunctional agencies that control it? People turn to higher education to better understand their environment and find insight into what they might become. As delegations of faculty and students visited me in my office at the Higher Ed Department I suspected that beneath the specific concerns of the moment, and behind the strong community push in 2006 for a four-year college, was a yearning for an institution that would satisfy these deeper needs.
It took guts, Hector. Te deseamos lo major. Or, as they say in Ohkay Owingeh, woewatsi/haἃ.
Dr. Jose Garcia is a retired professor of politics at NMSU. He also served as Secretary of Higher Education from 2011-2015.