During Northern New Mexico College President Rick Bailey’s president’s report Oct. 22, he shot a quick video for Instagram of the regents meeting. He panned the room and said this was where all the important decisions are made.
The reason for his posting was for his participation in a program started by Northern Student Senate President Bruno Guedes called “Day in the life of an Eagle.” Guedes said the idea was to show the daily life of students, teachers, staff and on Oct. 22 Bailey had the duty. The idea had come from the previous year’s senate.
Bailey also recognized Victor Faria. Both students are from Brazil, playing basketball (both about 6-feet, 4-inches tall) and are active in student senate.
After Bailey finished the president’s report Guedes talked about student senate.
“This is an amazing student senate,” he said. “We’re meeting through Zoom every two weeks.”
Guedes and Faria had an authentic Brazilian lunch with Assistant Provost Don Appiarius and got to know each other.
“We’ve had two workshops on communication styles and conflict resolution,” Guedes said. “We had a virtual concert celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and thank you to Sophia Rey who played.”
Northern Athletic Director Ryan Cordova was scheduled to speak this week about teamwork and collaboration.
Student Regent Evelyn Juarez was given status as a student senator, as non-voting member, Guedes said.
Board of Regents President Michael Martin asked if the student senate would again be doing the Christmas wish tree. For several years, student senators have found needs of Northern students for Christmas gifts and matched them with a donor.
Guedes said they would execute that program again. Bailey lauded the idea.
“This is an opportunity for students struggling with an emergent issue and they actually go to students for some kind of help,” he said. “The students came up with it.”
“I know they left higher ed.,” Bailey said. “They left without finishing their degree.”
He said there was no data, but anecdotally staff asked students and found it had nothing to do with Northern or classes.
“A tire went out or a child was sick or they had to get a job,” he said. “For many of us this is an inconvenience but for a college student it can be a catastrophe. And students, with their heart, came up with the giving tree idea.”