It’s highly possible that in the next month Northern New Mexico College will have a new president now that the search has been narrowed to four candidates.
This is yet another momentous juncture in the over 100-year history of the school.
The decision to choose a new leader for the school will affect the Española Valley and the quality of higher education for our future generations forever. The opportunities for growth and development of our youth -and the older students who pursue continuing education- will ripple across the lives of all who live here like a stone sent skimming across the Rio Grande.
We join all those in our community in the hopes the decision will be based on the merits of each of the candidates. It’s no secret that governing boards throughout Rio Arriba County and the region have been corrupted and weakened by political patronage, cronyism, nepotism, and favoritism. We cannot let that occur with the hiring of a new president. This is a job that requires the leadership to direct and manage the adults who teach and, yet, have the compassion and empathy to understand the youthful students, faced with so many distractions and complexities of the modern world, and who are there to learn.
The board has shown excellent decision-making with the hiring of Dr. Barbara Medina as interim president. She has immersed herself in the community and provided stability in a time of uncertainty.
Everyone in this area has a unique chance to hear directly from each of the candidates by attending the upcoming public forums where each candidate will speak and also answer questions from the audience. You can also go to this site to learn more detail about person. Go to nnmc.edu/presidential-search/.
Attorney General Hector Balderas spoke last week and drew about 60 persons in total from visits to both campuses.
Here is the schedule for the remaining candidates:
Dr. Bruno Hicks: Monday, Oct. 31, 2022
—El Rito Campus Alumni Hall 3 p.m.
—Española Campus Event Center 5 p.m.
Dr. Patricia Trujillo: Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022
—El Rito Campus Alumni Hall 3 p.m.
—Española Campus Event Center 5 p.m.
Dr. E. Yueh-Ting Lee: Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022
—El Rito Campus Alumni Hall 3 p.m.
—Española Campus Event Center 5 p.m.
Writing with the eye of a poet and with a deeply engrained sense of the history and traditions of this valley Dr. Medina, writing in the college’s weekly newspaper, pointed out the beauty and promise that exists here that is symbolized by the splendor of fall.
Listen to her as she describes this season of the lush scenes in nature and the hope that springs from these vistas. They symbolize the hope and possibilities a new president of the college will bring.
“As I drove home yesterday evening, I was mesmerized by the light. I just had to pull over and soak in the beauty of the Española Valley. I know that is something that we do not hear often about Española. We often struggle as a community and as an institution to inform, to educate others about how truly beautiful and ‘rich’; we are. For far too long we have been defined by others and by ourselves as ‘poor.’ We have our challenges. Too many of our people suffer from the lingering effects of bone crushing poverty and historical injustice as well as the attendant issues of substance abuse, violence and despair.
Yet, as the light danced in the air and hues of yellow and green of the Alamosa, as the cottonwoods shimmered, it was a magical moment; it was a moment to embrace the beauty, the inspiration, that our land provides us. This physical and natural beauty is our inheritance, as is our respect and care for the land. As we harvest our gardens, make apple cider and empanadas, let us look for the beauty of the season and let’s let that beauty and our gratitude be what we honor.
While my job as interim President is to fight for the resources needed to secure Northern’s present and future, I do so from a place of gratitude and appreciation for our broader community of the Española Valley and for our Northern community. We are a ‘rich’ institution; we take pride in our land, our people, our languages and our traditions. We know what our ancestors created. And yes, we will struggle. There are challenges. Then there are the moments when the light dances on leaves and we can say with confidence, as my Diné brothers and sisters remind us in the Beauty Way Blessing, ‘may we walk-in beauty, beauty below us, above us, beauty all around us and beauty within us.’
The promise of Northern is to lift up ourselves and our community through educational opportunity. That is how we will see the light.”