Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Mesalands Community College’s president told the board of trustees during its regular meeting last week the college earlier that day had landed a $700,000 grant to help launch its nursing program.
Mesalands President Gregg Busch said during the board’s July 19 meeting he received a phone call just an hour before from an official with the New Mexico Higher Education Department about the grant. He said the grant will be confirmed later by the governor’s Cabinet secretary.
Busch said a one-time allotment of $500,000 from that grant will be used to purchase materials to build the college’s nursing education center. He said another $200,000 in an annually recurring grant will be used for salaries.
“Nursing is well on its way,” Busch said.
Busch said “a final step” for the program is accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission after an on-site visit in the fall.
Josh McVey, vice president of public relations, stated after the meeting the preliminary plan is to launch the nursing program by spring 2023.
Offering a nursing program had been a long-term goal of the last two presidents at Mesalands.
In other business:
• Christopher Jones, vice president of student affairs, gave a report, which included photographs, on a walk-through he and two other officials made through the Stampede Village student housing complex. He said the property lacked access for disabled students, and the building contained drainage, plumbing and electrical problems. In some cases, pallets were being used as furniture.
“I was in dismay,” Jones said. “Students just want a safe, clean, healthy place, which wasn’t in existence.”
Busch said housing remains important for student success, which prompted the college to relocate students from there.
• Manny Encinias of academic affairs gave a report about a needs assessment about meeting a need for more meat workers and developing curriculum for the college’s meats academy. He said the needs have become more acute because of supply-chain issues during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Encinias also said he hopes Mesalands soon will become a commercial driver’s license testing site. Many students have to drive to as far away as Taos for their testing. Mesalands relaunched its CDL course offerings in March.
• Jim Morgan, chief of campus operations, stated in his regular report the college’s solar capital project probably would begin in mid-August and last about two months. Renovations for Building A also are scheduled to begin in August.
• Busch said he’d been honored as one of the top 50 CEOs in the nation and was in Nashville to pick up the award.
“It’s not me. It’s all of you,” Busch said, is voice wavering with emotion. “This is great. We’re recognized as one of the best colleges in the nation.”
• McVey said the college’s enrollment in spring 2022 fell slightly, by 31 students, after a 19% increase during the fall of 2021. He attributed that decline due to COVID-19 lockdowns at correctional facilities that are part of the Mesalands system.
• Athletic Director Martin Rasic said Mesalands would add clay target shooting as a co-ed sport by the 2023-2024 school year. He said it would be under the National Junior College Athletic Association umbrella.