Report from Santa Fe; Steven Gamble

the National Education Association of New Mexico, an organization of professionals who believe that investing in public education is an investment in our state's economic future and by a grant from the Healey Foundation, Tau's New Mexico. Hello, I'm Lorraine Mills and welcome to report from Santa Fe. Our guest today is Dr. Steven Gamble, the president of Eastern New Mexico University. I'm proud to be here. Thank you for asking. Well, I have to give full disclosure because this program report from Santa Fe, our home station is K-E-N-W at Eastern New Mexico University in your beautiful New Broadcast Center. And we have been with you for 47 years actually before both of us were there. Well, we really value the affiliation, the relationship we have. We're really

proud to be the host of the show. Well, I'm really proud to be with you and I always will be. You have been, you're the ninth president of Eastern, you've been there since 2001. Tell us a little more about your background before you got to Eastern. Oh, yes, ma'am. Going way back, I was a military brat, lived around the world, ended up in high school in Japan, for example. Before I got here, I was West Texas State University's vice president for academic affairs. Then for almost 10 years, I was president of Southern Arkansas University, state supported master's level school. And for the past almost 12 years, I've been in Fort Dallas, where the town I dearly love. Well, Fort Dallas loves you too. And that's why we're particularly happy to have you on this week. Your degree, you've got a doctorate in American history. And with a minor in American lit, we both discovered we both love Mark Twain. We do. Yes. And so, another hat that you wear here is your member of the Council of University Presidents, led by Dr. Lopez of, he's the president from tech. The one and only. The one and only.

But it's wonderful. Not every state has a coalition of the university presidents to kind of watch over developments in higher education in the state. Yes, ma'am. We work well together. The four year presidents organization has seven members. Our president for life, it looks like, is Dan Lopez, who does a wonderful job. And our job is to advocate for higher education in Santa Fe. And we do that the best we can. Well, another very good colleague and friend of ours, Dr. John Counts, when he was president of Western and you were president of Eastern, I was like to you as like bookends on either side of the state, because your school and Western also represent really the finest that can be done in a small university. And when I looked at some of your statistics, the year enrollment has been up 60% in 12 years. Yes, ma'am. We, uh, 10 years ago, 12 years ago, we were around 3,600. Today we're over 5,800. So we've had very good growth. And it's a record high,

actually more than you ever had. It is. You offer a phenomenal combination of very high quality education and very low tuition. Yes, we do. We have the second lowest in the state of New Mexico, New Mexico Highlands is actually the least expensive. And we're a fourth lowest in the entire southwestern part of the United States for a four-year institution. Well, under your auspices, you have done a lot of work with the facilities because it's an older school and you have renovated so many of the buildings on the new residence halls. Well, that's how to get to a kid is have, you know, a nice place for them to live. But you've renovated how many buildings? Well, we've renovated the science building or music building, art and anthropology building or Anatatorium or student union building. We believe in renovation rather than new construction. One is because our campus is very pretty. We want to maintain that beauty. And secondly, it's just much more cost effective generally to renovate as opposed to build new construction.

You know, your campus is so lovely and I notice on your website, you have a map of the trees. Yes, we do. We are in the eastern part of the state, that's true. And so if you have a favorite tree and I've seen, you know, I've been under them. You can actually say, is this an ample tree? Is this a magnolia? I don't know what they all are. But I just thought that is such a lovely, it just shows you love the campus. We love each and every tree. That is the truth. Yes, yes. Another major renovation you did is with the Broadcast Center. So let's talk a little about KE&W and your Broadcast Center physically and what the program is about. Yes, ma'am, about eight years ago, we built that that's the one piece of new construction from state money that we built since 1989, by the way. But we built a brand new communication building. It hosts KE&W, our PBS station, our NPR radio station, plus our academic program in communication. The reason we built new is as opposed to renovate is you can't renovate sheet metal. And that's the building that was then

was an old sheet metal building. Now it's in a state of the art facility. And now you broadcast to the entire east side and parts of the neighboring states. Yes, ma'am, we do. We're on direct with our HD. Our standard is on dish. We're on cable systems. We think we do the best job you're going to find serving rural America with public television that you're going to find. The other thing and try not to reveal my prejudice here. But you do the best job. One of the best in the country of producing broadcast journalists because what's so unusual about the program at Eastern is that a student of broadcast journalism has to learn everything. They have to learn how to anchor, how to be a reporter, how to edit, how to shoot. I mean, it's just amazing that they can really there like and unfortunately television news and broadcast news is getting such that one individual has to be able to do with these. We believe very much in hands-on. We have people as say sophomores doing things that at a larger school and a larger station they may or may not even

get to do their senior year. So, you know, students that are looking for a hands-on experience as well as good theory and as well as just excellent instruction might want to take a look at Easter. Yeah. You have some other really exciting new programs. We do. One is our forensic science program. A lot of day students like to watch NCIS and other crime scene investigation shows. Our anthropology department combined with our chemistry, with our biology, our criminal justice, to produce a first-class forensic science. We actually have our own cadaver and a cadaver lab there. So, it's the fastest growing new program I've ever seen and it's really good quality in a very good environment. Another one, nursing. The nursing program, you know, we've had problems with state and they're nursing program but you now offer a master's. Yes, we just started. It's brand new. It's a master's degree in nursing fully accredited that will produce

nurse educators for the other schools in our state to be able to produce more RNs. In other words, they want to see masters prepared nurses as the instructors into the various nursing schools. There's a shortage of those masters prepared nurses so we're producing as many as we can through this program. A couple of other programs you've got the BAAS? Yes, we have two unique programs. Once the bachelor of applied arts and sciences and the other is bachelor of occupational education. They're both designed for the student that might have gone to a community college and major in something that was vocational and technical but now they want a bachelor's degree. Well, normally those two degrees I just mentioned are really full of people that have an associate degree and again a technical field but are wanting to work toward a fully accredited bachelor's degree. One, the bachelor of occupational education is aimed at producing occupational

education teachers in the public schools, others at the teaching degree and the BAS degree is for basically non-teachers. We're going to expand our horizons a little bit from Eastern to higher education in New Mexico and you have, we're filming in the last hours of the legislative session and there have been a lot of issues tossed back and forth. I think the most important thing that I've learned from you and from the Council of University Presidents is to remember that education here is not an expense, it is an investment. Yes ma'am, we consider this. So what investments has the legislature been making in education this session? Actually, I think for the past two sessions the legislature and the governor have been relatively generous to higher education. They've certainly been fair. Every unit in the state could use more money including higher education but in the time of scarce resources we think we've been treated fairly. Good, now you, what about

the lottery scholarships? That right now it's a day away from the closure of the session is our number one concern. The lottery scholarships, one of the most generous things I've ever seen a state do for its citizens. In other words it will fund all of the tuition for eight semesters. We know it's got to change because the lottery dollars are getting fewer and again as we raise tuition that also affects the scholarship. But the lottery scholarship bill that we hope passes in the next two days is one that would allow us to continue at our current rate of 100% for the students and give us a year's time to try to identify another revenue source or a solution to try to keep it at a high level. If nothing passes it probably will be funded about 65 cents on the dollar as opposed to the 100% so we're very anxious about the lottery scholarship. Well when this airs everyone will know how it turned out right now we don't know. Right now we

are very nervous. Another generous thing that you do is this dual credit system. Can you tell our audience a little about that? Dual credit is innovative and very we think a cost effective. It allows students while they're still in high school to take a rather enhanced course in say English that would meet the requirements that we would have for our freshman English class if they were in college but would also meet what the state wants to see in the senior English for high school. They would get credit for both the high school course toward high school graduation but they would pick up three semester credit hours toward graduation at any college in the state of New Mexico. It's great for the parents because it lessons I mean students are coming to us with OG maybe 30 hours. That's the equivalent of a year. So factor out what they would have to pay to put their child in school for that year and you can see the financial benefit to families.

It saves time, it saves money and the other thing is in New Mexico we are still having a lot of students who've never, they're the first in their family to go to college. Yes ma'am. And this reduces the intimidation factor. We're Eastern is something like 80 percent first generation college students and that's a special challenge for us and a special challenge for the families. So dual enrollment can certainly help in that regard and you combine dual enrollment with a lot of risk scholarship and the state has certainly done its fair share to support our sons and daughters that are and returning middle aged people that are that are in college today. Another way you have of expanding being as you're on the east side and you're close to the Texas border. Texas has a tuition waiver but you've also reciprocated that if all of our state universities if you're 85 miles away from our from one of our local campuses even though you're across

the state line we'll give you in state tuition. Yes ma'am Larry and actually it's 135 miles. Oh good good thank you. And Texas will grant any New Mexican no matter where they're from a reduced tuition in their state. We hold ours just to 135 miles but again in many cases we're the closest four year school to somebody just across the border in Texas and it really benefits that individual. And one other thing athletics is a very important part of it is college and you are I understand in really tough conferences. We are we're in the Lone Star conference against a bunch of those big Texas teams. The one contest we never lose always for the best mascots. Absolutely. We've got two of the cutest most lovable greyhands you're going to find on the face of the earth. We pamper them half to death but we're very proud of Vic and Tory are our greyhound mascots. We're also proud of our student athletes. They tend to graduate at a higher rate than the others

the other students at the institution. They do community service everything from reading an elementary school to going out and cleaning up a road that has a lot of trash on it. We're proud of our coaches proud of our student athletes and proud of the mascots. We're speaking today with Dr. Stephen Gamble who is the president of Eastern New Mexico University and we've been talking about outreach as far as interest state and interest state within the state and around the neighboring states but you have even gone international in terms of your outreach. Talk to me about your trips to China to Sichuan. We have about 150 international students out of the 5,800 total enrollment so it's still a small portion of our institution. It probably always will be. We see our mission to educate, to provide the best educational experience we can to the students that come to us. We're funded by the citizens in New Mexico. That's where we spend our money.

But we have about probably 90 Chinese students that are just delightful. They tend to be very polite. They tend to be very good citizens of the institution and they are just good students. We're proud to have them. I've taken two trips over there and it's a long way to get to China from Portales, New Mexico. Let me tell you. But I did one when I first got here to initiate the program and I did one about a year and a half ago I guess. And Sichuan province is where we seem to find our best numbers and our best students. So we maintain our relationships over there and we get in probably somewhere between 40 and 50 Chinese students a year. And our total complement right now is of Chinese is approximately 90. Yes. And so when you go obviously this is in translation. But what is it that you tell them about Eastern that draws them here? Oh, first of all the word of mouth among

the Chinese from the Chinese that are here. Back to their school probably has more bearing on whether or not they're going to come to Eastern or not. But I talked to them about the quality. I talked to them about the low cost because it is low cost compared to other schools. But I also talked to them about Portales, New Mexico. And what a friendly part of the world, Eastern New Mexico, we as not just the university, but the entire Eastern part of the state. And it's the truth. I mean when they leave they cry. I mean they'll go across the stage with tears in their eyes and I just really it's just great happening in there. And our students also are New Mexican students benefit by having them there too. Because when they graduate they're going to be going into a world that is is truly there's no limits to it. There's no boundaries anymore. And they will have interacted with somebody from a different culture, different faith perhaps. And they will be better suited I think to take their place in the in the in the world of work having interacted with people

from different cultures. You've been here long enough. I would love to ask you Dr. Gamble, how do you think how has education changed in New Mexico since you've been president of the Eastern? What do you see as changing? Well, New Mexicans have always wanted their citizens to be as educated as they can. We continually struggle with the amount of remediation that we need to offer to students coming in from high school or students that have been away from school for a long time. That number seems to have at least leveled off for which we are happy because for a while there it was really growing but it seems to have leveled off now. So the quality of the students coming out of the public schools now is better than it was seven eight nine years ago which I think is a very very big plus. Secondly and this is a negative I guess but the amount of paperwork that is involved with administering higher education anymore mostly from the federal government not the state is just absolutely overwhelming. I used to

love to teach a course and I would teach a course a semester or a course a year. I can't do that anymore just because of the one the increase in meetings that accompany the paperwork but secondly just the overwhelming amount of paper that gets shuffled. That's very frustrating. The legislature was committed to having a good educational program in the state when I got here and it still still has that same commitment so some of the things that have it changed I think are for the good. Now you talk about the legislature's commitment to education and even this governor has a very strong commitment to education. She does. Who are some of the lawmakers that have that you know you you their powerhouses that from your part of the state. I know that we've had just this session we've had on Representative Crook from Clovis and of course Senator Engel from Portalis. Representative Crook's Eastern graduate as is Dennis Raj. Yes yes we tried to get him it was just too late a session but he does a wonderful job representing education. And are there

other lawmakers? Oh well what I when I talk about the lawmakers from the Eastern part of the state we've got the best you're going to find we just don't have enough of them. Yes that's just that's the break of population. Senator Engel Carol Levelle Eastern graduate distinguished graduate as a matter of fact is just extremely good. Gay Kernen, Pat Woods and and Senator Pertler both wrote new but they've they've come across as very supportive of education and hard workers within the Senate. In the House Bob Willie and George Dodge each share a part of Roosevelt County. Don Bratton you already mentioned Anna Crook. David Gagel's again he's relatively new but he's he's really really I think fitting in well Bill Bill Gray, Candy Azale, Norris Panosa and I'm probably leaving somebody out but they're they're all supportive of education they're all supportive of Eastern we're very fortunate in that in that way. Catherine Brown almost Catherine's

daughter as a matter of fact is an Eastern graduate and is in her third year of loss third year of med school at UNM. Oh my goodness. So we're happy that Representative Brown's off at the center daughter of Eastern. Oh yes yes well that's that's quite a list you have and if we let somebody out I apologize too. They are they're they're just all all good accessible people that we've got a lot to be proud of on the Eastern part of the state. Yeah yeah and so what do you look forward to in the future? I know you've you're on this renovation and improving the facilities which is fabulous because a lot of schools have not been able to do that so I really applaud you for that makes the campus look so beautiful and what is some other priorities and as you move into the future that you'd like to see happen? Well to continue to deal with deferred maintenance that is every every school has that as soon as you think you're caught up you look around and here's a 35-year-old roof again a steward-ingle Carol Levelle Bible with the people I've already mentioned

understand our needs and are trying to help us get the resources to to do it. We'd like to increase our our retention rates right now we retain about not quite two out of every three freshmen that come to us for a sophomore year we'd like to get that higher we'd like to do more with our graduation rates which are not very very high we you know we graduate right at 800 people a year that's a lot of graduates to produce for the state in New Mexico 800 a year probably only about 200 of those really count in any of the federal definitions on graduation rate and things like that so we graduate 60 that just don't count when you start talking about percentages but just continue to work on the quality and continue to make sure that the campus facilities are well kept I stated our mission earlier our mission is very simply to provide the best educational experience we we can to the students that come to us the more we can can do to to to further that

mission not expand the mission but to further the mission we have we think we'll be doing a good job when we uh can look a student in the eye and say we've done all we can to help you get that degree. Another type of student that is being forced back to school because of the economy as the adult the adult learner and sometimes people's career because of the economy again have come to a screeching halt and they want to go into something maybe they always wanted to do or where there's a possibility of future employment how do you how do you call forth those people how do you let them know what Eastern has to offer. They're very hard again we rely on word of mouth as much as anything they're not like that the transfer students uh of which we get 900 transfer students a year we have 700 first-time freshmen those are all in locations that we can recruit for those older adults students coming back sometimes they have to seek us out other times we will run some ads promoting say a social work program that in the newspaper that it seems to

attract some more mature students into it but that that certainly is the hardest group to contact is the adult returning student. You know I when I talk with you I just see the the heart of an educator and I have a hard question that there may not be an answer to but how do we set or evoke the value of education in families in our population again with this challenging economic time a lot of people just oh I just want to get a job and and to know the benefits of education. And it goes deeper than that it goes back to say compare the family unit now with say 1960 it's just different you've got probably both parent first of all there's a lot more single parents secondly there's a lot more working parents were both are working in the household and there's not a traditional homemaker at home you know taking care of that family values and and and other things so that that's that's very difficult difficult it's difficult also from

the vantage point of higher ed is gotten expensive and and a lot of people just very simply will not be able to find the money. Now we always say if you send us a student we'll find a way to finance that first year of college but somewhere in the first year maybe the start of the second year some of the financial aid drifts away because maybe they didn't quite make their grades that semester or an academic scholarship they had they lost it because they didn't make the grade so all of a sudden while they were well-funded to begin with for their freshman year you know maybe they've lost a lottery now by the time they hit their sophomore year a whole lot of them don't have the same financial support that they had when they were freshmen and that's the challenge is to try to keep them beyond that point so that they're just a lot of challenges out there but and I know it sounds callous and shallow but the financial part of it is is right at the top. Well it's not it's where the rubber hits the road I mean without that and it's it's very hard and I know that you have counseling and your your whole staff and faculty are so supportive of

these students. We try to help them any way we can we say we'll do anything we can to to help a student succeed at Eastern Mexico University accept to compromise our standards. That all is lost I think if you do that that's the one thing we won't do but we will bend over as far backwards as we can to help somebody who really wants to get that degree. You know we just have a minute left I forgot to ask you about the branch campuses. Oh yes I was going to add that in. We know very fortunate to have two branch campuses one in Roswell of approximately 4,000 people and one a little over a thousand in Riyadoso they have very good leadership at both campuses they're working hard to beat their missions and to their communities they are extremely extremely important. We have just enough time for you to give us the reasons why we should send our kids to Eastern and oh well I can give you the reasons that they need to send them to college because again Eastern we've got an area to take care of and I think we do it well and we'd love

to have them but social mobility has always been an American dream and education has been the way to social mobility for many many people. We have a good educational unit in the state of New Mexico we work hard all of our schools do work hard to help our students be successful. We just want to keep them in the state of New Mexico. They can make a mistake in my opinion by rushing off to Texas Arizona, Colorado and then deciding hey I did find there but I want to come home and there's no lottery waiting for them. So again if we can keep them in New Mexico because they're our future we want to build our future with New Mexico people and any of our schools in the state I think would be a good starting point for that. Spoken like a leader in New Mexico education. Well thank you. Thank you for bringing with us our guest today is Dr. Stephen Gamble president of Eastern New Mexico University. Thanks for being here. We'll see you soon. I've enjoyed it thank you. And I'm Lerene Mills

I'd like to thank you our audience for being with us today on report from Santa Fe. We'll see you next week. Past archival programs of report from Santa Fe are available at the website report from Santa Fe dot com. If you have questions or comments please email info at report from Santa Fe dot com. Report from Santa Fe is made possible in part by grants from the members of the National Education Association of New Mexico and organization of professionals who believe that investing in public education is an investment in our state's economic future and by a grant from the Healey Foundation toll new Mexico toll new Mexico

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