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Dr. Jose Griego, President Northern New Mexico College
A Letter From The President
Dear Colleagues:
Welcome to Northern New Mexico College! It is an honor for me to serve you as Northern New Mexico College's President. I am delighted to see the tremendous progress that our institution is making in a variety of areas. These progressive strides are in part due to our Strategic Planning Efforts.
Effective strategic planning requires strong organizational support at every level of the institution. I commend the faculty, the staff, department chairs, deans, provost, and administration for their thorough, comprehensive, and above all, honest assessments of where we are and where we hope to be in the next five years. Numerous planning data sources have informed the development of our strategic plan. This plan, coupled with several administrative planning studies under way, will prove extremely useful in focusing our efforts throughout our very complex structure. The college's Commitment to Total Quality Improvement and enthusiastic adoption of the Academic Quality Improvement Program throughout our institution, will further support the implementation of our strategic plans.
The great strength of the college lies in its diversity as an institution of multiple cultures, religions, needs and ambitions. All of these differences join together with shared responsibility for the development of excellence in the institution and in the knowledge that we share with our students and one another. This is diversity in its best sense, an ideal place for different, and sometimes competing conceptions of what is and what should be. By providing the space for the critical tension between reflection and action, the College serves its most important function for the idealistic, able students it educates and the democratic society it serves.
We start with a fundamental commitment to plan our future as one college. Our departments, and schools located on our two geographically separated campuses provide opportunities for creativity, cooperation, and collaboration. The strategic planning process has systematically identified and acknowledged our institutions strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. And, more importantly helped us identify the means by which we will build on our strengths, resolve our weaknesses, exploit opportunities, and finally, avoid or overcome our threats we face as an institution given our aggressive change of mission.
The economic and social well being of north central New Mexico is closely tied to the health and vigor of our college. Enhancing Northern‘s ability to fulfill its mission of instruction, and public service will promote the welfare of New Mexico. As a result of the strategic planning process, we will rededicate our efforts to serve the people of New Mexico by the creation of new knowledge, and the transmission of that knowledge to the citizens of our state through excellent instruction and distinguished public service.
Recreating community and fostering academic excellence are central themes of the college's strategic planning process. We must change the way we operate, virtually reinventing the college to meet the challenges of restricted resources, significant diversity, and greatly expanded demands inherent in our change of mission to a four-year degree granting institution. Our next task will require even more extensive collaborative efforts, as we strive to bring reality to our hopes and dreams and as we position ourselves for our new mission. We must work together to encourage individuals, constituent groups, and the state to support our College. As ambassadors for Northern, we all have opportunities to promote the greater good of the college. Our joint efforts will bring us to a future we have planned for ourselves. I look forward to sharing this journey with you.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jose Griego
President, Northern New Mexico College
Management Organization Chart
Executive Overview
The strategic planning process at Northern acknowledges and respects the richness and diversity of the college’s communities. It continued with the development of departmental, college, and school plans; center, bureau, and institute plans; individual campus plans; self-studies and planning studies in specific administrative areas; a management audit; and a statewide communications analysis. Individuals involved with these committees and studies were representative of Northern and its many parts.
The next phase in the strategic planning process is blending the many, sometimes divergent recommendations and revelations expressed in the various committee reports and studies into a common vision to advance Northern. In fashioning the whole from the parts, not every worthy hope and wish could be included, particularly in light of the budget constraints under which Northern operates. However, the strategic plan is not meant to be a static document. It will be successful to the degree that it addresses current aspirations and adapts and responds to changing conditions.
A successful strategic planning process will define the common purposes that bring and hold together the many elements of the College community. The commitment to academic excellence is the value we, as a community, hold most central and dear. Academic excellence drives the major parts of Northern’s new mission: “provide accessible, affordable, community-based, quality learning opportunities that meet the educational, employment, and enrichment needs of our culturally diverse region.” By stressing excellence in our academic standards; by supporting and celebrating the diversity of our community; by emphasizing the importance of teaching; and by encouraging a shared sense of responsibility, we will be able to realize our collective obligation to use our resources wisely and creatively in accomplishing our mission.
Northern, is uniquely located to accommodate the higher educational needs of North Central New Mexico. Northern has unique responsibilities and capabilities to respond to the increased demands on higher education. Northern is simultaneously a center of intellectual life, a resource for professional development, a haven for the creative arts, and a tremendous resource for communities in North Central New Mexico. The social and economic progress of New Mexico, including the education of its citizens and future leaders, is one of our key priorities.
Northern’s instruction and service support New Mexico's growth and development. The money the state invests in Northern is leveraged with other income sources resulting in $18M being spent in the Northern New Mexico economy in 2005. The College's programs and activities generate nearly 361 jobs in New Mexico. Moreover, Northern alumni play key roles in supporting the state's economic development. The College and its members also contribute to the welfare of the state by providing a broad range of public service. The value and importance of higher education for the future development of our state have never been more self-evident.
The strategic planning process is committed to the concept of one College, a community which encompasses and represents its many components. This commitment requires us to consider how we are organized. We need to rethink some of our assumptions about how academic disciplines are organized and how faculty are deployed. There is also a need to increase cooperation and collaboration among units at Northern on each campus and across campuses. We need to be alert to interdisciplinary developments and prepared to foster new endeavors that cut across traditional academic boundaries.
To ensure that our students have sufficient, viable academic options, we will continue to monitor and rationalize our expenditure of resources and will replace unduly duplicative or under-utilized programs in order to provide the best possible academic offerings. As we have already learned in joint programs with other higher education institutions, we can significantly enhance our own resources through selected cooperative arrangements. This kind of inter-institutional collaboration has proved to be a very efficient and effective way of increasing and enhancing educational offerings, as well as providing additional services to the citizens of the state.
Northern is committed to providing all students with the skills and knowledge needed to be responsible citizens and productive contributors to intellectual, cultural, and social endeavors. These include intellectual and communication skills; understanding of human behavior, society, and the natural environment; and appreciation of the responsibilities of the individual in society. Specifically, the new general education guidelines at Northern call for development of written and oral communication skills; critical thinking; mathematical, computer, information, scientific, historical, cultural, artistic, literary, and civic literacy; and ethical thinking. Each campus, college, and school has the flexibility to develop unique curricular and co-curricular approaches that are consistent with their particular missions.