ABQJOURNAL OPINION/GUEST_COLUMNS: NMSU's Land-Grant, Research Work Keeps N.M. Competitive

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

NMSU's Land-Grant, Research Work Keeps N.M. Competitive

By Barbara Couture
President, NMSU
          New Mexico State University is making responsible decisions to manage our budget in this extraordinarily difficult economic environment. As we consider further budget reductions, however, New Mexico must protect its investment in its nationally ranked land-grant, research university. NMSU provides enormous value to the industries, communities, and citizens of our great state.
        Why is it important to support our state's only land-grant public research university? Because without that support we cannot deliver quality education for our growing student body, provide needed services to our communities through our Cooperative Extension Service programs, or compete nationally and internationally for research funding that creates significant economic impact throughout the state.
        NMSU takes seriously its commitment to produce top-quality graduates who contribute to our state and nation's economy. In December, NMSU-Las Cruces graduated 812 students earning bachelor's degrees, 310 earning master's degrees, and 41 earning doctoral degrees. Research has shown that the earning potential of an individual increases with each year of college and each degree earned — potential that is important to the growth of New Mexico's economy and tax base. And NMSU is proud, too, of its track record in serving minority students. This year our NMSU system has a minority enrollment of 60.3 percent.
        Research conducted by our public research universities has made America and our state competitive. At NMSU alone, we have made path-breaking advances in algal biofuels, aerospace technology and smart grid systems. In fiscal 2010, NMSU was awarded $198 million in research contracts, and in the same year expended $163 million on research projects. These expenditures translate into employment and other economic benefits that contribute about $288 million to New Mexico's economy. NMSU's research creates value in many ways: We are a magnet for outstanding faculty; we provide strong employment for staff; and we recruit talented students who do research side-by-side with our top faculty so that they can succeed in the high-tech, global economy that our research defines.
        Finally, as a land-grant university, our 33 county and three tribal Cooperative Extension Offices, 13 Agricultural Experiment Station science centers, and the New Mexico Department of Agriculture provide invaluable service to our agricultural economy and related industries, such as pharmaceuticals, green energy and health education.
        World-class education and research are possible because our state and our federal government support public research universities. But our country is now quickly falling behind other countries in funding our public universities. As one national report puts it, the "U.S. is playing tennis while the rest of the world is playing football." China, India, Korea, and European nations are expanding funding for research and are successfully competing with the U.S. to attract top faculty to their shores. Unless we stop the bleeding now, we will find ourselves unable to compete on a global scale.
        With each cut to NMSU's budget from our state, our ability to keep serving this state and our nation with quality education, research and community service is threatened, and equally important, our ability to remain competitive with universities nationally and internationally decreases. The budget decisions being made today for NMSU will affect our state and the nation for decades to come. We must work with our legislators to find the right balance, and we are doing so now.
        I pledge that New Mexico State University will do its best to retain and support faculty excellence and that we will recommit to our public purpose to serve New Mexico as its only land-grant research university. At my fall inauguration, I announced seven goals for NMSU to achieve excellence through partnership, all of which contribute to our national competitiveness as a public research university. I invite you to visit our NMSU website at www.nmsu.edu/president/goalsforsuccess.html periodically to review our progress in achieving these important milestones.

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