Swickard: NMSU identity is the core issue

Commentary by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. - Rumors flew for a week and then on Monday New Mexico State University President Barbara Couture and NMSU parted company. The NMSU Provost has taken over day-to-day functions. Shortly the NMSU Regents will select an Interim President. Some wonder why President Couture left.

Others, myself included, wonder why Barbara Couture was selected president of a Land-Grant University in the first place. Both Couture and the current Provost are English majors while NMSU is THE Land-Grant University in New Mexico. Sorry to seem to slur English majors. There is nothing wrong with English majors per se, but English majors are so far afield from Agriculture and Engineering.
This drama concerns NMSU’s identity. The University of New Mexico is a comprehensive university covering everything except Agriculture. UNM has medical, law and pharmacy schools and it teaches everything academically except, that of the NMSU mission, Agriculture.
For the last 122 years NMSU (It has had several names but is now NMSU) has been New Mexico’s Land-Grant Institution and site of the New Mexico Secretary of Agriculture. While it has many of the same collegiate academic programs as UNM, the difference is the Land-Grant mission. That mission involves Agriculture, Engineering, Business Administration, Education and Military Science. This mission is unique to NMSU and separates it from other universities in the state, especially UNM.
NMSU having such a precise mission over the last 122 years has allowed UNM and NMSU to thrive outside of each other’s special areas. Lately, though, people have been asking: why has the leadership of NMSU been acting like NMSU is not a Land-Grant University? That is what caused the fuss with the NMSU Regents. Read column

Swickard: NMSU identity is the core issue