New Mesalands logo colors presented

Mesalands Community College's vice president of public relations presented new color schemes for the college's logos that the board of trustees promptly approved.

Josh McVey advocated during the board's Sept. 21 meeting replacing the college's main logo and sports logo's longstanding green and pale yellow colors with blue and gold.

He said many of Mesalands' buildings and even its furniture come in similar blue colors. McVey said the blue signifies courage - such as the courage required for students to climb high into the college's wind turbine - and gold signifies prestige.

McVey also noted the blue matches well with the wind energy center's current logo.

He said the new logos communicate the college's identity with more consistency and would help with its strategic enrollment efforts.

McVey said the colors also mesh well with the college's website redesign, and those new hues were promptly incorporated the morning after the board meeting.

McVey said the college conducted a survey of students regarding the proposed colors. He said 75% favored the blue and gold design.

Other business

The board approved funding requests to the New Mexico Higher Education Department of $106,600 for the wind training center and $482,000 for a proposed police department for fiscal year 2023.

Jim Morgan, vice president of campus affairs, said the funding request for a three-officer, 24-hour campus police force would cover salaries, a vehicle, licensing, uniforms, training, lockers, firearms and radios.

The request states Mesalands has experienced more vandalism and property damage, and the college wants officers for crowd control at large events such as Cinco de Mayo and providing help during emergencies. It stated a police force would improve perceptions of Mesalands being a "safe" college.

Morgan said the police request would be recurring annually. Busch compared it to the state's various nursing programs, where colleges and universities request funding annually and invariably receive it.

Morgan said the budget request for the wind energy center includes an additional $10,000 for a new blade pitch device for the college's wind turbine.

• Morgan did not present a monthly financial report for August or a report on the college's certificates of deposit. That disturbed board Chairman Jim Streetman, who said no financial report had been issued since February or March, which was about the time Amanda Hammer, vice president of administrative affairs, left the college.

"It concerns us," Streetman said.

Morgan said he was under the mistaken impression he was not supposed to give financial reports until after the annual audit. Natalie Gillard, vice president of academic affairs, offered to help Morgan track down the data for the financial reports and CDs.

• Morgan said the college's dinosaur museum had generated as much revenue from Sept. 1 to Sept. 20 as it had during the entire month of September 2020.

• The board made a fall schedule adjustment where finals week will conclude just before Thanksgiving break. The semester and finals week usually ended the week after Thanksgiving, but Busch recommended moving that up for fear that students would contract COVID-19 during the holiday and bring it back to campus.

• The board voted to reschedule its regular December meeting from Dec. 21 to Dec. 21 so it would not conflict with Christmas break.

• The board and executive staff met in closed executive session for more than an hour but did not take action when open session resumed.

President's report

Busch highlighted these items during his monthly report to the board:

• Busch said a recent U.S. Department of Education clarification about remote learning requires Mesalands to make changes by mid-October so they can be formally approved by the Higher Learning Commission during its November meeting. Virtually all Mesalands classes offer a remote version. "We're in a bad place" if the college is not approved for those classes, Busch said. He said the changes require an additional 430 pages on the college's website but expressed optimism: "It's just an additional hoop to go through, and we'll be fine."

• An unnamed principal of a proposed meat-processing facility on the east outskirts of Tucumcari told Busch he wants to collaborate with Mesalands. Busch said the facility will butcher about 10 cattle per week.

• Busch said the Higher Learning Commission recently approved the college at the highest level that allows it to deliver its programs anywhere it wants remotely in the U.S.

• He said his recent acceptance into the Excelencia in Action network that seeks to help Latino students could pay big dividends. He said MacKenzie Scott, former wife of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, last year awarded gifts ranging from $10 million to $40 million for each Excelencia school.

• Busch said Pattern Energy officials recently expressed a desire for Mesalands to provide workers and training for a proposed wind farm in northern New Mexico. In addition, Busch said 600 FieldCore workers will come to the college for training this fall.

• Busch said Tucumcari Lake on the city's east side has been offered to the college as an environmental science lab. He said the U.S. Corp of Engineers is going to build new levees and dams to replenish water in the lake as a wildlife refuge.

• Busch commended his executive staff for its efforts during a severe storm last month after a lightning strike knocked out power at the Stampede Village student housing complex and forced a brief evacuation. He said a debriefing was held to ensure the college would be better prepared for future emergencies.