College Council Meeting Minutes - December 8, 2025

Monday, December 8, 2025 | 1:30 – 3:00 PM

via Zoom

Attendees: Anne Jarrett, Mike Holtzclaw, Pam Nussbaumer, Ayla Attanasio, Brent Pickett, Brittany Carpenter, Citla Nava Gaxiola, Coco Rae, DeBray Bailey, Beth Rue, Ginny Grant, Gopinath Subramanian, Grace Willerton, Ingrid Goldsmith, Irina Alvestad, Ivette Jimenez, Janice Krish, Jef Bateman, Joan Lucas, Joe Matthews, Karen Williams, Kevin Rosenberger, Lori Tepley, Lorraine Bowman, Neil Stoddard, Robin Kelly, Sascha Guenter-Schlesinger, Tracy Bailey, Valida Dushdurova, and Yu Song.

Call To Order: The meeting was called to order at 1:34 p.m. and a quorum was acknowledged. 

The minutes from the November 10, 2025 meeting were unanimously approved.

 

Announcements

HOLIDAY CELEBRATION December 8

Refreshments Building 1 Workroom and Faculty Lounge

Also, ugly holiday sweater day.

MY FAVORITE LECTURE December 9 | 2:00–3:00 PM | Wallace Hall

Dive into the math behind projectile motion and see how it translates into dynamic simulations using MATLAB. Professor Gopinath Subramanian will present Computer Simulations of Projectile Physics. Hot chocolate and holiday treats included!

BUSINESS SCHOLAR HOLIDAY LUNCHEON December 10 | 11:00 AM–1:00 PM | SALA Event Center

Network with local businesses and organizations during a festive luncheon featuring a Business-to-Business session. Get swag, share initiatives, and build valuable connections. Lunch is provided! RSVP: ajarrett1@unm.edu or jkrish@unm.edu

UNM-LA WRITING CLUB December 11 & 18 | 2:00 PM | Room B-20 (in the basement downstairs from the library)

You are welcome to show up even if you haven't written anything.

Spring Semester 2026 College Council Meetings 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

February 9
March 9
April 13
May 11

Academic Affairs

Effective the Summer, 2026 term, UNM-LA will be using the central campus bookstore. That means that faculty will need to use that portal when placing book order for summer and fall terms next year. Stephanie Herrera and Academic Affairs will provide additional information about this transition next semester.

Our faculty searches in Mechanical Engineering and Fine Arts are moving forward to interviews with semi-finalist candidates. The Business and Welding searches have been extended in order to pursue more recruiting efforts. The new For Best Consideration date for those two positions is now January 30th, 2026.

Academic Affairs is now drafting a full-year course schedule. We will have a first draft of that soon and will then share it with our colleagues in Student Services for their assistance in further edits and refinements.

Retention Committee

Focus on TimelyCare, a healthcare resource for students; launched a marketing campaign to make students aware of this service beginning with self-care during finals; Spring semester 2026 focus on maintaining work, school, life balance.

Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) LoboPaws Award Recipients announced at Ceremony Dec. 1, 2025:

Lori Tepley
Robin Kelly
Gina Peterson
Tiffany Trent

Congratulations to these honored faculty and staff members!

Human Resources

  1. New Paper Time Sheet reminder- review of staff wide email
  2. UKG time system training in Learning Central
  3. Instructions for how to use new time sheets is being created by Sascha and Neil and will be sent to faculty and staff.

Marketing

  • Website: Pages of the website are under review by various subject matter experts. The pages left to build or be updated are: homepage, staff/faculty directory, class schedule, program finder (arts and humanities, BSME), community education and workforce development, and the academic affairs page.

  • Communications section of the campus emergency plan: The communications section has been drafted and will be reviewed by executive cabinet members before its incorporation into the overall plan.

Open Floor Announcements

  • Thank you to Beth Rue and others for the success of the 45th anniversary event held on Thursday December 4.

  • Pam Nussbaumer’s last day will be December 19.

 

Meeting Agenda Items:

Strategic Plan Discussion

Feedback:

  1. More frequent communication about events happening on campus
  2. Include specific measurements
  3. Include a Mission Statement
  4. Specific, focused wording
  5. Let community know who we are, what we do so that we can work together
  6. What are the next steps?
  7. Is there a time frame for scheduling working groups to work on the next steps?
  8. Faculty spent significant time on the first draft and submitted input
  9. Create a separate marketing goal and consider where it would best fit as a goal rather than a method
  10. A cohesive, more specific goal would be helpful for scheduling classes, community outreach, etc.
  11. Develop a brand identity, think of ways we can articulate and promote our identity
  12. It would be nice to see the marketing plan
  13. One challenge is identifying baselines for metrics
  14. Consider including subject matter experts in working groups

Next Steps:

  • Steering Committee and Working groups that include faculty and staff will be formed to identify timelines, priorities, and measures
  • There will be a call out in January 2026 for individuals to join the committees/working groups

Construction continues on the front steps with no completion date announced. Work on the upgrade to the courtyard will not begin until after the campus steps project is completed. The paving project for back parking lot is planned but the LA school system has to work out some logistics. Target date for the repaving is summer 2026.

UNM-LA Advisory Board meetings may held on Zoom in the near future and the Board is still discussing logistics.

It was requested that College Council meetings be held in a hybrid format for 2026.

 

End of Meeting Items:

A request was made for agenda items and announcements for the February meeting.

Next meeting will be Monday, February 9, 2026, 1:30 - 3:00 p.m., both in person with the UNM-LA location TBD and via zoom.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:55 p.m.