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Campus News
     
Your faculty and staff news since 1965
Special Spotlight Issue:  April 22, 2002

Aragon makes changes for mechanical engineering

By Michael Padilla

Cecilia AragonWhen Cecilia Aragon was hired as the department administrator for Mechanical Engineering she had six months to create and implement a business plan for an ideal department.

The ideal department would concentrate primarily on students. Faculty would focus on teaching and staff would be happy and most of all —no new forms.
The outcome: Mechanical Engineering had a complete overhaul and many changes have been implemented since 2000.

“Our chair Dr. Ingber wanted change,” she said. “We are fortunate to have a chair who is caring, has an ambitious vision and is willing to make things happen.”

Aragon was able to draw upon previous experience in Human Resources at UNM and her business experience in the private sector to help recruit new staff and assist in recruiting new faculty. Since her arrival, the department has hired an undergraduate and graduate coordinator, in addition to hiring the first Hispanic and female faculty.

“Mechanical Engineering is a great place to be,” Aragon says. “We have a great reputation and now the challenge is to continue our growth, recruit more students and focus on our graduate programs.”

Aragon, originally from Arizona, was employed in Southern California when she went to Taos for a six month visit. Enjoying the life of a tourist, she decided to stay. Realizing that she needed money to live, she began working at an art gallery and after six weeks she took over the business. Soon after, the owner decided that Aragon would also run a new gallery in Aspen.

“It was a great way to live my 20s,” she says. “I don’t regret it one bit. I stayed in Taos for the spring and summer seasons and then in Aspen in the fall and winter seasons.”

In 1995, she started working at UNM Human Resources. After the first year, the City of Albuquerque called and lured her away for a year to recruit police and fire fighters. This position took her all around the country. She was reluctant at first to take the position, but she knew she would return to UNM. She did and again was lured away by a subcontractor for Sandia National Laboratories.

“I didn’t want to do HR anymore and I reapplied to UNM,” she said. “When Dr. Ingber called me I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” she said. “I only had a few days to familiarize myself with the office and the third day I was asked to make the course schedule. I was shocked at first, but I did.”

With her bachelor’s degree in training and develpment from Arizona State University, Aragon says her hard work and dedication to the department makes it enjoyable. “I like to come in early and often will work through my lunch hour,” she says. “I am the first line of defense for the department and I give it my best.”

Aragon lives in Albuquerque’s North Valley and her mother recently moved in with her. She enjoys gardening and embroidering. When she feels like getting away she gets in her car and drives to the mountains or nearby Pueblos.