December 5, 2008
Albuquerque Journal
NMSU Right To Honor Cruzado (Letter to the Editor)
THERE IS much to celebrate at New Mexico State University.
We are grateful to the many organizers (of) a brunch celebrating the significance of the first woman to be interim president of NMSU.
We came together at the brunch in recognition that we belong to a university where one's gender is not the most important qualification for leadership. ... This fall we also had the opportunity to participate in a rally honoring the leadership and contributions of interim president Waded Cruzado. Observing students so effectively organizing around their appreciation of Cruzado was gratifying to us as educators. ...
Recent newspaper articles across the state have given voice to one-sided attempts at denigrating these two activities, their organizers and participants. Quotes in the articles attack Cruzado for acknowledging the students' efforts and attending the brunch and imply that Cruzado was somehow responsible for helping to facilitate these two events fully initiated and organized by others.
These repeated statements and insinuations seem to be motivated by a desire to diminish the significance of the events for members of the NMSU community and to discredit Cruzado and others. These demeaning statements and the additional assertion that these two events derailed the presidential search, harm all of us and our university.
We are proud to be associated with NMSU, our students and colleagues, and are grateful to our interim president for her enduring service to us all.
LISA BOND-MAUPIN
Director, NMSU Women's Studies Program
Las Cruces
Editor's note: This letter also was signed by Tara Gray, director of the Teaching Academy, and James Maupin, head of the university's Department of Criminal Justice.