NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY

'New Mexico State University', or NMSU, is a land-grant university that has its main campus in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The school was founded in 1888 as Las Cruces College, an agricultural college, and in 1889 the school became New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. It received its present name, New Mexico State University in 1960. NMSU has approximately 26,400 students enrolled as of Fall 2005, and has a faculty-to-student ratio of about 1 to 19. NMSU offers a wide range of programs and awards associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees through its main campus and four community colleges. For 10 consecutive years, NMSU has been rated as one of ''America's 100 Best College Buys'' for offering "the very highest quality education at the lowest cost" by Institutional Research & Evaluation Inc., an independent research and consulting organization for higher education. NMSU is one of only two land-grant institutions classified as Hispanic-serving by the federal government. The university is home to New Mexico's NASA ''Space Grant Program'' and is one of 52 institutions in the United States to be designated a Space Grant College. During its most recent review by NASA, NMSU was one of only 12 space grant programs in the country to receive an excellent rating.

Contents

History

Academics

College of Engineering

Agriculture

Sports

Basketball

Football

Volleyball

Notable former Aggie athletes

Student media

External links

History

In 1888, an institution of higher learning, based in small adobe buildings, known as Las Cruces College was established in the heart of the then small village of the same name. One year later, a foundation for much growth was established when the Territorial Assembly of New Mexico provided for the establishment of an Agricultural College and Agricultural Experiment Station with bill No. 28 or the Rodey Act of 1889. The bill stated that, " Said institution is hereby located at or near the town of Las Cruces in the County of Dona [sic] Ana,upon a tract of land of not less than one hundred (100) acres, contiguous to the main Las Cruces irrigating ditch, south of said town."
In February of 1891, the university's first building McFie Hall, popularly known as Old Main, opened its doors. Unfortunately, the building burned down in 1910, but its remains can be seen in the center of Pride Field on the University Horseshoe, or old university center.
The school overcame many hardships, including major financial woes and political pressure during the Depression, but reestablished itself as a training ground for Army and Naval forces during WWII.
In a move to better represent its operations, the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts became New Mexico State University.

Academics

NMSU is broken up into several smaller colleges. These include:

★ College of Agriculture and Home Economics

★ College of Arts and Sciences

★ College of Business

★ College of Education

★ College of Engineering

★ College of Extended Learning

★ College of Health and Social Services

★ College of Honors

College of Engineering

NMSU's College of Engineering includes the departments of Chemical, Civil, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Engineering Technology, Industrial, Mechanical, Surveying, and Engineering Physics. NMSU's College of Engineering consistently ranks high in national ratings. Among its many honors are:

★ Conducts more than $15 million of research each year.

★ Offers the only degrees in aerospace, surveying, and industrial engineering, and engineering technology and information and communication technology in New Mexico

★ Programs are accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology in applied science, computing, engineering and technology.

★ More than 180 companies have recruited NMSU engineering graduates in recent years.

★ Full-time faculty members, rather than graduate assistants, teach all lecture-based engineering courses.

★ Named the Telemetering Center of Excellence in the United States by the International Foundation for Telemetering.

★ Ranked 13th nationally in federal-funded engineering research in 2002 by the National Science Foundation.

Agriculture

The university was founded initially as an agricultural institution, and still offers agriculture programs. It hosts the Agriculture Experiment Station, which produces the famous NuMex cultivars, including the onion of that name, and dozens of Numex peppers, like the NuMex Twilight.

Sports

NMSU's teams are called the Aggies, a nickname derived from the university's agricultural beginnings. They compete in the Western Athletic Conference. Their mascot was formerly known as "Pistol Pete", but Pete was redesigned in 2005 as part of a controversial plan to remake its image on the national stage; his pistol has been replaced with a lasso. NMSU's colors are crimson and white. In 2006, the mascot got his pistol back and is once again known as "Pistol Pete".
NMSU has major rivalries with the University of New Mexico (the NMSU-UNM football game is called "The Battle of I-25"), and the University of Texas at El Paso (called "The Battle of I-10", with the winner of the NMSU-UTEP football game getting the Silver Spade).

Basketball

NMSU Basketball has seen much success throughout the years,even making an NCAA Final Four appearance in 1970. Aggie Basketball has seen 17 NCAA Tournament appearances, 5 NIT Tournament appearances and 14 conference championships. On March 31, 2005, NMSU hired 13-year NBA veteran Reggie Theus as head men's basketball coach after legendary Hall of Fame coach Lou Henson announced his retirement due to health concerns. In his first season, Theus turned the Aggies from a 6-24 squad in 2004-05 to a 16-14 team in the 2005-06 season --matching the fifth best turn-around for a Division-I men's basketball team. In Theus' second year the Aggies won the WAC tournament and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, their first appearance in the event since 1999. However, in June 2007 Theus left NMSU to take over the head coaching position of the Sacramento Kings. Marvin Menzies has been named to succeed him at NMSU.

Football

Under coach Warren B. Woodson the Aggie Football team was very successful during the late 1950's and early 1960's. In 1959 the team went 8-3 and in 1960 the Aggies had their only perfect season, finishing 11-0. Both years they won the New Year's Eve Sun Bowl. The team continued to fare well under Woodson through the 1967 season. Charley Johnson, Aggie quarterback 1958-60 is the only player in NCAA history to be selected Most Valuable Player in a bowl game two consecutive years (Sun Bowl 1959-60) and continued on to play in the NFL for 15 years with the St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Oilers and Denver Broncos.
In 1984 senior Aggie wide out (San Antonio Edison) Roland Esparza caught 40 passes, scored 10 touchdowns and made second team All-American, he played from 1981-84.
On October 31, 1998, Aggie running back Denvis Manns become just the third player in NCAA Division I-A history to surpass 1,000 yards in four consecutive seasons. The only other backs that had accomplished the feat at that time were Tony Dorsett (University of Pittsburgh) and Amos Lawrence (University of North Carolina).
On September 18, 1999 the Aggies upset the #22 ranked Arizona State Sun Devils at their home stadium in Tempe, Arizona by a staggering 35-7.
Despite some impressive single game wins and individual player stats, the Aggies have struggled as a team in the days since coach Woodson. In November 1990, the 106th ranked team managed to snap their 27 game losing streak, the longest active losing streak at the time, when they defeated 105th ranked Cal State Fullerton 43-9. Fullerton later dropped its football program in 1992. The 1988-90 team is ranked the 9th worst college football team of all time by ESPN. The Aggies were also featured in the August 31, 1992 issue of Sports Illustrated in a piece that chronicles a tradition of losing games. The longest active losing streak in division I-A football is a title the Aggies have owned multiple times in recent decades.

Volleyball

At the dawn of the new century, NMSU volleyball also saw great gains, winning its first conference championship in 2003, and making its first appearance in the NCAA tournament that same year. In 2006, the Aggies continued to make school history by becoming the first squad to become nationally ranked at No. 24 after posting a 14-0 record through that point of the season. Adding to their 2006 success, the Aggies became the first team to snap the University of Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine's eight-year, 114-match Western Athletic Conference winning streak.

Notable former Aggie athletes

Kenton Keith, current Indianapolis Colts running back; Roy Gerela, former NFL kicker; Duriel Harris, former NFL receiver;
Fredd Young, former NFL linebacker; Randy Brown; Buck Pierce current CFL quarterback; Charley Johnson former NFL quarterback; Denvis Manns former NFL Europa running back.
Former NBA guard, John Whisenant, coach of WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs former Coach of the Year; Anita Maxwell former WNBA forward for the Cleveland Rockers; Lou Henson, noted NCAA basketball coach

Student media

NMSU has two radio stations, as well as a TV station and a student run newspaper. The radio stations are KRUX, a station run by students, and KRWG, a public radio station.
The TV station is also known as KRWG and serves as the region's PBS affiliate. KRWG-TV, named for New Mexico broadcast pioneer Ralph Wilson Goddard, is one of the few journalism schools to student-produce a weekday newscast. It is also the only local newscast for southwest New Mexico viewers.
The "Round Up" is the student-run newspaper. The Round Up is "The student voice of New Mexico State University since 1907." It's published every Monday and Thursday.

External links

★ New Mexico State University official website

★ NMSU Athletics official website