Our football team has not achieved the success we would have liked to have seen over the years, but we have had pockets of success that inspire. How about our three Aggie players drafted into the NFL for three consecutive years! For those who watched, NMSU beat Minnesota two years ago — there was a state of elation that had people talking the whole season. Who can deny that a win against our major rivals — UTEP or UNM — creates electricity and enthusiasm for a unified Aggie Nation! My challenge to all of us is to get behind and support our teams that represent us with such pride. Anyone can criticize. It takes fortitude to be a supporter on our way to achieving the success we desire.
I am proud of New Mexico State University. If we aspire to be known as one of America’s great universities, we are going to need to act like we are one of those universities today! That is what is called vision! When we believe in our vision; when we support our faculty; when we support our staff; when we support our administration; when we support our coaches and athletic director; and yes, when we support our board of regents; success will be ours! It takes courage to stand tall in the face of criticism. It takes heart to support our student-athletes who are giving it their all, each time that enter a competition. It takes special people to take NMSU to a new place, and I believe we are in a place in our history, with people of passion, who can help us get there!
Stand tall! Anyone can criticize!!
May 14th, 2013 at 1:14PM
a nice student response at http://nmsuaggiesolidarity.org/2013/05/13/a-response-to-regent-cheneys-letter/
“Instead of paying Marvin Menzies to travel and recruit foreign basketballers to Las Cruces, why don’t we work to attract more young people from Africa, Quebéc, or wherever else to our ag science or history departments? Instead of making athletics the motor for bringing ‘diversity’ to campus, why don’t we put those resources into attracting more diversity directly to our academic programs? If we really got serious about that – if we built innovative academic programs in the colonias, in inner-cities – how many new donors could we attract?”
May 14th, 2013 at 1:31PM
That is what is called too many exclamation points!
May 14th, 2013 at 4:23PM
Isn’t “Aggie Nation” a bit grandiose? I mean, sure, Red Sox nation and maybe even Bama Nation, but I’m fairly certain that Aggie Nation extends no father than Lordsburg to the west and Alamogordo to the east. (Oh, and also Truth or Consequences to the north.) Aggie Nation is the sports version of Liechtenstein.
May 14th, 2013 at 4:30PM
TAFKAU: Truth or Consequences was immortalized in Paul Fussell’s book, Class:
http://books.google.com/books?id=aPbF1kuayJYC&pg=PA36&lpg=PA36&dq=paul+fussell+class+truth+or+consequences+new+mexico&source=bl&ots=eaWHW9I4yP&sig=EoB8iz6osPjexlkRzke6bTidPwI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=raySUYG-JdKG0QH74YCYDg&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=paul%20fussell%20class%20truth%20or%20consequences%20new%20mexico&f=false
May 15th, 2013 at 7:26AM
First, the comments of Mr. Cheney are worthy of ridicule but in order to be “fairly certain that Aggie Nation extends no father than Lordsburg to the west and Alamogordo to the east. (Oh, and also Truth or Consequences to the north)” one has to be willing to opine not in accordance to knowledge. What, you couldn’t think of a city south of Las Cruces with a funny enough name to complete your marking of NMSU territory?
NMSU is the agricultural college of the state of New Mexico. As such, it’s the only place in NM to get a veterinary education. Therefore, the stretch of “Aggie Nation” goes from Shiprock to Tucumcari to Hobbs to Antelope Wells (those names funny enough?). In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the NMSU Aggie Nation extends to funny places such as Balmorhea and Marfa since it is much closer to those places than the more familiar Aggie Nation (which, we can imagine, stretches from Cut and Shoot to Palestine to Beeville).
May 15th, 2013 at 9:00AM
Pete: Wonderful!
May 16th, 2013 at 5:03AM
Geez, Pete, I used to live out that way, so I wasn’t trying to ridicule NMSU, which is a fine school, just the notion of “Aggie Nation” as a football entity. Unless things have changed since I was there, most of the rest of New Mexico pulls for UNM, if they care about college football at all.
Two other thoughts: no, I couldn’t think of ANY city south of Las Cruces, because there isn’t one (at least not until you get to the Texas line). Also, if we’re allowed to bring West Texas into the conversation, then you left out Earth and Muleshoe and New Deal.
February 28th, 2014 at 5:20PM
[…] Here’s a sample from a letter the chair of the board of trustees wrote. I won’t quote from it because I’m one of those people who doesn’t enjoy puking her guts out, but you might enjoy it, so go ahead and take a look. […]