A push is underway for the facility expansion of one of the most popular schools on the main Las Cruces campus of New Mexico State University: the College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.
Members of NMSU’s Board of Regents have now voted to support passage of General Obligation Bond D on this November’s ballot, which, if passed, would provide some $25 million in funding for the project.
Included in that work would be the building of more space for meat processing, food safety, and production workshops.
There will also be an animal nutrition and feed manufacturing facility, as well as a biomedical research center designed to study and address such issues as border population health problems.
In a statement, NMSU System Chancellor Garrey Carruthers noted that “after generations of use, many of our agricultural facilities are growing old and in need of repair.”
The passage of the GO Bond, said Carruthers, will not only allow the university the opportunity to upgrade and expand those facilities, but “also add new dimensions to our research, including food safety and security.”
NMSU’S role in agricultural studies is essential to its historical mission. Launched as a land grant school in 1888, it was shortly thereafter named the New Mexico School of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts.
The current agricultural college at NMSU is dedicated to community and economic development through its studies on food production, water usage conservation, and environmental stewardship, among other program offerings.
Additional projects in the NMSU system that will be funded by the GO Bond include facility and infrastructure upgrades, renovations, and construction at NMSU’s campuses in Alamogordo and Grants, as well as the campus of Dona Ana Community College.
By Garry Boulard
