Growing Your Own

At its June meeting, the Southeast New Mexico College Board of Trustees voted to pursue the creation of more detailed plans for a Trades x Technologies Building, nicknamed “T ²” (t-squared). T ² will be nearly 40,000 square feet and house educational programming essential for the future of our region.

The name captures the need. Trades are not as segmented as they once were. Cross-cutting technological skills are critical. An understanding of instrumentation—the measurement of pressure, temperature, flow rate, and more—is applicable in many areas. Programmable logic controllers are used in manufacturing settings, in the field, and in automated building systems. Knowledge of circuits permeates the work of automotive, heating/ventilation/air conditioning, and industrial maintenance technicians. A familiarity and facility with a wide variety of tools, techniques, and technologies will prepare students to serve the needs of their county, state, and nation for years to come.

Often when a new campus building is proposed, someone may skeptically ask if the plan is that “if you build it, they will come.” It is a fair question. In this case, however, there should be no fear of an investment built on dreams alone. T ² was designed with input from the economic drivers of our area—oil and gas, potash, nuclear, and energy in general—as well as local government. It builds upon the work of Carlsbad Municipal School’s pioneering energy pathways curriculum, so efforts will be dove-tailed, not duplicated. T ²  will focus on preparation for the high wage, high demand areas of oil and gas, electrical, industrial maintenance, radiological technology, and underground operations.  In addition, we hope to support apprenticeship training in HVAC, plumbing, and construction.  We need to provide this preparation locally so that Eddy County can grow its own future employees rather than recruit from elsewhere.

This fulfills a promise we want to make to our children—that there will be good-paying careers that will allow them to stay close to home and contribute to the growth of the region. We must provide the education that will best serve our current elementary and middle school students as they enter high school and college. Dual credit opportunities in high-tech trades are an essential element of this.

Being able to address needs such as these was one of the key reasons that the community rallied behind the creation of Southeast New Mexico College. We are committed to making that happen and we look forward to working with everyone to turn this vision into a reality.

While we hope to break ground on T ² sometime next year, one would not be surprised if you thought that we had already started. Recent visitors to our campus will see construction work underway. This will result in a new parking lot in front of our main building, along with drainage improvements. We will be installing some covered parking with solar panels in the new lot as well as around campus. The new parking will be adjacent to the planned T ² facility, allowing us to serve both our current and future needs.

If you would like to see the initial plans for our new building, I invite you to attend the next Board of Trustees meeting on July 10 at 6 pm in Room 153. We greatly appreciate your input and support as we take this important step forward toward a brighter future for the citizens of Eddy County.

Kevin Beardmore may be reached at kbeardmore@senmc.edu or 575.234.9211.