This year’s Homecoming theme of “Reflections: Honoring the Past, Building the Future” aptly summarizes our UNM challenge of building on the vibrancy of UNM’s unique heritage while guiding the university toward a new, promise-filled future.

During Homecoming, we see the spectrum of experiences that have defined UNM. The Heritage Club dinner and the 50th year reunion bring to the forefront the people who walked this campus, studied in its halls, and collaborated with its professors a half-century or more ago. Today’s students navigate a new and wonderful world in which their technology—cell phones, PDA’s, iPods and laptops—keeps them connected 24/7.

This year we are focusing on (1) improving undergraduate education, (2) providing service, and (3) modernizing our facilities through our recent bond issue. After Homecoming, I hope you’ll return to campus on November 21 for “The Undergraduate Research & Creativity Symposium” and the “3 rd Annual UNM Celebration of Undergraduate Research,” a combined program that will dazzle you with the quality of our students’ work. More than 500 undergraduates will display research they are doing with faculty mentors and in classes. This undergraduate research provides a strong foundation for the professionals who graduate from UNM into the local community.