When the new president Nancy “Rusty” Barceló stepped up on the stage at Northern New Mexico College in Española to deliver her inauguration speech on October 28, 2010, she spoke about many things. Most memorable is the reference to the long braid down her back which she’s had for many years. It has a different meaning for her now, Barceló said, because it represents the three strands of community represented on the campus.
One strand of the braid is for the Hispanic core of the college’s staff, students and faculty. Another strand is for the Native Americans at the college. And the third strand represents Anglos in this “tri-cultural” academic setting where diversity is as familiar to Barceló as her long braid.
If Barceló speaks about diversity, it is with considerable experience. She spent the majority of her professional career at the University of Iowa and the University of Minnesota in various administrative positions, most of which had a great deal to do with diversity and reinforcing the importance of its its role in higher education.
This year the University of Iowa honored Barceló with a Distinguished Alumni Award as a “pioneer in convincing university communities to embrace principles of equality, diversity, and multiculturalism.” A scholarship was set up in her honor at the University of Iowa to make it possible for a University of Iowa student to conduct research on the history of life of Latinas in the Midwest.
The new college president is no stranger to the New Mexico campus and the broader community. Barceló arrived in July to assume the job of the presidency and since then has bent over backwards introducing herself to the campus and larger community while learning about the many facets of operating two campuses in El Rito and Española. She maintains offices on both campuses.
If Barceló were to choose between community and hierarchy, she made it clear that she’s for community. She told the large crowd filling the Eagle Memorial Gymnasium for the inauguration that she’s an optimist, someone supportive of every opportunity to give students the boost they need to succeed. The college will continue with its open enrollment policy. Barceló is determined to put Española on the map, and she has already, starting with being the first Northern president of twenty to be inaugurated in an official ceremony. Northern became an institution granting four-year degrees in 2005. It was designated a community college in 1977. And its long history goes back to its origins as an institution to educate teachers over a hundred years ago.
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