Students, graduates, faculty and staff gave passionate in-person testimony Tuesday night to fight for Central New Mexico Community College’s trade programs in trucking and jewelry.
They argued that the programs helped change their lives and provide economic opportunities to students from marginalized backgrounds who might have difficulty finding education elsewhere.
CNM administrators are trying to sunset the Truck Driving and Bench Jewelry certificates, meaning after students in the program finish their degrees, the school will no longer offer those certificates.
No one at the meeting spoke in favor of ending the programs.
The news that the programs are in jeopardy came as a shock to faculty at CNM — and even the programs’ instructors themselves, said Marissa Juarez, a full-time faculty member of the School of Communication, Humanities, and Social Sciences.
“But it’s not surprising that faculty were not forewarned of the plans to remove these programs from CNM’s offerings, given the administration’s history of denying faculty the right to be involved in critical operational and program decisions,” Juarez said. “This is further evidence that the administration continues to make unilateral decisions without feedback from students, faculty and staff.”
It’s proof, she said, that CNM’s top-down leadership model is “grossly flawed.”
“As is clear tonight, more than ever, faculty, students and staff are no longer willing to bend to administrative whims,” Juarez said.
Board Chair Thomas Swisstack later denied that the administration makes arbitrary decisions.
“Please understand where this is a journey that we’re going through this process and administration is not making arbitrary decisions,” he said. “It costs a lot. Part of what we’re trying to do is figure out all this based upon what everybody’s input is provided to us tonight. Please know, we heard you.”
The board is expected to vote on the sunset proposal at its next meeting at 5 p.m. on May 10.
Trucking program around for decades
John Morningstar, a full-time instructor in the truck driving program, said it serves a population that may not have as many opportunities to make this type of income in almost any other field in New Mexico. He said the program is exceptional — the most comprehensive he has ever seen in the industry.
“Our students can come to us from a variety of backgrounds including poor education, correctional facilities, et cetera, and they can get employed by out-of-state companies and bring revenue into New Mexico for their families, our tax base, and improve their lives and those of their communities,” Morningstar said.
Steven Shikenjanski, a full-time faculty member of the trucking program, said the program is expensive for the school, but it would be worth it for school administrators to give the program a chance to address cost issues.
He said CNM has been actively building the program for more than 30 years and that ending it now would be “kind of a hard one to swallow.”
Julie Mason, a faculty member and American Sign Language instructor, said there is a long history of educational oppression depriving deaf people of language and access to schooling, and the trades programs help people overcome those barriers.
Mason said CNM was one of the first programs in the United States to graduate a deaf truck driver.
“If we get rid of these programs, we’re removing opportunities for the deaf community who may not be able to find jobs in the first place,” Mason said.
‘Give us a chance to try’
Numerous jewelry business owners in Albuquerque, many of them graduates of the CNM jewelry program themselves, pleaded with the board to keep it in place. Marco Rivera handed the Board a petition containing 900 physical signatures of people who want to keep the program.
Shannon Sweet, the technician for the jewelry program’s studio, said despite the industry being male-dominated, the majority of graduates from CNM’s Bench Jewelry program are women.
“To eliminate this program is to eliminate this avenue for more women — and Black, Indigenous and people of color — in trades,” Sweet said. “Canceling the jewelry program would go directly against CNM’s mission.”
Leah Anderson, a faculty member in the school of arts, pointed to dozens of letters sent to the board from people who have benefitted from the jewelry program.
“We deserve an opportunity to continue to grow,” Anderson said. “If you feel that more certificates are needed, or costs lowered, or some other criteria that would make our program even stronger, give us a chance to try.”
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