New Mexico State University
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New Mexico State University was founded in 1888 as Las Cruces College. The Territorial Legislature of 1889 established the land-grant Agricultural College and Experiment Station, which officially opened on January 21, 1890. During its first full academic year, the college became known as the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, the first degree granting institution in the Territory. Under the provisions of the Morrill Act of 1862 and subsequent federal legislation, the special mission of land-grant institutions has been to provide a liberal and practical education for students and to sustain programs of research, extension education, and public service. In 1960, New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts became New Mexico State University. Since that time, while sustaining excellence in those programs traditionally associated with land-grant institutions, New Mexico State has become a comprehensive doctoral level university offering a wide variety of programs through the Graduate School and the colleges: Agriculture and Home Economics, Arts and Sciences, Business Administration and Economics, Education, Engineering, and Health and Social Services.

Mission Statement
New Mexico State University is the state’s land-grant university, serving the educational needs of New Mexico’s diverse population through comprehensive programs of education, research, extension education, and public service.

Facts About NMSU
New Mexico State University, which began in 1888 as an agricultural college and preparatory school, is a comprehensive institution dedicated to teaching, research, and service at the graduate and undergraduate level. It is the only land-grant institution that is also classified as Hispanic-serving by the federal government and ranked by the Carnegie Foundation in the top research category, Research-Extensive. The university is also home to the state's NASA Space Grant Program. With extension and research sites in every county, New Mexico State is developing distance-education capabilities to extend its reach to all the citizens of the state. It is located in the southern New Mexico city of Las Cruces, which has a population of about 75,000. The region features desert mesas, the farmlands of the Rio Grande Valley, and the Organ Mountains, an extension of the Rocky Mountain chain.

Enrollment
Total fall 2005 enrollment for NMSU main campus and branch campuses is 26,391. The main campus enrollment is 16,072, which includes 3,416 graduate students. Minority enrollment at the main campus is more than 48 percent (41.4 percent Hispanic, 2.9 percent American Indian, 2.7 percent African-American and 1.3 percent Asian-American).

Faculty and Staff
Regular faculty members on the main campus number 698. Eighty-four percent of the full-time faculty hold earned doctoral degrees. The faculty/student ratio is 1 to 19. The professional and classified staff total 3,406.

Programs
Certificate - 220
Associate - 4
Bachelor's - 77
Master's - 50
Specialist in Education - 2
Doctoral - 22
Research
Classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a Doctoral/Research University - Extensive, NMSU had research and public service expenditures exceeding $134 million in 2003-2004. The university anchors the southern end of New Mexico's Rio Grande Research Corridor.

Other Campuses
NMSU-Alamogordo, NMSU-Carlsbad, NMSU-Grants, and NMSU-Doña Ana (two campuses located in Las Cruces). All offer two-year programs.

Athletics
NMSU enters the Western Athletic Conference July 1, 2005. The university sponsors six intercollegiate sports for men and ten for women. Pan American Center seats 13,071. Aggie Memorial Stadium seats 30,343.

Arts and Recreation
The university offers a museum and art galleries, professional theater, music ensembles and symphony, visiting artists, national performers, professional road shows, PBS and NPR campus stations, an 18-hole golf course, a tennis center, swimming pools and an activity center.