New Mexico State University
PAE-13: Staff Professional Development in Sustainability

NMSU recognizes the value of training personnel to perform their assigned duties and offering professional development to encourage growth and development in their field or in other areas of interest. These are critical to employee performance, job satisfaction, and longevity. NMSU has two primary departments charged with providing training and professional development to its employees: The Teaching Academy which primarily develops Faculty, and the Center for Learning & Professional Development which primarily trains and develops Staff. The Teaching Academy conducted 150 professional development events during the academic year 2012 with 1000 faculty and staff attending, 300 attending 10 or more events. The Center for Learning & Professional Development conducted 295 classes in fiscal year 2012 with 3224 staff and faculty attending.

The Teaching Academy offers short courses, classroom visitations, teaching conferences, and teaching newsletters to support teachers, enhance learning, and build community. The Office of Sustainability is working with the Teaching Academy to develop training on sustainability and has monthly speakers at their Sustainability Council meeting to educate the campus and Las Cruces community. The Center for Learning & Professional Development offers face-to-face training and development, online learning courses, and one-on-one training. The department coordinates training and professional development initiatives for other departments on campus and consults with departments on organizational development initiatives.

NMSU is actively working toward full compliance with New Mexico Administrative Code (NMAC) focused on loss prevention and control. This initiative focuses on the reduction of employment related civil rights violations through education and training; reduced injuries through training, oversight, and increased supervisor involvement; and increased job training and information conducted by supervisors. Additionally, NMSU promotes on-the-job training for new employees by department supervisors to ensure that employees receive critical training on their job duties to help promote a shorter learning curve, improved job satisfaction, and increased longevity. In order to support this, NMSU is completing detailed Job Task Analyses on key job families to ensure supervision has the needed information to conduct on-the-job training.

Additional website for training opportunities: http://teaching.nmsu.edu/