Date:
3/28/2013
Contact: Wendel Sloan at 575.562.2253
PORTALES–Steven Gamble, president of Eastern New Mexico University, was honored with the E. Joseph Savoie Chief Executive Leadership Award on Sunday at the District IV Conference of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education in Ft. Worth, Texas.
The award recognizes a District IV member institution president, headmaster, chancellor, educational system head or institutional CEO for outstanding efforts to promote understanding and support for education.
The criteria states, "That individual demonstrates the ability to create a vision; inspire others; establish a positive image for her or his institution while leading it to even higher levels of success; and increase the institution's stature in the community."
CASE IV encompasses higher education institutions in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
The award is named after the president of the University of Louisiana Lafayette, who served in leadership roles in CASE IV for many years.
At the conference, Gamble was cited as leading ENMU to a decade of unprecedented growth, including a record enrollment this year of almost 6,000.
Under Gamble's leadership, the university has increased its endowment to $11.65 million, an increase of 207 percent since 2005 ($3.8 million).
He managed four years (2008-2011) of cuts in appropriations from the state of New Mexico during record enrollment increases without loss of mission and vision focus.
He has overseen or is overseeing $120 million in construction and renovation on the ENMU-Portales campus. Of that, approximately 60 percent has come from university sources.
ENMU-Portales received $9 million for renovation of its liberal arts building from passage of a statewide bond issue this year.
ENMU-Roswell and ENMU-Ruidoso received an additional $2 million from the bond issue.
Gamble was the leader of the university presidents promoting the statewide bond.
Gamble became ENMU president in 2001.