Western New Mexico University

Western New Mexico University is a notable regional institution in New Mexico.

Founded in 1893, courses were initially taught in a Presbyterian church. WNMU now has over 70 different fields of study in total. Most courses are designed for undergraduates, but there are also more than 10 master’s programmes. The university additionally runs a range of online programmes.

WNMU’s former names have included New Mexico State Teachers’ College and New Mexico Western College. It acquired its current title in 1963.

WNMU also has campuses in fellow New Mexico locations such as Gallup, where students can take business, chemical dependency, counselling, education, interdisciplinary studies or social work courses, or Lordsburg and Deming, where criminal justice programmes are also available. Class sizes at WNMU average 18.

Silver City is a major centre for the arts New Mexico, awash with colour and more than a dozen galleries. It is circled by Gila National Forest, more than 3 million acres of land ripe for hiking, cycling and fishing. Located near the border with Arizona, the city is 150 miles north west of Albuquerque, 200 miles west of Santa Fe and just over 300 miles north of the Mexican border. 

Ken Brewer, a poet laureate of Utah, and Jerry D. Thompson, an author and historian who has mainly written about the American Civil War and the history of the American South West, gained a university education at WNMU.