The College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at New Mexico State University will receive $25 million for campus renovations after voters recently approved General Obligation Bond D in the recent midterm elections.  

The bond will be used to modernize the food and science, security and safety facility, a biomedical research center and animal nutrition and feed manufacturing facility.   

The food science and security facility would allow increased capability to work in the area of value-added foods. It would also increase partnerships with industry, including the Arrowhead Center.  

According to the ACES GO Bond booklet, there would be increased training in federal, state and other food regulations. Several laboratories will also be created as part of the facility, including a food safety laboratory, fermentation technology laboratory and a dairy laboratory, among others.  

 According to the ACES website, 600 students would use the facility, as well as people participating in outreach such as 4-H and FFA.   

The biomedical research center will strengthen the university’s ability to be a leader in biomedical research in areas such as cancer treatment, epidemiology and border health.  

The center would provide accommodations for students in different fields across campus. Researches in three colleges and seven departments will be served by the facility, according to the bond booklet. 

With increased ability to conduct biomedical research, the ACES college speculates the facility will lead to a greater number of grants from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation.  

As for the animal nutrition and feed manufacturing facility, 495 undergraduate students, 37 graduate students and 27 faculty will be able to use the facility for teaching, research and outreach. More than 80 percent of courses offered in the Department of Animal and Range Services will benefit from the facility, according to the booklet.  

Shanna Ivey, Department Head of Animal and Range Sciences said she is glad the bond has passed.  

“It’s huge for our department,” Ivey said. “So it’s new facilities to support our educational programs.” 

Ivey said the ACES college has not had a GO bond since Skeen Hall, which was built 18 years ago, in 2000.  

“We desperately need the new facilities to educate our students and do the best we can do,” Ivey said. 

She said with these new facilities, students will be well-trained and ready to go into the workforce. Ivey said these new facilities are a big deal for agriculture in New Mexico and the university in general.  

Delaram Heidari, student at NMSU, said modernized buildings can impact education.  

“It makes [education] more practical and more organized, more inviting,” Heidari said.  

One student who wished to go unnamed said he was formerly a student for the ACES college. He said he hardly sees money going towards agriculture.  

“That does need to happen more often. Generally, the ag jobs are lower pay and much harder work, but everything revolves around producing food, producing the base-level goods for everything to function. So of course we need to invest in it,” he said.  

Cooper Davis is an ag business and economic major. He said he’s not sure if the government should be putting more money into education.  

“I think this might be a good idea if it’s just a single time-bond,” Davis said.