Accelerate New Mexico
UNM-Taos
Building the Future for Students, Faculty, and Communities
UNM-Taos is the only institution of higher education within 50 miles, making it a lifeline for students and families in northern New Mexico. As an open-access, affordable, and student-centered community college, we serve a diverse population: traditional high school graduates, dual-credit students, high school equivalency completers, and adults returning to education. Every student brings strengths and aspirations, and we provide the relevant, hands-on learning that turns those assets into achievement.
Through dual credit, transfer degrees, career/technical training, workforce programs, and lifelong learning, UNM-Taos creates clear pathways to opportunity. Our certificates and degrees lead directly to employment in business, industry, government, and health care—helping students achieve their goals while fueling the region’s workforce and economic growth.
At UNM-Taos students gain access to affordable, high-quality programs that prepare them for transfer, careers, and leadership in their home communities. By investing in UNM-Taos, donors help ensure that rural students share fully in the opportunities of Accelerate New Mexico.
Overview:
We offer holistic support services that ensure every student has the resources to succeed. With small classes and actively engaged faculty, UNM-Taos provides a student-centered campus where learning is hands-on, contextualized in real-world environments, and grounded in the culture of northern New Mexico. Students benefit from a robust tutoring program – recognized as one of the best tutoring programs at a New Mexico community college – along with scholarships, emergency funds, computer loans, and a thriving food pantry. From application to completion, our learning communities and cohort-based programs provide connection, support, and the tools students need to achieve their goals.
Our curriculum features strong transfer pathways in programs such as Natural Resources Management, Fine Arts, a wide array of health careers including Nursing, and more. The Nursing program has earned a reputation for excellence, with 82% of its graduating cohorts achieving a flawless 100% first-time pass rate on the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) since 2018 – a testament to the program’s rigorous preparation and student success. Our Film and Digital Media Arts program has produced an extensive portfolio, including projects for National Geographic, the Continental Divide Trail Association, and the Bureau of Land Management. Fine Arts students benefit from a fully funded residency at the School of Visual Arts in New York. In Construction, students gain real-world experience through projects with Veterans Off Grid, Habitat for Humanity, and Taos Pueblo, and many graduates go on to earn their contractor’s license.
UNM-Taos faces several challenges as well.
Removing Barriers, Unlocking Potential
UNM-Taos serves students from a region marked by high rural poverty, where even the most talented and hardworking students face life challenges that can derail their education. Scholarships, emergency aid, food pantry support, transportation, and computer loans are often the difference between a student completing a degree or dropping out. Philanthropic investment provides the stability and safety net that state funding alone cannot.
Fueling Innovation Where It’s Needed Most
Nearly all our state funding is tied directly to instruction and narrowly defined program outcomes. This leaves little to no support for the essential, flexible funds that allow colleges to innovate – supporting faculty pilot projects, covering emergency facility costs, paying student workers, or sustaining extracurricular learning opportunities. Private donations allow UNM-Taos to fill these gaps, pilot creative solutions, and respond quickly when students and faculty need us most.
Local Students, Local Needs, Local Impact
Many in the public believe UNM-Taos is fully supported by the University of New Mexico’s main campus or shares in its endowment. In reality, our branch relies heavily on state appropriations that are vulnerable to shifting political priorities. Donor support ensures that local students are not subject to the uncertainties of state politics, but instead have a stable foundation for learning and success.
Investing in Root Causes, Not Just Symptoms
Our community has one of the highest concentrations of nonprofits per capita in the country, and many donors understandably direct their gifts toward immediate symptoms of poverty – such as hunger, housing, or health. Yet without investment in education, these symptoms persist across generations. Supporting UNM-Taos addresses the root causes of poverty by creating long-term pathways to stable employment and strong local leadership.
Closing the Workforce Gap, Creating Futures
Northern New Mexico urgently needs a skilled workforce in health care, renewable energy, construction, and digital media. Yet UNM-Taos too often lacks the labs, modern equipment, and faculty capacity to meet this demand. Students are eager to enter these high-wage, high-demand fields, but without the necessary tools and training environments, their opportunities – and the region’s workforce pipeline – remain limited. Philanthropic investment can directly expand training capacity by funding labs, equipment, and faculty development, ensuring that local students gain the skills needed to fill critical jobs and strengthen the region’s economy.
The Accelerate New Mexico campaign presents us with a unique opportunity to meet these challenges.
List of Priorities:
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At UNM-Taos, student success depends on more than what happens in the classroom. It requires a strong network of support that helps students overcome obstacles, stay on track, and achieve their educational and career goals. Yet much of our public funding is restricted to instruction, leaving limited resources to address emerging needs, support innovation, or invest in opportunities that transform the student experience.
The General Institutional Fund provides the flexibility to respond where the need is greatest. These unrestricted dollars fuel faculty innovation, create meaningful student employment opportunities, expand extracurricular experiences, address urgent facility needs, and provide critical resources that help students persist and succeed. When challenges arise, this fund allows UNM-Taos to act quickly and effectively – removing barriers before they become roadblocks.
Your investment strengthens the foundation of UNM-Taos. It empowers students to complete degrees, transfer to four-year institutions, enter the workforce with confidence, and contribute to the vitality of northern New Mexico. Simply put, a gift to the Operational Fund helps ensure that every student has the opportunity to thrive.
When you give to the Operational Fund, you invest in possibility. You provide the flexibility, innovation, and support that students need today – and help build a stronger UNM-Taos for generations to come.
$200,000 of philanthropic funding will augment the General Institutional Fund.
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Northern New Mexico is facing a critical workforce shortage in some of its fastest-growing industries – including health care, renewable energy, construction, hospitality, and digital media. At UNM-Taos, students are ready to pursue these careers, and employers are eager to hire qualified graduates. The challenge is capacity. To meet the region’s workforce needs, we must expand the facilities, equipment, and instructional resources that make high-quality technical education possible.
The CTE Development Fund will help turn this challenge into an unprecedented opportunity. With the transfer of the nearby National Guard Armory to UNM-Taos, we have a rare chance to create a dedicated workforce training center (Taos Workforce Center) that will serve students, employers, and communities across northern New Mexico for generations to come.
Your investment will help transform the Armory into a hub of innovation and hands-on learning – supporting facility renovations, cutting-edge equipment, curriculum development, and the recruitment of expert faculty. These resources will allow UNM-Taos to launch and expand high-demand career programs that connect students directly to meaningful employment and family-sustaining wages.
This is more than an investment in a building. It is an investment in people, opportunity, and the future of our region. By supporting the CTE Development Fund, you will help students gain the skills they need to build rewarding careers while strengthening the workforce that local businesses, health care providers, and industries depend on to thrive.
A philanthropic investment of $200,000 will help transform the Armory into a state-of-the-art workforce training center, supporting facility renovations, faculty recruitment, program equipment, and curriculum development that expand career opportunities and drive economic growth throughout northern New Mexico.
When you invest in workforce education at UNM-Taos, you don't just prepare students for jobs – you help build a stronger, more resilient future for the communities of northern New Mexico.
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The future of New Mexico’s economy will be shaped by STEM innovation – from aerospace and satellite technology to advanced research and data science. Yet too many students in rural communities lack access to the inspiring, hands-on learning experiences that spark curiosity, build confidence, and open doors to these high-demand careers.
UNM-Taos has a remarkable opportunity to change that.
Thanks to the gift of a 36-inch telescope – the largest in northern New Mexico – UNM-Taos is poised to create the Cielo Centro (Sky Center) observatory, a one-of-a-kind destination for STEM education, discovery, and community engagement. UNM Physics and Astronomy will co-locate a research telescope in the same space. Situated beneath some of the darkest skies in the nation, the observatory will provide students with access to scientific tools and experiences that are rarely available at community colleges or in rural communities.
More than an observatory, Cielo Centro will be a gateway to possibility. The facility will support astronomy instruction, strengthen math and science education, create undergraduate research opportunities, welcome K-12 students for immersive field experiences, and offer public programs that connect our community and visitors to the wonder of the night sky. Linked by a science walk and amphitheater, it will serve as a landmark for learning and a catalyst for inspiration.
Your investment will help ensure that students from northern New Mexico can see themselves in the future of STEM. By creating access to world-class educational experiences close to home, you will help cultivate the next generation of scientists, engineers, educators, and innovators while advancing educational equity in rural communities.
This is a transformational opportunity to create a lasting legacy for UNM-Taos and the region we serve. Together, we can build a place where discovery begins, curiosity thrives, and students gain the skills and inspiration to reach for careers once thought beyond their grasp.
A philanthropic investment of $1 million will support the design, development, and construction of the Cielo Centro observatory and program, creating a world-class STEM learning resource that will inspire students, strengthen New Mexico's future workforce, and serve northern New Mexico for generations to come.
Every great discovery begins with a single glance toward the horizon. Your gift will help students look up, dream bigger, and find their place among the innovators shaping New Mexico's future.
Dr. Mary Gutierrez
Chancellor / UNM-Taos
“Every act of generosity at UNM–Taos carries the potential to change a life. Donor support helps students persist through hardship, empowers faculty and staff to create transformative learning experiences, and brings visionary projects – like Cielo Centro, where education, science, and the cosmos converge – to life, opening new horizons for learning and discovery. Philanthropy allows us not only to meet today's needs, but to imagine and build the future our communities need and deserve.”
2003
Founded in 2003
1,300+
1,300+ Students Enrolled
11
11 degrees and 20 certificates offered
With its variety of courses and programs ranging from dual credit, basic skills, CTE, and lifelong learning, UNM-Taos is a distinctive campus within the UNM system. Our goals for the future are ambitious, and the Accelerate New Mexico campaign represents a major opportunity for UNM-Taos to address its challenges and continue to build upon its reputation for educational excellence.