Renteria to Retire after 56 Years of Service to UNM
December 11, 2024
Picture The University of New Mexico landscape today—new modernized buildings sprinkled into the historic pueblo-style scenery surrounding the Duck Pond, computers on every desktop, digital signs, robot food deliveries, and everyone wearing headphones staring at their cell phone screens as they make their way through the greenery and trees lining Smith Plaza. Now envision UNM over a half-century ago. One employee, Ray Renteria, doesn’t have to picture it, because as we say today, he was there “IRL” (in real life). “Smith Plaza was the football field,” Renteria said. “There was no Duck Pond—that area was filled with houses that were turned into offices.”  Fifty-six years ago, Renteria began his UNM career—and quite possibly holds the record for longest professional stint at UNM.

Brigance to Retire After 40 Years of Service to UNM  
December 9, 2024
Green.  It can symbolize so many things: wealth, envy, trees, the nudge to start moving at a traffic light, and even the Vice President for Student Affairs (VPSA) office in Scholes Hall. That’s because, unlike Kermit the Frog, “being green” came easy for Natalie Brigance – plant enthusiast, animal lover, recycle fanatic, and long-time University of New Mexico (UNM) employee. Brigance, equally known by her VPSA colleagues for her professionalism and dedication to UNM, and for adorning the office with plants tended to by her green thumb, is set to retire at the end of this year after over 40 years of service. Her longest and most recent stint being in the VPSA suite on the second floor of Scholes Hall.