The College of Education was the University of New Mexico's first college, housed in Hodgin Hall and it was called a Normal School - since then, the college has gone through a series of structural and instructional changes, but its most recent change is one that took intention, unity and representation.

Today, it stands as the College of Education and Human Sciences. After receiving approval at several institutional levels, UNM’s Board of Regents convened in February and by a unanimous decision, voted to change the college’s name to include, “and Human Sciences.”

“The change not only represents our faculty, our college and everything that we do, but it’s timely and significant,” said Tryphenia Peele-Eady, Language, Literacy, & Sociocultural Studies Department chair. “This was not an arbitrary decision and going into this we weren’t just thinking about the here-and-now, but we thought about long term and the future way of thinking about human sciences.”

Peele-Eady chaired the ‘re-naming’ task force and committee that oversaw the four-year process. The process included feedback and input from faculty, students, staff and community members.

“There’s a lot of representation that goes into a name and that’s why it was a task that we carefully and thoughtfully embarked upon,” Peele-Eady said. “Faculty and our students wanted a name that reflected the full scope of what we do, and what we hope our students will go out and do.”

“It’s an interdisciplinary approach considering all the changes taking place in education, not only focusing on the cognitive and intellectual aspects, but considering the social and emotional aspects of the whole child, the family and the community,” said Deborah Rifenbary, Interim Dean of the college. “It’s really a tribute to the work of faculty, students and community members and an appreciation of the changes in education.”