Once an Aggie, always an Aggie.
The proof of this is lovingly evident every May 1 on NMSU’s annual Aggie Remembrance Day.
Aggie Remembrance Day is the most beloved event of the NMSU Foundation’s CEO, Dr. Sylvia Y. Acosta ’10, as it reflects the depth and breadth of what it means to be an Aggie. “When you are a student at NMSU, your journey as an Aggie is just beginning—and it doesn’t end. You are an important part of the NMSU community from the time you step onto campus until the time you leave this earth. And it’s important to recognize that.” Dr. Acosta participated in last year’s Remembrance Day with her family in observance of the passing of her mother-in-law, Laura E. Graham ’90.
Surprisingly, Aggie Remembrance Day is a relatively new tradition. It is thanks to NMSU Associate Vice President of Student Development and Dean of Students Ann Goodman ’86, ’87 that this tradition has evolved into the ceremony that we have today: one that recognizes the value of the contributions of the entire Aggie community—students, faculty and staff, and alumni.
Dean Goodman inherited the management of the remembrance event in 2019 when former NMSU Dean of Students Michael Jasek departed the university. Deans Goodman and Jasek are both steeped in Texas A&M traditions, which are renowned for uniting that university’s community, and each wanted to bring a sense of unity to NMSU.
Dr. Jasek, coincidentally a former student of Dean Goodman’s, established Aggie Remembrance Day’s predecessor in 2013 when he realized there was no event at NMSU at which students, faculty, and staff could recognize students who had passed away the previous year.
When Dean Goodman stepped into that role in 2019, she wanted to elevate what former Dean Jasek had established as a small, yet meaningful, remembrance tradition. “Part of my job responsibility is to develop university traditions that are significant and sustainable,” Dean Goodman shares. “I proposed to the [then] chancellor’s office the creation of an official Aggie Remembrance Day that would celebrate the lives of all lost members of the NMSU community—students, faculty and staff.”
Around the same time, Dean Goodman began working with the NMSU Foundation to include alumni in this remembrance ceremony as an appropriate and fitting way to honor an alum’s NMSU roots and ties to our campus community. Although the emphasis remains on students who have passed, she wanted to include all those with a special connection to NMSU.
May 1, 2020, would have been the first in-person Aggie Remembrance Day, but the pandemic put a stop to all gatherings. Although online remembrances happened in 2020 and 2021, the first in-person Aggie Remembrance Day ceremony occurred in 2022.
Traditionally, Dean Goodman opens the Aggie Remembrance Day ceremony by letting guests know that they are not alone in their loss—that the entire Aggie family mourns with them and celebrates the life of their loved one. After an invocation, NMSU ROTC posts the colors, the national anthem is performed, and this year the University Singers performed before and after the program.
At each ceremony, the ASNMSU president and the chair of the NMSU Employee Council speak, and the NMSU fire chief rings the memorial bell as the names of each of the students and faculty and staff who have passed are read. The bell is rung three times at the end of the reading of alumni names. In 2022, a new tradition began of placing rocks in Aggie Memorial Plaza (just west of the Spiritual Center) painted with the names of students who passed. Following the ceremony, there is a short reception.
According to Dr. Acosta, there is value for us all in recognizing the impact that our fellow Aggies have had on our campus, our community, and our world. “We hope that it provides families and friends with a little bit of closure, knowing that their loved ones are remembered by the Aggie family. And we hope that it inspires current students to do what Aggies do best—to go forward, be bold, and shape the future.”
For more information about Aggie Remembrance Day, please reach out to Dean Ann Goodman at dos@nmsu.edu or 575-646-1722.