The Same, Except For…

Our success as a species is often attributed to our use of tools, our facility with language, and our mastery of fire.  I invite you to consider one more:  verse.  Rhythm, rhyme, and repetition are foundational to the human experience.  Beyond laws and epic tales, many of our earliest historical records are songs and poems. 

It is easy to understand why.  Not only do we sing to our little ones because it soothes the child and the parent, but it is easier to remember something that repeats.  But it isn’t mindless repetition that we enjoy the most.  It is the slight variation of it. 

It seems that we are wired for this.  In his book “Play It Again, Sam,” MIT linguist Samuel Jay Keyser explores this interplay between repetition and variation.  He cites American psychologist Elizabeth Margulis, who has demonstrated that humans find repetition pleasurable, and then builds on that by taking an in-depth look at great works of art using this approach.  He makes a solid case that there is inherent satisfaction in experiencing something the same, yet somewhat different.

Your mind may be arriving at examples of this as you read.  As an educator, I think of first days of school, graduation, and the spectacle of college football games.  One might wonder if many ceremonies and traditions are constructed, consciously or subconsciously, to stimulate this response. 

Southeast New Mexico College serves as an example as well.  This month, as we mark our 75th anniversary, we are both the same and different.  We were the first two-year higher education institution created in the State of New Mexico, but we didn’t start as a branch of New Mexico State University, even though we held that status for more than six decades.  We were founded as the Carlsbad Instructional Center in October 1950, unaffiliated and self-sufficient.  One could say that when we became independent again, in April 2022, we were returning to our roots.  This time, however, we were more than a center.  We were a college.

This evolving story is the heritage that we are celebrating.  While we have had a few different names, that is not as important as the fact that we have served tens of thousands of Eddy County students seeking to improve their lives through higher education.  You may have seen our special anniversary year marketing campaign featuring our mascot, Eddy the Mountain Lion.  Like any good mascot, Eddy has been here in spirit all along.  Watch for Eddy in front of the Cavern Theatre in the 1950s, as Elvis in Vegas and zipping through the space age in the 1960s, feeling the vibes in the 1970s, tied to the phone when a landline was the only line in the 1980s, and reminding you, in the words of one of the most popular sitcoms of the 1990s, that he—and SENMC—will be there for you.

Even though we are not exactly the same, our mission remains.  We help transmit knowledge and pass down skills from one generation to the next.  We serve as a steppingstone to universities, baccalaureate degrees, and beyond.  The slogan for our anniversary—that it is still smart to start at SENMC, as it has been since 1950—shares those essential characteristics of verse:  repetition and rhyme, in hope that you will always remember why a decision that Carlsbad made seventy-five years ago continues to be a promise worth celebrating.

We are still the same, except for the name—with so many more good things to come! 

Kevin Beardmore, Ed.D., is President of Southeast New Mexico College.  He may be reached at kbeardmore@senmc.edu or 575.234.9211