April Matthews
"WNMU Staff Employee of the Year"Silver City, NM - The computer as it was known in 1987 would be unrecognizable today. No one knows better than April Matthews who has been at Western New Mexico University for the last 28 years, witnessing the many transformations of the computer for nearly three decades. She was recently named the WNMU Employee of the Year.

"In the beginning we had a COW, a computer on wheels," said Matthews, Academic Computing Manager. "It was pretty wild."

The COW would be wheeled from room-to-room by a professor who would display the information onto a projector using a smart panel.

"Those were our computer labs in the 1980s," said Matthews. Today, Matthews oversees nearly 300 computers, mainly for student and faculty use in classrooms and in two labs.

"It's a fast changing job and we have to stay on the cutting edge always trying to figure out how to implement the latest change," said Matthews.

Matthews was recognized as the Employee of the Year by her peers who acknowledged the footprint she has left on campus. Matthews implemented the Help Desk system for student and employee technology troubleshooting, and initiated a process where paper documents are now filled out and traced online. She also employed a document imaging system where student records are available online to university personnel on campus.

"It's really rewarding when you are trying to help students and you see the light bulb come on," said Matthews. "You see that the students realize that they now understand what you were trying to explain."

Matthews will be retiring from WNMU in September and she is looking forward to spending a lot of her time away from the computer screen.

"I plan to buy a new horse and continue to ride," said Matthews. "Maybe some scuba diving and more travel."