Campus News - October 15, 2001

Branch faculty relays yesteryear

By Chad Perry

Alex SanchezAlex Sanchez purchased the first computer owned by the UNM-Valencia Campus. That was in 1983 when UNM-Valencia was known as the “UNM Valencia County Branch.”

That was also when the campus was located in a shopping center in the Rio Communities area near Belen, NM.

“I called it the fish bowl campus,” Sanchez said. “All the classrooms had glass fronts, and you could look in to see if the students were interested or excited to be in class.”

“I was appointed chair of the Department of Math, Science and Engineering in the same year I purchased that first computer,” Sanchez said. “During that time I oversaw the computer lab.” Of course, the campus only had one lab at that time. The school had only been open for two years and had an enrollment of just a few hundred students.

“I also taught introductory computer courses, advanced electronic spread sheeting, and the solar and renewable energy courses,” he said.

By 1984, renewable energy was on its way out and the Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) program was on its way in. Sanchez purchased a single CAD workstation and began teaching CAD instead of manual drafting. He continues to run the very successful program.

Since those early years, the campus relocated to its permanent location (1986) in the Tome area and Sanchez has been the CAD program coordinator since 1984. This year, the campus celebrates its 20th anniversary.

Sanchez has taught at UNM-Valencia longer than any other full-time instructor. The CAD certificate and associate degree programs have been offered at UNM-Valencia for the past 16 years managed by Sanchez since their inception.

“Today we have graduates who have been working as CAD operators and CAD technicians for over a decade,” Sanchez said.

“Our business partners include the top architectural, structural and civil engineering firms in New Mexico.”

For the past four years, Sanchez added, the campus has had a 100 percent placement of CAD graduates.

Sanchez, who holds both a bachelor’s and a master of fine arts degrees from UNM, is also a successful author. His latest book is one he co-authored with his wife Laura. Titled, “Adobe Houses for Today: Flexible Plans for Your Adobe Home,” the book is written with the do-it-yourselfer in mind.

“We were focusing on adobe homes that are affordable, that could be expanded over time,” he said.

Published by Santa Fe’s Sandstone Press, the book features 12 plans for small, partially solar-heated homes. Before it was ever published, “Adobe Houses for Today” dipped into Amazon.com’s four-digit rankings, which put it in the top one percent of online sales.

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