UNM contributes, both locally and statewide, to our communities in so many ways that it’s difficult to limit a list of the ways UNM contributes to just 10. But here are some of the interesting things UNM faculty, staff and students did in 2009 to make the world a little better.
Image: Helping hands build stronger communities.
1. Students at Anderson Teach Computer Safety at Area Schools
Students in Alex Seazzu’s Management 636 class spread out to local schools this year to teach computer security to students ranging from elementary to high school. The topics depend on the age of the students. Seazzu is the director of UNM’s Center for Information Assurance Research and Education.
2. UNM Meal Exchange Chapter Raises Meals for 1,400 Hungry New Mexicans
Dorm residents donated money from their Lobo cards – used to pay for meals – to the Meal Exchange fundraiser. Three dollars from each skipped meal was sent by the UNM Meal Exchange Chapter to The Storehouse in Albuquerque and the Bethel Community Storehouse that assists residents in the greater Estancia Valley.
3. UNM Alumnus Leaves $6.2 Million in Art to University Museum
UNM Alumnus E. Gerald Meyer graduated from UNM in 1951. He remembered the university in his will, giving the University Art Museum more than 100 Taos school paintings, European and Modern American school paintings as well as drawings and prints. The contemporary Western genre includes canvases by Thomas Moran, Nicholai Fechin, George Inness and Charles M. Russell. The University Art Museum is free and open to the public.
4. UNM Sponsors Training to Prevent Diabetes Among Native Americans
Native American educators have developed a free health curriculum for students from K-12. The DETS Health is Life in Balance curriculum addresses the problems of Type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is known as Adult Onset Diabetes, but younger people, especially in the Native American population are being diagnosed with the disease. This type of diabetes is almost three times as common in Native American populations. The health curriculum can be found here
5. UNM Professors Help Write the Book on New Mexico History
“Telling New Mexico – A New History” was written to coincide with the opening of the New Mexico History Museum and features essays that tell New Mexico History from many points of view. UNM Regents Professor of Anthropology Marta Weigle, New Mexico History Museum Director Frances Levine and Senior Curator and UNM alumni Louise Stiver compiled the text. Want to know about the first revolution ever to take place in North America? Read the essay by former Anthropology Professor Alfonso Ortiz as he explores the aggravation and frustration that led Native Americans in the pueblos to violently overthrow the Spanish colonists in 1680, chasing them all the way to El Paso nearly 100 years before the American Revolution.
6. UNM College Assistance Migrant Program Ranked Among Top 10 Nationally
CAMP works to identify, recruit, admit and enroll migrant and seasonal farm worker students and provides them with the academic, social and financial support to help them through their first year of college. The federal Office of Migrant posts the ranking.
7. UNM – Gallup New Navajo Language Instructors Works to Spread Navajo Literacy
Joe Kee at UNM-Gallup, teaches Navajo to Navajos. Two things, he said, have historically made teaching Navajo difficult and different from other languages. The efforts of the U.S. government to force all Navajo children to learn English at government boarding schools so they could be more easily assimilated into American culture is one. The other was during World War II, when the language itself became classified because Navajo Code Talkers were using it in encrypted military messages. During that time the government tried to control who was learned it and how it was taught. Now anyone can learn Navajo as a language at UNM-Gallup.
8. Landscape Architect Student Wins Award for Pat Hurley Neighborhood Project
A UNM Landscape Architecture student, Katya Yushmanova won a $2,000 prize for her design for Pat Hurley park on Albuquerque’s west side. The park was chosen for its interesting geography and history. The students researched the area and found traces of old agricultural acequias that were retaining water and attracting wildlife. So Yushmanova’s design incorporated public use space, a recreational facility and habitat design. The designs were made available to the city.
9. Opening of U.S. Marshal Collection at UNM Libraries Allows Glimpses into New Mexico’s Turbulent History
This collection of letters, manuscripts and papers dates from 1890 to 1950, a time when the job of the U.S. Marshal was broad and dangerous. The collection documents the problems of men who were responsible for imposing federal law on a rural and widely dispersed population. In the 1898 letters of C.M. Foraker you can read about the beginning of federal law in New Mexico. A detailed letter written to his deputy in Silver City explains how to subpoena witnesses and force them to put up a property bond guaranteeing their appearance in court. A written receipt for the body of an accused train robber William Raper, alias Bronco Bill, who died during a shootout with deputies, is a reminder of the many duties marshals had in a land where federal representatives were few and far between. Anyone can visit the Center for Southwest Research at Zimmerman Library and look through the original documents.
10. UNM’s Comadre a Comadre Program Expands Educational Pláticas
The UNM College of Education's Comadre a Comadre Program has expanded its community outreach efforts to help raise awareness of the early detection of breast cancer. To do so, Comadre will bring more than 90 classes to community centers, churches, public institutions, businesses, medical facilities and the UNM ENLACE Program through August 2010. The primary focus of these efforts is to increase early screening practices among Hispanic/Latina women.
UNM contributes to the cultural life and health of New Mexico in many ways, reminding us who we are, documenting our past, drawing plans for our future, and finding ways to work with groups who need information, support, knowledge or a helping hand.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu