University of New Mexico Research Associate Professor of Psychology Robert J. Meyers is featured prominently in the January issue of O: The Oprah Magazine in an article titled “Hi, my name is Amanda and I might be an alcoholic.” Meyers is cited in the publication for his work on the community reinforcement approach (CRA) to treating alcohol and substance abuse.
Meyers, who is the coauthor of Get Your Loved One Sober: Alternatives to Nagging, Pleading and Threatening, teaches the 33-year-old method that works on the principle that the most effective way to get people to reduce their substance abuse is to make sobriety more rewarding than addiction.
“Some people drink because their personal relationships are terrible,” said Meyers in the article. “Others drink because their work is meaningless. Some are depressed. Some are anxious. Some are just bored. A few are burdened with a genetic predisposition for alcoholism. Many drink for an amalgam of all those reasons.
“But if you ask a person what they want out of life and help them start to achieve it, they’re more likely to reduce their drinking that if you just tell them to stop drinking.”
CRA has garnered many accolades including by the Journal of Studies on Alcohol as among the most cost-effective alcohol treatment programs and has been shown, in studies funded by the National Institutes of Health, more effective than traditional interventions.
A UNM study in 2001 randomly assigned alcoholics to a CRA program or a 12-step treatment program. Over a six-month follow-up period, the CRA participants averaged drinking three percent of drinking days, and those in traditional treatment averaged 19 percent drinking days. Another previous in-patient study, the CRA participants averaged only five percent of days unemployed, but the hospital’s Alcohol Anonymous participants averaged 62 percent.
The article is only available in the January issue of O: The Oprah Magazine, which is currently on sale at newsstands everywhere.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The 2007 New Mexico Economic Outlook Conference is set for Jan. 11, 2007 from 1 to 4:15 p.m. at the UNM Continuing Education Center located at 1634 University Blvd, N.E. The 2nd annual conference will present an afternoon focused on the newest economic information available in the United States and New Mexico to help business owners and or executives with information to plan for the upcoming year.
The conference is open to the public and the registration fee is $40. However, participants must register by Jan. 5 on the conference Web site at: 2007 Economic Outlook Conference.
UNM Vice President for Research and Economic Development Terry Yates will open the conference with welcoming remarks, followed by the PNM Forecasting Award presentation by PNM Vice President Cindy McGill. Noted guest speakers include James Paulsen, chief investment strategist, Wells Fargo & Company; Lawrence Waldman, Sr. Economist, UNM’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER); and Brian Sanderoff, president, Research and Polling, Inc.
Paulsen will begin the program and will speak on economic and market perspective. As chief investment strategist for Wells Fargo & Company, Paulsen’s responsibilities include developing investment strategies and managing institutional-account assets and investment funds.
Waldman will discuss the recent developments in and outlook for New Mexico’s economy. At BBER, he has managed the FOR-UNM Economic Forecasting Service for more that 15 years where he creates quarterly forecasts on the state’s economy and its major metropolitan areas.
After a short break Sanderoff will speak on New Mexico’s demographic trends and give an election recap. Sanderoff has been an on-air election analyst for KOAT and made appearances on CNN, MSNBC, FOX and the Jim Lehrer News Hour.
Sherri Wells, publisher, the New Mexico Business Weekly, will moderate a brief question and answer session following each speaker.
For registration information call Tracy Horsley at (505) 348-8326. For specific conference information visit the Web site at: 2007 Economic Outlook Conference or call Larry Waldman at (505) 277-7077.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The Provost's Committee for Staff (PCS) is seeking scholarship applicants for its Staff Academic Support Scholarship for the Spring 2007 semester. The scholarship, in its second year, is designed to help support staff who utilizes their tuition remission benefit. UNM employees have the opportunity to apply for a financial support scholarship to help cover the costs of academic books, course fee(s) and other related course supplies.
Eligibility requirements include: course(s) must be used toward degree or certificate completion or professional development; passed UNM Employment Probationary Status; be at least a .50 FTE UNM employee; must have a “Meet expectations” or better on most recent Performance Review.
Application guidelines include a completed application form available online at: Staff Academic Support Scholarship Application and a statement outlining academic path and benefit of these funds towards your academic degree. The deadline to submit a completed application is Friday, Jan. 26, 2007.
A fund to help support the scholarship has been established through an account at the UNM Foundation. UNM employees interested in contributing to this fund will have the option to do so through payroll deductions. The goal is to grow the fund and provide increased financial support to our staff.
The United Way is another avenue in which you may give to the scholarship award by designating your donation to the UNM Provost Support Scholarship fund, which will continue to increase the number of awardees per semester.
This is the fourth semester the scholarship award has been in existence and the staff’s need in financial assistance is apparent by receiving over 50 applicants for the Fall 2006 semester.
Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Starry Nights, the ‘ultimate urban star party’, returns to the LodeStar Astronomy Center for its seventh season. This year Starry Nights features a brand new DigitalSky2 planetarium show in LodeStar’s world-class digital theater, which continues to lead the world in digital technology beneath its 55-foot-diameter dome – the biggest theater screen in New Mexico.
Special bilingual (Spanish-English) programs complete the “double dome astronomical fiesta” in the world-class planetarium and telescope observatory.
LodeStar will take audiences to visit huge, colorful visuals of deep-space objects up-close and personal with our new DigitalSky2 software. Audiences will see a live star show about tonight’s sky above New Mexico and journey through stunning DigitalSky2 computer models and imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope and other various ground-based astronomical observatories.
DigitalSky2, a realtime immersive virtual reality simulator, allows audiences to take live photorealistic flights through the solar system and into 3D data sets encompassing the edge of our observable universe. It’s like a giant digital dome flight simulator of the cosmos!
The Starry Nights experience also includes telescope observing of the celestial objects presented in the new DigitalSky2 planetarium show. Viewing is done through the LodeStar observatory’s 16-inch-diameter telescope as well as through a variety of telescopes on the observing deck overlooking Tiguex Park and Old Town. Night sky interpreters are on hand to answer astronomy and telescope questions.
Starry Nights the ‘ultimate urban star party’ also provides two floors of interactive fun—a gallery of astronomy exhibits on the first floor and hands-on activities for kids of all ages on the second floor. The unique program is generously sponsored by KOB-TV, 100.3 The Peak & Smooth Jazz 104.1.
Starry Nights is presented each Saturday night from January 6 through Feb. 24. Shows start 6:30 p.m., 7 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 8 p.m. and a special bilingual show (Spanish-English) is presented at 8:30 p.m. Telescope observing runs until 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $7 adults, $6 seniors, $4 youth (3-12 years). For more information see www.lodestar.unm.edu or call 841.5955
The LodeStar Astronomy Center is a University of New Mexico project located in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science at 1801 Mountain Road in Old Town Albuquerque.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Barney Maccabe, UNM professor of computer science and director of the High Performance Computing Center, has been appointed interim Chief Information Officer of the University of New Mexico, effective Feb. 1, 2007. Maccabe will take over the position for a period of one year upon the retirement of William Adkins who has served as university CIO since December 2004.
Photo: Barney Maccabe
Acting President David W. Harris made the announcement on behalf of the university’s Management Leadership Team, which includes Harris, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Reed Dasenbrock and Executive Vice President for Health Sciences, Dr. Paul Roth.
The CIO provides strategic leadership for the integration of Information Technology (IT)-related functions across the UNM campus. A key element of this charge is the development of governance and organizational structures that will support this integration. The CIO also chairs an IT Cabinet put in place to bring together IT constituents from across the University to address this critical institutional issue.
“With his academic background and his understanding of high performance computing, Barney will help strategically position the university as it faces the future opportunities and challenges of information technology,” said Harris.
Harris also noted that Maccabe’s expertise will prove invaluable with regard to Governor Bill Richardson’s announced $25 million supercomputing initiative which is designed to dramatically increase New Mexico’s high tech resources.
Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Thomas P. Caudell will take over as director of the High Performance Computing Center, also on February 1, 2007.
Contact: Susan McKinsey, (505) 277-1989; e-mail: mckinsey@unm.edu
In a linguistics laboratory, Marsheena John of the Coyote-Pass Clan studies the science of language. Using books as microscopes and her culture as a lab coat, John delves into the language passed onto her by her grandfather. The language: Navajo. The laboratory: the University of New Mexico’s Department of Linguistics.
Photo: Marsheena John
Members of the Navajo Language Program Committee recently voted to give John the Robert Young Scholarship, which supports students who are engaged in the study of Native American linguistics. Fostering the Navajo language and furthering education are values, John said, imbued to her by her grandfather.
“Growing up in the midst of bilingual educators I always thought I was going to be a bilingual teacher but I had my own interests, which were in the health science field,” John said. “Becoming a speech and language pathologist could enable me to make use of both my language and my interest in health sciences.”
Recently adapted into a minor, UNM’s 36-year-old Navajo Language Program offers opportunities to students from small communities within the Navajo Nation, such as John’s hometown Tsaile, Ariz. The program accommodates students aspiring to obtain one of the many degrees offered at UNM according to Nancy Montoya, Department Administrator, Department of Linguistics. It also allows students from two-year institutions, such as Dine College and San Juan College, to continue onto a four-year degree at UNM, she said.
“While enrollment by members of Native American groups is on the rise, it is still quite low,” Montoya said. “Many of these students have access, at best, only to junior college-level institutions in their areas. Hopefully, programs like this will help attract more of these students who would like to further their educations.”
In August, John and several other Navajo students spoke to the Indian Affairs Committee of the State Legislature about the importance of the Navajo Language Program and its future expansion. This coincided with the Department of Linguistics’ proposal to the State Legislature seeking support to expand the program. The proposal is one of the top 2007 State Legislative Priorities.
“This will serve the Navajo community and ensure that Navajo remains a vital language, actively learned by members of that community,” Montoya said.
The scholarship achieved by John was in honor of past UNM Professor Dr. Robert W. Young, a key figure in the support and promotion of sustaining the Navajo language, Montoya said. He is the co-author of a dictionary of the Navajo language – a thick, blue book that John remembers flipping through during her youth.
Former UNM Associate Professor of Civil Engineering Deborah J. Fisher has been named one of the top 50 trendsetters in the nation by “Public Works” magazine. The magazine designates trendsetters as “people, places and events that have had the greatest impact on the nation’s infrastructure in the past year.”
Photo: Deborah Fisher
While at UNM, Fisher created nine new courses, including “Women Engineering the Future” for female freshmen.
“We look for professionals who stand out among their peers in making a national impact on the public works sector, thereby influencing the public’s quality of life on a daily basis,” says Stephanie Johnston, the editor-in-chief of “Public Works” magazine.
Dean of the School of Engineering Joseph Cecchi said, “We are pleased that a former faculty member has been recognized for her ongoing commitment to improving her field. While at UNM, she did valuable research and improved and expanded engineering education.”
Fisher contributed to engineering research for more than 30 years, specializing in computer modeling of constructability and manufacturing applications to improve the construction industry. She taught for 25 years, first at the University of Houston and then at the UNM School of Engineering from 1994 until 2005, when she resigned to consult in industry.
Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Acting President David Harris and the UNM Sustainability Committee are promoting winter break utilities conservation through the recently announced Winter Setback Program. This program identifies buildings whose temperature ranges can be lowered during the 12 consecutive days the university will be closed during winter break.
The UNM Physical Plant Department area managers are taking into consideration critical activities that must maintain a strict temperature range and have identified the following 15 buildings that will have their temperature lowered from Dec. 22, 2006 through Jan. 2, 2007 to the nighttime setting of 60 degree Fahrenheit.
They include: Bratton Hall, Dane Smith Hall, Lobo Center, the new portion of Continuing Education, Tow Diehm, Domenici Hall (MIND Institute portion remains at normal temperature), Health Science and Services Building (HSSB), Research Incubator Building (RIB), Manzanita, Technology Education Center (TEC), Parish Library, Student Services, Carlisle Gym, CERIA and Hibben Center (except for AHU-1).
Should you need to have heat increased in a room when you are working there, please call the UNM Police at 277-2241 to request heat in your specific area of the building. The goal is to save as much natural gas as possible. Last year UNM’s annual heating costs exceeded $6 million. Actions like lowering thermostats can not only save money for the university, but will also allow UNM to engage in sustainable practices.
From the end of fall semester to the beginning of spring semester, Dec. 16 through Jan. 15, Information Technology Services (ITS) on-line services will vary but will generally continue to be available with most services including e-mail, internet access, GroupWise calendar, WebCT, e-Jobs and e-Hire. ITS will continue to monitor and respond to all system outages during the break. Latest information on system availability can be found at: ITS Alerts.
Computer pod hours vary during semester break by location Computer Pod Hours. Generally hours are reduced between semesters and pods are closed when the University is closed.
Banner applications and servers will not be available during the Winter Break due to a system upgrade. The upgrade from Banner version 6 to version 7 will begin at on Thursday, Dec. 21 at 7 p.m. The upgrade is scheduled to continue through Wednesday, Jan. 3 at 8 a.m. Banner and its associated applications will be unavailable to UNM end users (including staff, faculty, and students) during the entire upgrade.
The following applications will be completely unavailable during the same time frame as the Banner upgrade:
* LoboWeb
* LoboPhone
* Internet Native Banner
* Banner Authorization Request (BAR)
* Workflow
* Demographic Self Service
* LoboMart
* Hyperion
* ODSP
ITS Support Services availability during Winter Break (Dec. 22-Jan. 3):
ITS and LINK Support Centers
* Knowledge-base searches are available
* Chat - unavailable Dec. 22-Jan. 2
* Ask A Question - available intermittently
* Messages checked intermittently Dec. 22-Jan. 2 - call 277-4848
* Staffed 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. when UNM is open
Voice Services
* Knowledge-base searches are available
* Chat - unavailable Dec. 22-Jan. 2
* Ask A Question – usual response time
* Staffed 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. when UNM is open and Dec. 22, 27, 28 and Jan. 2 during Winter Break - call 277-1111
Users may also utilize: Fast Info to help answer any questions.
Network & System
* Report any major outages to 277-4646
Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The UNM winter break begins Friday, Dec. 22 and continues through Tuesday, Jan. 2, giving most university employees 12 consecutive days off. Regular university hours resume Wednesday, Jan. 3.
Certain critical facilities and departments, such as police and those involved in patient care, will remain open. Other major campus departments and facilities have special holiday hours.
For information on closures due to inclement weather, call the snow hotline, 277-SNOW (277-7669).
• Zimmerman Library will be closed Dec. 17 and Dec. 22-Jan. 2. Excluding those dates, Zimmerman will be open 8 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Monday-Friday during intersession.
• Zimmerman’s Center for Southwest Research will be closed Dec. 22-Jan.2. The center will be open 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday-Friday during intercession.
• The Centennial Science and Engineering Library will be closed Dec 22-Jan 2. Beginning Jan. 3, the library will be open 9 a.m.-6 p.m. during intersession.
• The Parish Memorial Library will be closed Dec. 23-Jan. 2. The library will be open during intersession 9 a.m.-5p.m., Monday-Friday.
• The Law Library will be closed Dec. 17, Dec. 22-Jan. 2 and Jan. 7. The library will be open 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Dec. 18-21, Jan. 3-5 and Jan. 8-9, and 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Jan. 6.
• The Health Sciences Center Library will be closed Dec. 24-25 and Dec. 31-Jan. 1. The library will be open 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m., Dec. 22-23, Dec. 26-30 and Jan. 2. Regular hours resume Jan. 3.
• Information Technology Services will be closed Dec. 22-Jan. 2 and Jan. 15. ITS will be open 7 a.m.-midnight Dec. 15 and 8 a.m.-midnight Dec. 16-21 and Jan. 6-14. To report a problem, call 277-4646 and leave voicemail. All computer systems, networks and dial-up lines will be available during the break. Technical staff will be available for any system problems. Break schedules for all computer pods are available at Computer Pod Hours.
• The UNM Bookstore will be closed Dec. 23-26 and Dec. 29-Jan. 2. The bookstore will be open 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Dec. 22 and 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Dec. 27-28. Regular hours resume Jan. 3.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Two University of New Mexico-Gallup students, Alvin Harvey and Joel Yazzie, have been nominated to the All USA Academic Team for community colleges. Sixty team members will be selected in May, from nominees across the nation, to be on the first, second and third teams.
Alvin Harvey, who is currently working toward an associate’s in Criminal Justice, was born in Fort Defiance, Ariz. He was raised in Three Turkey Ruins, near Canyon De Chelly, and attended the Nazlini Arizona Boarding School, Kinlichee Boarding School and schools in Chinle. He joined the Gallup Army National Guard in 2000 and completed a 15-month tour of duty in Iraq, for which he received an Army Commendation Medal for exceptional meritorious service.
Harvey has been on the dean’s list seven times, and this spring received a UNM-G Excellence in Student Leadership Award. He also received a recognition award from New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron for “exemplary dedication and service in enhancing the quality of life among all the peoples of the Land of Enchantment.”
Currently Harvey is serving as the UNM-Gallup Student Senate president. He helped establish the UNM-G Collegiate Veteran Association, along with the Veterans’ Memorial Gallery. One of his plans is to “create a cohort of [student veterans] to acquire funding to assist student veterans who are in financial need to purchase books and other school supplies.” He also established the UNM-G Basketball Club in fall 2004.
A father, Harvey became interested in the plight of children he saw while in Iraq. Along with plans for a career in social work and law enforcement, he says he may focus on working with children. He has already interned with a local government agency to work with children and families. The future may also hold a career in internal affairs with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he said. His current goal is to continue his education and to earn both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in social work.
A member of the Gallup Sunrise Kiwanis, Harvey helped with various Kiwanis projects and also helped plan events with the National Indian Youth Leadership group. He is also a professional Native American jewelry inlayer.
Joel Yazzie is seeking an associate degree in construction technology, with a goal to earn a bachelor’s in business or a Bachelor of University Studies. His career goal is to be a general contractor.
Yazzie, who attended Jefferson Elementary School, Gallup Mid-School and Rehoboth Christian School, has been on the dean’s list four times during his enrollment at UNM-Gallup.
He has been active on the campus and in the local community, serving as president of the Basketball Club and with Habitat for Humanity, helping to build a house during the spring 2005 semester. He also assisted in renovating a house on First Street as a construction project for his program. He was a supervisor and coordinator for this project. Once this house is finished, it will be sold by the college.
Other activities include his involvement with Special Olympics, coaching children and organizing a day of competition in May. He was a cook and server to the homeless for Care 66, and he helped an elderly person with various chores this past year.
As marketing manager of the UNM Bookstore, Anicia Esposito is the store’s holiday elf. She put up half a dozen trees, each decorated with a theme. New this year is a red tree replete with Lobo regalia and a silver tree bedecked with electronics, “like iPod accessories students want,” she said.
Photo: Anicia Esposito, marketing manager, UNM Bookstore
For the past three years the store has increased its general merchandise for the holidays. “We brought in a deeper product mix for campus customers. It is a convenience factor for them,” Esposito said.
Esposito is responsible for all promotions and advertising for all the Bookstore’s departments. In addition to the popular Faculty Staff Day, she organizes Game Day Friday, Apple Days, Dell Days and many author signing events.
The UNM Bookstore stands out among campus bookstores nationally. “Fifty percent of campus bookstores are now for-profit stores, not institutional stores like ours,” she said. She credits people from administration down for embracing self-sustainability for the store.
“We are proud that we pay for our bond on the building, payroll, utilities and administrative costs as well as being able to return a profit to UNM,” she said. In the last few years the store has increased its sales from $9.5 million to $15.5 million, much of it generated by increased promotion and visibility, Esposito said.
Away from the Bookstore, Esposito is up in the air. Her family – husband Scott and sons Shane, 11, and Jack, eight, have their own balloon, Salida del Sol, which Scott pilots.
And because both boys are in scouts, the Espositos also spend time on the ground, hiking, walking and camping.
Shane recently told mom, “I’m a Lobo!” Of course he is. Courtesy of mom and the UNM Bookstore, he sports the finest Lobowear.
Although born in Colorado, Esposito lived in many places in the West and Southwest before finishing high school in Seattle. She earned a bachelor’s in visual communications from Western Washington University. A chance visit to her sisters in Albuquerque following her mother’s death left her with a desire to move here.
“I fell in love with the luminaries and Old Town. It took me ten years to get here, but I’m home here with the Sandias, the many cultural influences and the red earth,” she said.
Kristin Umland, assistant professor of math education in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, heads up La Meta, or Mathematics Educators Targeting Achievement, a College of Arts and Sciences program designed to bring content area instruction and teaching methods to math instructors.
Photo: Assistant Professor Kristin Umland
“The goal – and that’s what ‘La Meta’ means in Spanish – is to improve student learning of math,” Umland said. The program is geared toward teachers in grades 5 through 9. “If we can help teachers learn more math and become better equipped to teach it, then they will help their students learn more math,” she said.
Many middle school math teachers were certified K-8 having taken only the equivalent of Math 111 and 112. New state standards require that they become “highly qualified,” which means taking more content instruction.
Teachers apply to La Meta and commit to two summer courses, one fall course and a lesson study in the spring. Umland is finishing the fall course with 23 students, taught in a specially equipped Mitchell Hall classroom.
“We had lots of hands on stuff – graphing calculators, rulers, protractors and such. We also have a document camera, which provides video feed of what is placed on the screen,” Umland said. She added that the new Science and Math Learning Center will have enhanced classroom capability.
“It is important for our teachers to practice talking math, not just doing it. They need to be able to explain how they solved problems, not just solve them,” she said.
The spring lesson study gives teachers the opportunity to work in groups of three or four to fine-tune their skills. “They research an area and develop a lesson plan. One teacher teaches the plan while the others observe the students as the lesson progresses. They look for evidence of the learning,” Umland said.
Umland, who earned a doctorate in algebraic topology, said she didn’t struggle with math until her third year as an undergraduate.
“Anyone who is going to be a math teacher needs to run up against a wall and overcome it,” she said. “Teachers need to help students see through the process, believe in themselves, not give up because it’s frustrating, understand and come through to the other side.”
UNM School of Law Dean Suellyn Scarnecchia and Earth and Planetary Sciences Professor David Gutzler are speakers at the “Climate Change Impacts, Laws, and Policies Conference” tomorrow in Albuquerque. Congressman Tom S. Udall, Santa Fe Mayor David Coss and New Mexico PRC Commissioner Jason Marks will also speak.
The conference is open to the public and organized by the Natural Resources Section of the New Mexico State Bar along with the UNM School of Law Utton Center.
The event is being held to raise awareness of the legal and social impacts of global climate change on New Mexico’s natural environment. The meeting comes at the end of a year of scientific studies, press coverage and local, national and international action regarding the global climate change challenge.
A panel of representatives from federal and state government will discuss the response of governments to climate change. Mayor Coss will highlight Santa Fe’s adoption of the 2030 Architecture Challenge that sets standards, benchmarks and timelines for City buildings to be carbon-neutral by the year 2030.
Santa Fe Assistant City Attorney Kyle S. Harwood is the 2006 Chair of the State Bar Natural Resources Section and a member of the Conference Steering Committee.
Attendees will convene at the State Bar Center in Albuquerque. Registration begins at 8 a.m. The Natural Resources Section of the New Mexico State Bar will also have its annual meeting during lunch. The conference will conclude at 5 p.m.
For registration information, contact the Center for Legal Education, 797-6020.
Karl Schwerin, professor emeritus, anthropology, continues to give to UNM. This time it’s his books. The Latin American and Iberian Institute hosted a reception to honor and thank Schwerin recently. After moving the books twice to accommodate office changes, Schwerin decided to donate them. He approached Latin American and Iberian Institute Director Cynthia Radding about the collection.
Photo: Karl Schwerin
“We are grateful to Dr. Schwerin for his generous gift and are pleased he thought to house it here. The collection enhances our existing library and will benefit student and faculty researchers in many fields, including anthropology, history, ethno-history, and Latin American Studies,” Radding said.
Schwerin said that he donated the books because he wanted continued access to them and to make them available to students. “For years I loaned them to my students and others in the department. Now they will be more broadly available,” he said.
María Casellas-Kelly, education specialist at the LAII, said that LAII’s reading room was under-utilized. “Nobody knew about the collection. When we accepted Dr. Schwerin’s collection, we had student employees document what was in it,” she said. They also approached Carolyn Mountain, program manager, University Libraries, about having the collection accessible electronically.
Mountain, who heads up DILARES, or the Division of Iberian and Latin American Resources and Services, has worked closely with the LAII for years. She went through the collection to see what should be added to the library’s holdings. She also asked a student, Deana Banos, to create an Excel file of the collection. The collection will be added to LIBROS, the online catalog, once the library is again able to accept donations.
“LAII offered to keep all the books the library wants until the library is able to accept the collection,” Mountain said. “Dr. Schwerin’s collection represents a rich selection of materials and enhances our anthropology collection. It will be particularly useful for doing Andean micro-studies,” she said.
Schwerin, who taught at UNM for 38 years, donated 1,500 titles valued roughly at $10,000. Schwerin’s areas of research included cultural change and ecological adaptation in Venezuela, Ecuador, Honduras and Mexico. He also studied populations of indigenous people at the time of contact.
“It is a difficult area of research because indigenous is defined differently in each country. For example, Costa Rica officially reports no indigenous people although they have an office for them,” he said.
Prior to donating the collection, Schwerin gave of his time and talent by writing the history of UNM’s anthropology department. He also created the Karl H. Schwerin Graduate Fellowship in Ethnology, which is awarded annually by the Department of Anthropology. It was first awarded in 1998.
Professor Denise Fort, School of Law, has been appointed to serve on a committee of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. This program of the U.S. Department of Commerce integrates federal research on climate and global change from a number of federal agencies.
Photo: Law Professor Denise Fort
The committee Fort serves on will review the response and adaptation to climate change with respect to water resources. It is governed by the Federal Advisory Committee Act and is open to public observation. The report of the committee will be reviewed by experts appointed by the National Research Council of the National Academies.
“I’m excited to work with the outstanding scholars who have been recruited to this effort. The questions we will examine are timely and important,” Fort said.
Fort has an extensive background in environmental and natural resources law. She taught a class on climate change at the law school during the fall semester.
Further details about the committee’s work are available on the Climate Change Science Program Web site at: Climate Science Program.
More than notes on a page, music cuts across culture and language. Pianist Pamela Viktoria Pyle, assistant professor of music, lives the language so well that she recently traveled to Taiwan to present a number of concerts and teach classes. A grant from the College of Fine Arts got her there. A friend from Julliard, Nancy Tsung, who teaches at the Taipei National University of the Arts, got a grant to cover Pyle’s other expenses.
Photo: Pamela Pyle and Nancy Tsung, fourth and fifth from left, with music students in Taiwan.
Pyle and Tsung, a violinist who shares Pyle’s musical passion, performed for audiences in Taipei and Tainan. Pyle also gave master classes for students in both cities. Pyle traveled on her own to Albuquerque’s sister city, Hualien, where she delivered a master class.
Pyle’s passion for music helps her overcome the language barrier when teaching. “A lot of my teaching is done through gesturing and demonstrating. I’m very emotional, demonstrative. The music transcends spoken language,” Pyle said.
She said that the students are hungry to express themselves, as well. “They relate to the music, they have a sense for the melody line and the phrasing.
Their eyes are incredibly open. Shy to express their sentiments verbally, music gives them permission to express their thoughts and feelings,” she said. Pyle added that some students she taught had quicker hands on the keys than she does.
Pyle said that as a music educator one must be equally committed to teaching and performance. “I don’t want to say that seeing and hearing me perform inspires students, but yes, it helps them see where they are going with their music,” she said.
Because she encountered so many students in Taiwan who, like herself, live for the music, Pyle wants to bring more students here. “I want to bring performers and composers. I am anxious to develop a Taiwanese-American exchange. With the large indigenous population in Taiwan, we have much in common, and much to learn from one another,” she said.
Pyle’s reverence and respect for music is measured beat by beat with her desire to encourage others to tune an ear, listen and speak up for harmony heard through international exchange.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Researchers from the Physics Department at UNM, in collaboration with researchers at the Collider Detector at Fermilab or CDF and the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, recently discovered a rare type of particles that are exotic relatives of the much more common proton and neutron.
Photo: The Fermilab accelerator complex accelerates protons and antiprotons close to the speed of light. The Tevatron, four miles in circumference, is the world’s most powerful accelerator, producing collisions which recreate the conditions of the early universe.
UNM Professors Igor Gorelov and Sally Seidel and post-doctorate fellow Elena Vataga worked in close collaboration with CDF physicists from Fermilab and Johns Hopkins University on this significant discovery.
The CDF is a collaboration of 700 physicists studying high-energy particle collisions in the CDF detector at the world’s most powerful particle accelerator Tevatron, located outside of Chicago in Batavia, Ill. The goal is to discover the identity and properties of the particles that make up the universe and to understand the forces and interactions between those particles.
Protons and neutrons, which form the nucleus of an atom, are made up of still smaller particles called quarks. The new particle discovered by UNM researchers is named Sigma-sub-b [Σb]. Sigma-sub-b is similar to a proton or neutron in which one of the light quarks is substituted by the second-heaviest quark called the bottom quark.
“Sigma-sub-b’s are the exotic heavy partners of protons. They abundantly existed at the very first moments of the formation of our universe right after the so-called Big Bang explosion,” Gorelov said.
According to scientists, the particles are like rare jewels mined out of the research data. Piece by piece, researchers are developing a better picture of how matter is built out of quarks. In the process more is learned about the subatomic forces that hold quarks together and tear them apart.
The Tevatron collider accelerates protons and antiprotons close to the speed of light and makes them collide. In the collisions, energy transforms into mass, according to Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2. To beat the low odds of producing bottom quarks – which in turn transform into the Sigma-sub-b according to the laws of quantum physics – scientists take advantage of the billions of collisions produced by the Tevatron each second.
“We ran our software over hundreds of terabytes of data from hundred trillion proton-antiproton collisions recorded by the CDF detector and we found only about 240 Sigma-sub-b candidates,” Vataga said.
Photo: The CDF detector, about the size of a 3-story house, weighs about 6,000 tons. Its subsystems record the “debris” emerging from high-energy proton-antiproton collisions, unveiling the secrets of the early universe. The detector surrounds the collision point and records the path, energy and charge of exotic, short-lived particles emerging from the collisions.
Photos courtesy Fermilab Visual Media Services
Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
University College has announced the winning research projects showcased at the recent Research Quest Symposium. More than 140 students and their faculty mentors participated in the event, about 85 percent of whom are also participating in a University College initiative such as a Freshmen Interest Group, Learning Community, Living and Learning Community, Freshman Learning Community or Research Service Learning Program.
Prizewinning projects are as follows:
Best Overall Project
• Ronald McNair Scholars Carolina Aguirre, Rosalinda Trujillo, H. Leo Gutierrez and Joanna Sedillo
Best Oral Presentation
• Freshman Learning Community 601 – Joie Saienni, Brandon Call, Davida Hollis and Andrew Rodke. Glenda Balas, faculty advisor.
• Learning Community 625 – Victoria Griego, DaNell Zepeda, Kris Stringer-Lund and Shane Dyer. Quincy Spurlin and Ashley Carson, faculty advisors.
Best Poster Presentation
• Living and Learning Community 692 – Richard Becenti, Candice Lopez, Crystal Martinez and Evelyn Feck. Faculty advisors: Vanessa Harris and Marlene Ballejos.
• Freshman Learning Community 640 – Zach Lang, Sarah Melendez, Jessica Bird and Joseph LaPointe. Faculty advisor: Gabriel R. Sanchez.
Media Contact: Laurie Mellas, (505) 277-5915; e-mail: lmellas@unm.edu
Harris names permanent VP for Advancement
The University of New Mexico Board of Regents has approved an addendum to the employment contract for David Harris, who now serves as Acting President of the University. When the current presidential search is complete and a new president begins employment, Harris will become the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for the university. His new contract shall extend through Dec. 31, 2008.
“The Regents wanted the new UNM president to have the benefit of the best and most respected financial mind in the state of New Mexico,” said Regent President Jamie Koch.
Koch pointed out that the contract contains a clause allowing either party the right to terminate the contract for any reason upon 120 days written notice to the other party. If either party does terminate the contract, there will be no liability of any kind to the other party, other than payment of a prorated amount of benefit accrual.
“I had the best job in the university when I was executive vice president for administration,” said Harris. “Being president has been an exciting challenge, but I look forward to concentrating once again on managing operations and finance for this huge and diverse institution.”
In a related announcement, Harris named Michael Kingan as UNM’s Vice President for Advancement. Kingan had been serving in that position as an interim since August, following the resignation of Michael Carroll.
“I’ve watched Michael’s work and have been very impressed,” said Harris. “He will move the Advancement division forward as we look toward a $60 million fundraising goal and a future capital campaign.”
The Department of Human Resources Employee & Organizational Development has collaborated with the Financial Services Division, Finance Systems Management, Cashier Offices, Internal Audit, and Planning, Budget & Analysis to offer a series of workshops to develop the financial management knowledge and skills of UNM’s workforce.
Realizing that education is fundamental to sound fiscal management, representatives from the above departments developed the following four core workshops:
Cash Management: This workshop will provide in-depth training on UNM’s cash management policy and procedures. Topics will include preparing a money list and credit card reports, processing foreign checks, and the proper handling and depositing of cash.
Understanding Basic Accounting at UNM: This Web-based workshop, designed for those with little to no accounting background, will provide a basic overview of accounting concepts and how they are used at UNM.
Analyzing and Reconciling Finance Information Using Hyperion: This class has been designed primarily for department administrators and anyone responsible for managing departmental finances. The purpose is to help users effectively utilize Hyperion reports in the management of departmental financial information. Among the topics are tips and tricks about Banner hierarchies, FOPA segments, and transaction information to assist in the understanding, analysis and reconciliation of department indexes.
Budget Basics for Managers: This workshop is designed to help non-accounting managers and directors understand the basics of developing and planning a department budget. Participants will also learn how to evaluate and analyze a budget after implementation, research variances and monitor budgets, distinguish between allocation and transfer, and properly budget a balance forward.
These workshops will be offered beginning in January. Visit Learning Central at Learning Central to learn more.
The Art Museum Shop, located in the Center for the Arts, announces its “Last Three Days* Sale! Tuesday – Thursday, Dec. 19-21. The sale features 25 percent off all holiday ornaments and decorations.
The shop is open Tuesday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 5 to 8 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
* These are the last three days before winter break.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Episode will air in summer 2007
The national PBS series “History Detectives” will sleuth around Albuquerque today to explore another mystery in your backyard. On Monday, Dec. 11, “History Detectives” will be at the Albuquerque Museum to track clues connected to the famous WWII journalist, Ernie Pyle.
Photo: War correspondent Ernie Pyle
They are here to investigate Ernie Pyle’s typewriter.
Eric Warlick of Portland, Ore., thinks he may have a typewriter that belonged to the famous WWII journalist, Ernie Pyle, America’s most beloved battlefront correspondent. Warlick’s grandfather told him he received the vintage “Corona 3” from Major George Pratt.
Pratt served in the Pacific and said that the typewriter belonged to Pyle. A trail-blazing reporter, Pyle was celebrated for telling the stories of “ordinary soldiers” serving in Europe. But when he followed the siren song of the Pacific, he was killed by a Japanese sniper bullet off the coast of Okinawa in April, 1945.
“History Detectives” travel to Albuquerque, Bloomington, Ind. and Portland, Ore., to investigate Pyle’s final moments and to determine whether or not it was Warlick’s typewriter that may have lured him to his doom.
Media Contact: Evy Todd, (505) 277-1218; e-mail: etodd@unm.edu
Redondo Drive between Terrace Blvd. (east of Hodgin Hall) and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. will be closed at least through Friday night. A drilling rig working on the foundation of the new Centennial Engineering Building toppled and broke shortly before 2 p.m.
No one was injured in the accident. Pedestrians are also being asked to avoid the area until the site is rendered safe. Auger Accident.
Media Contact: Sabra Basler, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: sbasler@unm.edu
Provost Reed Dasenbrock is a consultant to a task force created by the Executive Council of the Modern Language Association of America, which has been struggling for the past two years with the complex issue of scholarly publication in electronic journals and the effect on faculty tenure. Recommendations were released this week.
Photo: Provost Reed Dasenbrock
In a survey of 734 institutions across the United States, the task force found that more than 62 percent of all modern languages departments report that publication has increased in importance in tenure decisions over the last 10 years. More than 75 percent of institutions report that scholarship is more important than teaching when tenure decisions are made.
Those statistics collide with the declining trend in the number and availability of printed journals that accept the work of scholars in the humanities, as well as the lack of standards within university tenure committees for evaluating electronic scholarship.
“The MLA is asking every department in the field of languages and literature and every institution to think hard about how the digital revolution may be changing the nature of research and scholarship in the humanities and how tenure and promotion standards should be shifting as well,” said Dasenbrock.
“At UNM, we have already put into effect a number of the changes they are recommending: faculty in the humanities get start-up support and research leaves, and we are open to digital forms of scholarship. But there will be food for thought in the recommendations the task force is putting forward.”
The full report includes 20 recommendations institutions should consider, including:
* Departments and institutions should practice and promote transparency throughout the tenure process.
* Departments and institutions should calibrate expectations for achieving tenure and promotion with institutional values, mission and practice.
* The profession as a whole should develop a more capacious conception of scholarship by rethinking the dominance of the monograph, promoting the scholarly essay, establishing multiple pathways to tenure and using scholarly portfolios.
* Departments and institutions should recognize the legitimacy of scholarship produced in new media, whether by individuals or in collaboration, and create procedures for evaluating these forms of scholarship.
The complete report is available at MLA Report.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Concert today, tree planting set for Dec. 12
A group of University of New Mexico freshmen will celebrate the lives and accomplishments of Rio Grande High School students Nayeli Villanueva and Amanda Valencia in a tree-planting ceremony Tuesday, Dec. 12, at 10 a.m., on the lawn west of the College of Education.
Villanueva and Valencia were 2006 graduates of Rio Grande High School. Best friends, both were outstanding scholars and citizens planning to build promising careers. A tragic car accident claimed their lives on Aug. 19, 2006, the weekend before their classes started at UNM.
Friends, teachers and family members of Villanueva and Valencia will speak at the tree-planting event. Two flowering crab apple trees provided by University College will be planted as an enduring memorial to the two women.
“Both the Rio Grande High School and University of New Mexico communities were hit hard by this tragedy, and the freshmen students in the ‘Making a Difference’ class wanted to do something to ease the sense of loss,” reported Glenda Balas, Ph.D., course instructor. Balas is an assistant professor in the Communication and Journalism Department.
The “Making a Difference” class is a service-learning course in the University College Freshman Learning Communities Program. After several planning meetings, the class decided to host a memorial concert and tree-planting ceremony.
The concert is Friday, Dec. 8 at 7 p.m., in the SUB, ballroom A. Four popular bands from the Albuquerque area will perform. Admission is free and donations will be accepted for a scholarship to be awarded to a Rio Grande High School senior planning to attend UNM in fall 2007.
“The loss of these two lives has touched us all. We’re hoping the community will come out and join us in remembering these two exceptional young women and their impact in our community,” said Jordan Jarvis, a member of the “Making a Difference” leadership team responsible for planning the event.
For additional information, contact Glenda Balas, 350-9040; gbalas@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Laurie Mellas, (505) 277-5915; e-mail: lmellas@unm.edu
UNM's Fall Commencement ceremony will be held Friday, Dec. 15 at 6 p.m. in the University Arena. Approximately 1,428 students are projected to receive degrees, as follows: 980 bachelor's degrees, 345 master's degrees, three post-master's, 70 doctorates, 15 juris doctorates, one medical doctorate, 10 pharmacy doctorates and four education specialists. An official degree count is determined following commencement.
Pamela Minzner, New Mexico Supreme Court Justice, and the first woman elected by her colleagues to serve as chief justice, will be the keynote speaker. Minzner has been on faculty at the UNM School of Law and served as a judge on the New Mexico Court of Appeals. Governor King appointed her to the New Mexico Supreme Court in 1994.
Graduate Matthew Gallegos will give the student address. Gallegos is graduating with a bachelor's in business administration, including a minor in Spanish, from the Anderson Schools of Management.
Gallegos, born and raised in Albuquerque, is a graduate of St. Pius X High School. Public service is the driving force behind his personal interests, he said. Service experiences while at UNM inspired him to pursue a program of study in human resources management.
As a student leader, Gallegos demonstrated a strong commitment to the UNM community. His campus involvement includes three terms in student government as an Associated Students of UNM senator. He had the opportunity to serve on a variety of university committees, including two national employment searches – the positions of provost and director of the Office of Equal Opportunity.
Richard W. Holder, deputy provost and professor of chemistry, will be the master of ceremonies. The University Band with Justin Crider, conductor, will play a selection of music for the ceremony's prelude and processional.
Graduate Andrea Kiesling, receiving a master of music, will sing the national anthem and the alma mater.
Board of Regents member Rosalyn Nguyen will offer congratulatory remarks. Provost Reed Dasenbrock will confer degrees and recognize honors graduates.
An Alumni-sponsored reception for graduates, their families and friends will take place on the east concourse of the arena following the ceremony.
Several schools, colleges and departments have scheduled convocations for Friday and Saturday, Dec. 15 and 16. For more information, visit the commencement Web site, Fall Commencement.
The University of New Mexico sends seven researchers abroad in 2006-07 as part of the Fulbright Scholar Program, while three visiting scholars will visit UNM.
Kenneth D. Carpenter, associate director, International Programs and Studies, will participate in a U.S.-Japan international education administrators program with visits to various institutions.
Robert Glew, professor, biochemistry and molecular biology, School of Medicine, will conduct research on the assessment of bone quality of semi-nomadic Fulani women in northern Nigeria with Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Nigeria.
Chester Liebs, adjunct professor in historic preservation and regionalism, School of Architecture and Planning, will conduct research and lecture on lessons for livable communities from the everyday intangible cultural heritage of Japan, with the University of Tokyo.
Lorraine Malcoe, associate professor and coordinator, Department of Family and Community Medicine, will lecture and conduct research on the study of gender and other socio-structural influences on population health, with Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada.
Shannon Reierson, doctoral candidate, Department of Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies in the College of Education, will lecture on constructing positive practices for English language development, with National Pedagogical University, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Gary Scharnhorst, distinguished professor, English, will lecture on 19th century American literature at Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena, Germany.
Sally Seidel, professor, Physics and Astronomy, is teaching at Lund University in Lund, Sweden.
Among the visiting Fulbright scholars is Sagrario Del Carmen Cruz Carretero, professor, University of Veracruz, Xalapa, Mexico, who will lecture on historical and contemporary ethnic groups in Mexico as part of the Scholar-in-Residence program.
Roberto Javier Gernandez Alduncin, adjunct CONICET researcher and interim assistant professor, Faculty of Agronomy, Institute of Agricultural Plant Physiology and Ecology, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, will research water-use niche breadth in North and South American sister species of Larrea Desert shrubs.
Yoshiko Kayano, associate professor, Department of International Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Meisei University – Hino, Tokyo, Japan, will research exploring an interface between literature and the grassroots environmental justice movement in the American Southwest.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The 12th Annual Print Sale starts Thursday, Dec. 7 and runs through Saturday, Dec. 9 in the Arts Building room 142. The sale runs until 5 p.m. today, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, and noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Prices range from $1 to $200 depending upon the experience of the printer. Graduate student high-end work is interspersed with undergraduate pieces for a nice mix. Hundreds of prints reflecting all printmaking methods will be available, including examples of lithography, intaglio, relief and screen-printing.
The print sale is always a great and affordable way to buy “real” art as holiday gifts.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Not long ago scholars wanting to conduct in depth research about indigenous cultures in Latin America, for example, would have to travel to the region and visit different libraries and repositories. Maybe the researcher would be lucky enough to find needed documents, photos, books and resources critical to his research. But maybe the materials couldn’t be located, were unavailable or the library was closed. The days of time-consuming, expensive research in Latin American topics may soon be over, thanks to the Latin America Knowledge Harvester and Portal (LAKH).
Photo: Johann van Reenen (l.), assistant dean, University Libraries, and Cynthia Radding, director, Latin American and Iberian Institute.
The Harvester for Creating Knowledge Streams in the Americas Project, coordinated by UNM’s Latin American and Iberian Institute, addresses the challenge of identifying and maintaining stable and reliable Internet access to library and institutional collections and digitized archives in and about Latin America.
LAKH, a road map on the Information Superhighway that leads users to content information from Latin American multidisciplinary collections, is funded by a grant from the US Department of Education Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access (TICFIA) and the University of New Mexico.
Project Partners
The project goal is to stimulate new scholarship in and about Latin America through the use of the portal and the formation of cross-disciplinary and multilingual knowledge communities. LAKH is a collaboration between UNM and pilot Latin American partners: the Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico, Universidad Simón Bolívar in Venezuela and the Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia. The two universities and the Brazilian institute were selected from institutions with long-standing relations with UNM and university-wide bilateral agreements for faculty and student exchanges and collaboration.
Cynthia Radding, director, Latin American and Iberian Institute, and Johann van Reenen, assistant dean, University Libraries, are co-PIs on the grant.
The idea for the harvester came from the Open Archives Initiative established in Santa Fe in 1999, van Reenen said. The international standard allows organizations with unique data sets – such as archives, video and visual collections to create a repository based on OAI standards.
Speaking the Language
“The intent of the grant is to find new avenues of access to foreign information, preferably in translation and in a digital format,” van Reenen said. He added that the biggest challenge of the pilot project is creating a trilingual search engine and organizing the streams of information in the portal.
The project team is comprised of nine UNM faculty, graduate students, and staff from main campus and the HSC; they represent different nationalities and languages and work closely together to complete the project’s goals and solve problems as they arise. In addition, the team hired a librarian who is a Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking meta-data specialist to look at categorizing the information infrastructure.
“The complexity lies in that we have different types of information for a variety of organizations and three languages over which we want a query system,” he said.
He said that LAKH allows for “harvesting” data from any intellectual asset that meets the standard anywhere in the world. By harvesting meta-data, information can be drawn from seemingly unalike repositories. “It will create easy interdisciplinary research. Essentially, it will allow users to mine information from sources not even thought about before,” he said.
LAKH resides at UNM as part of the institutional repository. “This enriches national access generally, but particularly for UNM researchers,” van Reenen said.
“LAKH will harvest collections so that the searches can be performed in Latin American topics that will point to pertinent objects within various collections across the three languages,” he said.
Dspace, the free frontier
The biggest benefit for the Latin American partners is that we are providing them with a free software option, DSpace that is easy to set up and run, van Reenen said.
The DSpace digital repository system captures, stores, indexes, preserves, and distributes digital research material. Research institutions worldwide use DSpace as an institutional repository for records management, and more. The DSpace open source platform is freely available so users can customize and extend it to suit their specific needs.
“We think that UNM was awarded this four-year Title VI grant because of the university’s long-standing record of scholarship and service in Latin America and the strength of our interdisciplinary programs in Latin American Studies and related professional degrees, combined with UNM’s leadership the open archives movement and information technology,” Radding commented.
Radding said that UNM is one of ten TICFIA centers, and that UNM will host the national TICFIA conference with invited speakers and panelists April 19-20, 2007.
Radding affirmed that LAKH is both a tool for the present and an avenue to the future, leading to innovative uses of technology to stimulate research and democratize international access to knowledge.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Eleven professors have been promoted to the rank of University of New Mexico distinguished professor, the highest rank bestowed on faculty. Distinguished professors are individuals who have demonstrated outstanding achievements and are nationally and internationally renowned as scholars.
The 2006-2007 inductees are:
Jonathan Abrams, M.D.
Jonathan Abrams, M.D., cardiology, is a board certified specialist in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease. He received his medical degree from the University of California Medical School in San Francisco. He has served as Chief of Cardiology, authored numerous books, articles, chapters and abstracts. Abrams is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, American College of Physicians and the American Heart Association Council on Clinical Cardiology.
Abrams initiated the cardiovascular fellowship program, in which over 100 cardiologists have been trained at UNM since 1972. In addition to medicine, Abrams is active in contemporary art activities at UNM, and New Mexico. He has curated four exhibitions at the UNM Art Museum.
Keith H. Basso
Keith H. Basso, anthropology, studies language and culture. He has done fieldwork in Australia and the American Southwest. Basso’s fieldwork includes a long- term relationship with the Western Apache community of Cibecue, which began in 1959 and is still exists today. He received his bachelor’s magna cum laude from Harvard University and his Ph. D. from Stanford University.
Basso was a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, N. J., and the Weatherhead Fellow at the School of American Research at Santa Fe. He has written and edited many books for which he has received the Western States Book Award for Creative Nonfiction, the Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing, and other awards. Basso is a UNM Regents’ Professor.
Steven Brueck
Steven Brueck, electrical and computer engineering, physics, and director of the Center for High Technology Materials, is the author of 350 articles. He is among UNM’s leading patent holders, with 30 to his name. CHTM, under Brueck’s direction for two decades, has grown to an internationally recognized center for nanoscience, optoelectronics and microelectronics research. Brueck earned both masters and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from MIT, is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and is an Outstanding Researcher in the School of Engineering.
Carlton Caves
Carlton Caves, physics and astronomy, received his Ph.D. in physics from the California Institute of Technology. His areas of expertise include physics of information, quantum information theory, quantum chaos, quantum optics, theory of nonclassical light, theory of quantum noise and quantum theory measurement.
Caves is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received the Einstein Prize for Laser Science from the Society for Optical and Quantum Electronics and has three times been awarded for Excellence in Teaching at UNM.
Judith Chazin-Bennahum
Judith Chazin-Bennahum, theatre and dance, is a teacher, researcher and choreographer who danced in companies with Robert Joffrey, Agnes De Mille and The Santa Fe Opera Ballet. She was principal soloist with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company and was invited by George Balanchine to join the New York City Ballet on their first trip to Russia and danced in numerous modern dance companies in New York.
Chazin-Bennahum received her doctorate in Romance Languages at UNM, and is the author of many articles and books. She served as President of the Society of Dance History Scholars. She received the Bravo Award for Life Time Excellence in Dance in 2002 from the Albuquerque Arts Alliance. This year she was elected to the Board of Directors of the largest dance studies organization Congress on Research in Dance.
Steven Gangestad
Steven Gangestad, psychology, conducts interdisciplinary research in evolutionary psychology. He works to understand sexual and romantic relationships within an evolutionary psychological framework. He also examines individual differences from an evolutionary genetic standpoint, causes of variation in brain development and function, hormones and behavior and meta-theory in psychology. He has more than 100 peer-reviewed to his name and is currently president-elect of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society. Gangestad earned his PhD from the University of Minnesota and was a Regents’ Lecturer in 1999.
Fred Hashimoto
Fred Hashimoto, medicine, graduated from Yale and earned his medical degree at Harvard. Board certified in Internal Medicine and Family Practice, he has had a large panel of patients. Academic interests include computer simulation of operational processes and high altitude physiology.
Hashimoto has been Chief of the Medical Staff and is Director of Medical Informatics at the School of Medicine. Awards include Health Sciences Center Service Award, Distinguished Service Award from the Department of Medicine, HSC Vice-President’s Extra Mile Award and Medicine Attending of the Year Award. He has served several terms on the UNM Faculty Senate and has been on its Operations committee. He is a University Hospital trustee and is on the UNM president search committee. He has been on the Athletic Council and is on the steering committee for the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics.
Paul Andrew Hutton
Paul Andrew Hutton, history, has received numerous awards for his writing including the Billington Prize from the Organization of American Historians, the Evans Biography Award and the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America, for whom he served as president. His article on Roosevelt’s Rough Riders won Hutton one of his many Western Heritage Awards. He has written scripts for the History Channel and a dozen television documentaries. He has appeared on more than 150 television programs. He co-wrote and co-produced five episodes of the History Channel series Investigating History.
Ruth Luckasson
Ruth Luckasson, J.D., is a Regents’ Professor and Professor of Special Education in the College of Education, where she is chair of Educational Specialties. She is past president of the American Association on Mental Retardation. Luckasson currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and the Arc-US Legal Rights and Advocacy Committee.
She previously served on the President’s Committee on Mental Retardation, and chair of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law. Luckasson is faculty director of the Albuquerque Public Schools/UNM Partnership Program in Mental Retardation and Severe Disabilities. She has published widely in the areas of special education and community living for individuals with cognitive disabilities. She is author or co-author of many books and articles.
Tey Diana Rebolledo
Tey Diana Rebolledo, Regents Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, received her master’s in Latin American Studies at UNM and a Ph.D. in Spanish from the University of Arizona. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Scholarship in Chicana Literature from the Multi-Ethnic Society of the U.S., the Critica Nueva Award for Chicano/a Literature, Distinguished Professor from the Modern Language Association, a Fellow in the Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities, among other awards.
Rebolledo has published extensively, presented more than 60 invited lectures, 40 scholarly papers, served on 15 panels and served as a curriculum consultant, outside evaluator of university programs and a literary judge.
Howard Waitzkin
Howard Waitzkin, sociology, Family and Community Medicine and Internal Medicine, earned his doctorate in sociology as well as his medical degree from Harvard with clinical training as resident and fellow at Stanford and Massachusetts General Hospital. His work focuses on health policy in comparative international perspective and on psychosocial issues in primary care. He co-authored the proposal for a single-payer national health program.
He has been an advocate for improved health access and currently conducts studies of Medicaid managed care in New Mexico, the diffusion of managed care to Latin America, and global trade and public health. Waitzkin is a Fulbright New Century Scholar, Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, recipient of the Leo G. Reeder Award of the American Sociological Association for Distinguished Scholarship in Medical Sociology and the Jonathan Mann Award for Lifetime Commitment to Public Health and Social Justice Issues.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The fourth and final film in the 2006-2007 “Southwestern Film Series” will be “Harvey Girls,” a 1946 production directed by George Sidney. It will be screened Monday, Dec. 11, at 7 p.m. in the SUB Theater. The viewing is free and open to the public. The films are offered by the University of New Mexico's Center for the Southwest in the Department of History.
“The Harvey Girls” is a brilliant, inventive musical given an epic staging. The real-life Harvey Girls were waitresses exported to the far-flung Fred Harvey Hotels, civilizing oases along the railroad lines out west.
In this on-screen musical western, mail order bride Susan Bradley ditches her bashful suitor and takes an unexpected path—she joins a crew of cheery young women who are traveling out to open a “Harvey House” restaurant at a remote whistle stop in the west. They hope to provide good cooking and wholesome company for railway travelers. The salon across the street with its alluring worldly-wise women offers them tough competition, fair and foul, in this sweeping western musical starring Judy Garland, John Hodiak and Ray Bolger.
The evening will begin with a short introduction by Andrew Sandoval-Strausz , UNM a ssistant professor of history. He is currently the history honors advisor and faculty advisor to the Hispanic Honor Society.
Sandoval-Strausz joined the faculty in 2001. His research and writing is on American urban, legal, business and labor history, historical and critical geography, Latino history, and the Gilded Age and Progressive Era history. Sandoval-Strausz has held research fellowships at the Huntington Library, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the New York Historical Society. His first book, Accommodation of Strangers: A History of the Hotel in America will be published in 2007 by Yale University Press.
The Southwestern Film Series showcases films produced in the U.S. Southwest. These movies provide both public and university audiences with a greater awareness of the historical, cross-cultural, and social values found within the region's rich film production and dynamic past.
For more information call 277-7688 or contact Elaine Nelson at cntrsw@unm.edu for questions about the film series.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
University of New Mexico graduate students have been working on a detailed characterization of the principle wetlands of the Galisteo Basin this semester. A presentation of the semester’s work will take place on Friday, Dec. 15, from 9-11 a.m. at Santa Fe Charter High School 37, a bilingual high school specializing in environmental studies and located on the campus of the Santa Fe Indian School.
The UNM students have established baseline data and profiles as well as providing training materials for the charter school.
“The charter school students will take up the job of monitoring the wetlands as of April 2007,” said David Henkel, director of the Community and Regional Planning program in the UNM School of Architecture and Planning.
“We’ve enjoyed collaborating with the CS 37 and the students. They are prepared to handle the monitoring phase of the project and will do a thorough job,” he said.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Three positions on the local board of the University of New Mexico-Gallup will be open for new four-year terms, starting March 1, 2007.
Position 1, now held by Brett Newberry, will be voted on by those residing in the Gallup McKinley County School District. Position 4, now held by Ruby Wolf, will be determined by qualified electors residing in the Zuni Public School District.
Position 5, now occupied by Teresa Dowling, will be determined by voters residing in the Gallup-McKinley County School District and the Zuni Public
School District.
A declaration of candidacy for a board position must be filed with
the McKinley County Clerk between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 20. In making a declaration of candidacy, the candidate must submit a sworn statement of intent.
Anyone wishing to be a write-in candidate for this election should file a declaration of intent with the McKinley County Clerk before 5 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 2, 2007.
“University of New Mexico-Gallup is a comprehensive community college serving the needs of Gallup/McKinley County residents and businesses. Central to our ability to serve the communities are the members of our locally elected board. These five individuals, representing constituencies throughout McKinley County, help guide the activities of our campus,” said Larry Sanderson, director, UNM-Gallup community affairs.
“We encourage all McKinley County residents interested in UNM Gallup to support this election process and, if appropriate, to consider running for the advisory board,” he said.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
‘Build it and they will come’ understates the need for a UNM campus in Rio Rancho. The city has grown exponentially, West side public schools are burgeoning, and UNM West educates more and more students face-to-face.
Photo: School of Architecture and Planning Dean Roger Schluntz, kneeling, reviews maps from the UNM West site.
“Additionally, the number of main campus students with West side zip codes number over 6,000,” said Jerónimo Domínguez, UNM vice provost, Extended University. The commute to main campus from the West side is time-consuming and an impediment for many students, he added.
With the ink dry on paperwork transferring 222 acres from the State Land Office to UNM, Interim President David Harris gave Roger Schluntz, dean, School of Architecture and Planning, the charge to develop design concepts for a full service campus that could eventually support 12,000 students. Schluntz, who came off sabbatical for the project, pulled together a team to participate in a campus master planning design charrette.
He drew upon internal expertise from faculty and students at the school, plus institutional experts, Domínguez, Steve Borbas, campus planner; and Sue Mortier, landscape architect. Nationally, Schluntz recruited professionals from other universities as well as from the local professional community. The City of Rio Rancho was represented, as well.
The charrette team visited the site – adjacent to the new Santa Ana Star Center in what will be the new Rio Rancho downtown – and walked around to get a sense of the landscape and views. “We also looked at how the campus could integrate with the new town center planned there,” Schluntz said.
Team members were armed with notebooks of information about Rio Rancho, the site, climate and sustainability. Prior to the charrette the deans of the UNM’s schools and colleges, as well as the Vice President of Student Affairs, each submitted a report indicating what courses and services they might offer at the new campus as well as an idea of what facilities would be needed to provide those services. That information was in the notebooks, too.
Topographic maps, plans of other campuses, charts of native plants and more were posted on the walls of the charrette room. Team members, some equipped with laptops and others with paper, pens and markers, set out to develop UNM West.
At the close of the first day, they came together to pin up first drafts. Design teams were created to develop specific ideas further. They designed and re-designed. What their minds imagined, their fingers created. One team worked diligently to develop policies on sustainability. The final day, four designs were presented to a group of UNM administrators, Rio Rancho officials, students and other guests.
The “Preserve Desert” design featured a gardened arroyo, multi-use terraced parking on a compact campus. “Sandia Vista” design took advantage of the high ground facing the Sandias with an eye toward development in phases with cohesiveness at any point in time. The goal of Sandia Vista is to create view corridors, integrate town and gown, and harvest wind and water.
The “Academic Paseo” design also looks to create a seamless environment with the adjoining civic core. The designers see within the academic paseo a collegiate lawn that is demonstrative – or able to be used to teach through example. The design features tightly clustered buildings and a one-to-one relationship with the land.
The “Community Forum” views an integrated campus with architecture, landscape architecture and sustainable principles. It envisions educational programming and place, an academic village and a continuum from the natural to the built. The designers worked with an open-ended growth strategy.
Ric Richardson, acting dean of the School of Architecture and Planning, took a lead role in sustainability policy recommendations. He said, “We will put together a five-page policy white paper for the president, regents and governor. It puts a guidance system in place now for financing.”
Short, medium and long-term goals guiding sustainability principles and policy opportunities were presented. Ideas included carbon neutrality, water harvesting from permeable surfaces, wind harvesting and micro-wind turbines, passive lighting, multi-use parking, green roofs, arcades and covered walks.
Schluntz said, “Our expectation is that we will move forward with a request for qualifications for a master plan, informed by the ideas from the charrette.
“We were approached with the presumption that students will be able to earn a degree at UNM West. This academic community has expressed a great deal of interest from to serve this area of the state. I was pleased with the commitment and expectation that this will be a wonderful campus where we will want to send our grandchildren to attend” Schluntz said.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
In the past, UNM has printed a new campus telephone directory every fall. But that’s not the case this year as UNM’s directory has gone to a new and powerful online telephone directory with excellent search capabilities.
“The new online directory is more complete than the paper directory and it’s current and up to date,” said Chief Information Officer Bill Adkins. “The printed directory is a point-in-time copy of the online directory, which means that the printed directory is out of date as soon as it goes to press. The online directory’s self-service feature provides the ability for daily updates, so it is as accurate as the last update entry throughout the year.”
In the past, approximately 16,000 directories were printed for distribution across campus. Typically, many of those directories ended up in the trash.
Additionally, many departments across campus did not distribute directories to every member of their staff and CIRT ended up with about half of the directories to recycle. The possibility of printing fewer directories was explored, but that option wasn’t cost-effective.
“In conjunction with the executive leadership of the university, including the president, provost and senior leadership at the Health Sciences Center, we decided to join other universities and discontinue printing an environmentally unfriendly book containing information that rapidly becomes obsolete,” Adkins said.
University officials are also aware that not all employees have online access as part of their daily jobs. Information Technology Services will remedy that by producing PDF files of the various departmental and faculty/staff portions of the directory. The PDFs, which will be created twice a year in the fall and spring, will provide the ability to print one or more of those sections on departmental printers on demand.
Adkins also said that UNM Digital Printing and Document Services will print the PDF files on demand for whoever wishes to pay for the service.
The online directory can be found on the UNM homepage or at: Online UNM Directory.
Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
School of Architecture and Planning Grad Students to present visions Dec. 11
University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning graduate students present visioning ideas for the Atrisco Plaza area on Monday, Dec. 11, from 6-8 p.m. at Holy Family Church, 550 Atrisco SW. The presentation is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.
The students are in the school’s Community and Regional Planning’s advanced planning studio.
“During this semester our graduate students have been working with West Central Alliance of Neighbors (WeCAN) and other groups to develop ideas for revitalizing this core part of the Atrisco neighborhood. The area is centered in the largely defunct Atrisco Plaza shopping center, from which Wal-Mart and a number of other stores have left,” said Stephen Wheeler, assistant professor.
The students will present three different visions for the area, including proposals for redevelopment and greening of the Atrisco Plaza site, streetscape improvements along Central Ave., and creation of a demonstration agricultural and youth facility on city-owned land just east of Central and Atrisco.
“Some of these improvements could be undertaken by the city directly; others would involve coordination with private landowners and community groups,” Wheeler said.
A written report will also be available.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The University of New Mexico Office of International Programs and Study wants students, faculty and staff to be aware of a U.S. State Department policy change on international travel that takes effect next month.
In the past, U.S. citizens and others could travel to Mexico, Canada and some other nearby countries and return with only a driver’s license or photo ID. A passport was not required.
As of Jan. 23, 2007, all persons, including U.S. citizens, traveling by air to Canada, Central and South America, Mexico and the Caribbean will be required to present a valid passport to re-enter the country. A valid driver’s license will no longer suffice for re-entry documentation. Re-entry into the U.S. may be denied without a valid passport. The same rule will be extended to land travel in the near future.
For those planning to travel out of the country next year, the U.S. State Department recommends applying for a new passport, or checking your current passport to ensure it is still valid. Your passport must be valid for at least six months after your travel dates. It can take up to six weeks to process a new one, so plan ahead. For more information, visit the U.S. State Department Web site at: U.S. State Department.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Three will receive the University of New Mexico’s top honor for staff, the Gerald W. May Award, during a ceremony on Thursday, Dec. 7, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in the UNM Student Union, ballroom C. The UNM Staff Council Rewards and Recognition Committee organizes the annual awards. Board of Regents President Jamie Koch will honor the individuals, followed by a reception for recipients, family and friends. Acting President David Harris made the final award selections, choosing these 2006 honorees.
They are:
Kathy Gienger, supervisor, University Libraries Print Resources Department
Kathy is one of the library staff that works behind the scenes to make the book-to-shelf-to-patron process seamless. She is the main liaison and contact for more than 1,500 vendors and publishers from which the library orders materials.
Kathy exercises a high level of independent judgment and follow-through as she is responsible for receiving thousands of items in a timely manner and supervising student workers who assist in the task. Kathy is inventive and fearless in mastering new technologies and in helping coworkers and students learn them, too.
During the weeks after the Zimmerman Library fire, Kathy innovatively constructed a temporary workspace “out of nothing” at Parish Library, writes her nominator. She also ensured that vendors received payments. She was among the first to be called upon to inventory, box and send out library materials to be cleaned and stored. Her nominator adds, “All of the library staff deserves to be commended for their response to this crisis. Kathy stands out – our super nova.”
Joshua Kavanagh, associate director, Parking and Transportation Services
An EMBA graduate, Josh conceived and supported implementation of an innovative Web-based system that was one of the first in the nation for online parking permit purchases. He expanded the application to include other processes such as online citation appeals and permit waivers. His commitment to improving communication between the department and customers is demonstrated through expanded public information tools. He was instrumental in the hiring of employees with disabilities and understands the range of customer needs.
Josh is a long-standing member of the United Way’s Young Leaders Society and is co-chair of this year’s UNM United Way campaign. A nominator writes, “ Josh has to be the only person in the history of parking services who has made his personal cell phone number available publicly. This confidence and dedication to customer service is just one of the reasons he’s been a central part of raising the image of the department.”
Summer Little, program services coordinator, UNM Women’s Resource Center
Summer is a mentor and supervisor of student employees and to all UNM students who visit the resource center. She founded the Women Studies Honor Society, develops new ways of doing student outreach and represents the center at student and parent orientations and numerous recruitment events.
Summer recently worked tirelessly to create UNM’s first Lactation Station for new mothers, now housed at the center. She was instrumental in creating UNM’s first Survey on the Status of Women, providing important data to better assist women who study and work on campus. Summer helped organize two major conferences oriented to the needs of girls in grades 6-12.
Off campus, she serves as president of a residential treatment program for the developmentally disabled. Her nominator writes, “Summer is well respected, not only on the UNM campus, but also with the more than 30 Albuquerque community organizations that the center interacts with on an annual basis. She is a woman who walks with much integrity and compassion in this world.”
Contact: Laurie Mellas, (505) 277-5915; e-mail: lmellas@unm.edu