Marc Ingber, professor of mechanical engineering, has been appointed to direct the program for Particulate and Multiphase Processes within the Chemical, Biological, Environmental and Transport System Division of the Engineering Directorate of the National Science Foundation.
At the UNM School of Engineering, Ingber does research in modeling viscous fluid flows with suspended particles, emulsions or bubbles, called multiphase flows. That is a major area in the program Ingber will direct at NSF.
His new job includes long range planning and budget development in this area of federally funded research as he works with the NSF administrators to ensure research funding is targeted toward solving the challenges and opportunities in this field. He is also part of an NSF collaborative process, working with other research programs in NSF and in other areas of federal agencies and organizations.
UNM Mechanical Engineering Department Chairman Juan Heinrich says, “Marc’s appointment as a program director to the NSF is a well deserved recognition of his long record of scientific excellence and service to the engineering and academic community.”
Ingber’s authoritative work on modeling of multiphase flow was recognized in 1994, when he was one of the winners of the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize for high-performance computing. In 2001, he became an American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Fellow. This is one of the highest honors given by the governing body of ASME, which consists of more than 130,000 members.
Ingber’s initial appointment at the NSF is for two years, but might last up to four years. He plans to return to UNM at the end of his appointment.
The University of New Mexico will be joining hundreds of other corporations and organizations throughout Albuquerque for the annual Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Walk To Cure Diabetes. The family oriented event will be held Saturday, Sept. 15, at Balloon Fiesta Park. All proceeds from the event will support research vital to finding a cure for diabetes.
The UNM Children Hospital has organized a team, the Hi-Tops, and is looking for individuals to become involved in the walk and as a part of the team.
Approximately 18 million Americans suffer from diabetes. It is even more heartbreaking when you consider that millions of children are affected with this lifelong disease. With success and support such as the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes, the foundation will continue its search to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research.
The easiest way to register is online at JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes. When registering for the walk, be sure to indicate UNM Children Hospital Hi-Tops under “team name.” The second step is to simply ask family, friends, and neighbors to sponsor you by making a contribution to JDRF, or to walk with you on the team. The third step is to join us on Sept. 15 as we “walk to cure diabetes.”
For more information contact Kelsey Hardin at, khardin@salud.unm.edu or Lyn Kehoe at, lkehoe@salud.unm.edu.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Italian anthropologist Donatella Davanzo will present, “Anthropology of Space – Three Examples of Italian Spatial Use,” at a noon brown bag lecture Friday, Aug. 31 in room 118, School of Architecture and Planning.
Davanzo has dedicated herself for years to the study of spatial organization patterns of native peoples of the Southwest. Thanks to an analysis of the built environment and of usage techniques of the territory a relationship has emerged between space and the communities that inhabit it.
Through impressive visual and bibliographic documentation collected during her fieldwork, the anthropologist takes into account the possibility of perceiving the space as a place of human experiences and cultural values.
A boundary of expressive dynamics is also highlighted by study of examples of Italian spatial use, a work still in progress. Starting from the different spatial situations considered, the anthropological perspective retains the role of space in a theme to be observed with extreme and renewed attention.
HESO and ASM to sponsor events
The 27th Annual Hispanic Engineering and Science Organization (HESO) Career Fair and the Anderson School of Management (ASM) Career Fair are scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 13, and will take place in the UNM Student Union Building Ballroom. Both are open to all students, alumni and community members.
The events are designed to provide job seekers with first-hand information about the latest trends within the technical and business industries. The HESO Career Fair is a morning/afternoon event that will take place between 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., while the Anderson School of Management Career Fair is scheduled from 3 to 7 p.m.
The career fairs present a great opportunity for job seekers to connect with multiple employers in just one day. Job seekers should come prepared, professionally dressed and with plenty of copies of their resume.
For an up-to-date detailed list of registered recruiters and their openings visit the UNM Career Services Web site at UNM Career Services or call the office at 277-2531 for more information.
The University of New Mexico has chosen 2002 Mesa Vista High School graduate, Jenelle Manzanares as a recipient of the 2007 UNM Ronald E. McNair Top Scholar Award. Manzanares graduated from UNM’s College of Education with a bachelors of Science in Elementary Education, K-8 with an emphasis in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and Mathematics in the Spring of 2007.
The daughter of David and Pamela Manzanares of Rio Chama, New Mexico attended Mesa Vista High School located in Ojo Caliente. During high school, she participated in a range of extracurricular activities. Manzanares was a member and tutor for the New Mexico Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) and also a member of the Student Council and the Mesa Vista Future Farmers of America Chapter (FFA).
“It is through these organizations, especially FFA, where I learned the value of extracurricular activities, leadership, and goal setting,” she said.
Manzanares attended the College Enrichment Program Freshman Orientation where she learned how UNM’s CEP and Special Programs could support her through her college education. “It is the staff and participants in these programs that made my time at UNM worth-while and awarding,” believes Manzanares. The CEP Program offers services to students who are first generation college students and/or are members of underrepresented groups. Some services included academic and career advisement, tutoring, social activities, and job placement.
While at UNM, she participated in the College Assistant Migrant Program (CAMP), CEP and several honor societies. Manzanares was also involved in the Research Opportunity Program and the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program.
She said, “Being involved with McNair was indeed a fantastic experience where I conducted research and learned about graduate school. I had the opportunity to learn about and become exposed to a variety of cutting-edge research projects in numerous disciplines.” Manzanares participated in a research project concerning elementary education such as analyzing classroom case studies and integrating children’s literature and mathematics.
Manzanares has accepted a position with the AmeriCorps in Austin, Texas. She will be working with the College Forward Program, which is a non-profit organization, which helps high school seniors apply for college. Manzanares involvement in these programs aspired her to further her education for herself and others.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu or Cynthia Casados, (505) 412-2161; e-mail: ccasados@unm.edu
Cutting-Edge facility Designed To Integrate/Advance Medical Disciplines
The University of New Mexico dedicated Phase I of its new 48,000 ft., $16 million Domenici Center for Health Sciences Education recently on its North Campus. The state-of-the-art facility is equipped and designed to advance medical education and training for all health sciences at UNM, including the UNM School of Medicine, the Colleges of Nursing and Pharmacy, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Sciences, Public Health and Biomedical Sciences.
Photo: A host of VIPs, including UNM President David J. Schmidly and several UNM Regents, joined Sen. Pete Domenici in the dedication of Phase I of the Domenici Center for Health Sciences Education building.
The Center was named after New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici, a stalwart supporter of progressive New Mexico health education. Phase I of the three-phase project includes two buildings that house a 300-seat auditorium, several small- and medium-sized classrooms, a medical bookstore, conference rooms, student and administrative meeting spDavid Brookshire, a lactation room and more.
Video systems in Domenici Center for Health Sciences Education are based on a full digital path design to ensure that emerging high-resolution applications can easily be integrated. Built-in fingertip-control of advanced audio/video technology, including three high-resolution projectors, enable lecturers to fill the room with the high-quality images critical to the effective training of future physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other medical professionals.
In addition, audience response systems will be supported throughout Domenici Center to allow real-time anonymous feedback between students and lecturers. Students will be able to anonymously ask lecturers for additional clarification regarding subject matter during a lecture; lecturers can ask students questions during a presentation to gauge comprehension of specific points.
“Upon completion, the Domenici Center for Health Sciences will position UNM’s Health Sciences Center as a leader in progressive medical education by integrating medical disciplines and centralizing research knowledge, education, and clinical performance in one location,” says Paul Roth, M.D., UNM executive vice president for health sciences. “We are setting the standard for medical training in the 21st Century.”
The Domenici Center complex is designed to combine research knowledge, education and clinical performance in one central location to more effectively train future New Mexico health practitioners.
Phase II of Domenici Center is slated to begin in 2008 and will include a new Human Anatomy Lab and a Clinical Performance Center. For more information on Domenici Center call, (505) 272-3322 or visit: Domenici Center.
Media Contact: Luke Frank, (505) 272-3679; e-mail: lfrank@salud.unm.edu
In a move to strengthen a partnership in public broadcasting that dates back to the mid-1950s and to reinvigorate ties between the two institutions, University of New Mexico President David J. Schmidly and Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Beth Everitt recently announced new appointments to the Board of Directors of KNME-TV.
The operations of KNME-TV are governed by a joint powers agreement between UNM and APS.
“KNME is a valued educational resource for both public and higher education in New Mexico as well as a premier outlet for high quality entertainment,” said Schmidly. “Utilizing KNME, we see great potential for strengthening our partnership with APS and creating a solid alliance that mirrors what we’ve done recently with CNM.”
“APS is excited to continue its partnership with KNME and the University of New Mexico,” said Everitt. “KNME has been a long time friend to tens of thousands of students who look to public broadcasting to supplement and enhance their learning opportunities – from toddler years and beyond. Everyone wins when we collaborate on behalf of education.”
Both Schmidly and Everitt acknowledged and thanked former board members for their dedication and long service to KNME and the success of public broadcasting in New Mexico.
Schmidly has appointed Executive Vice President for Administration David Harris as a UNM representative on the board, along with Special Assistant to the President Breda Bova and Anderson School of Management assistant professor Dante DiGregorio. Everitt’s appointments to the board include Associate Superintendent Linda Sink, Monica Armenta, Executive Director of Communications, and Tom Ryan, Executive Director of Technology.
Attorney and former UNM student regent Rosalyn Nguyen will be nominated as the public member of the board. Her nomination will be voted on at a meeting of the board on Thursday, August 30, 2007, at 4 p.m. in the Roberts Room of Scholes Hall on the UNM campus.
Information Technology Services (ITS) has implemented new security measures on passwords at the University of New Mexico as part of its effort to continuously improve security on UNM computer accounts (NetIDs), UNM systems and computer information.
In compliance with the new IT standard for passwords approved this spring, (Password standards) ITS has implemented a 180-day password expiration policy. On Aug. 27, 2007 the 180-day clock started ticking for refreshing passwords on UNM NetIDs. Essentially, all campus users must change their passwords at least once every 180 days. On Feb. 23, 2008, anyone who hasn’t changed their password since Aug. 27 will be required to change it on that day.
Password history...
After Aug. 27, 2007, a history of passwords for UNM NetIDs will be retained to prevent re-use of passwords. This provides additional security since if old passwords are known they won’t be effective in guessing current passwords. Users are able to change passwords more than once per day.
Challenge/Response questions...
When passwords for UNM NetIDs are changed after Aug. 27, 2007, users will also be able to set up responses to challenge questions, as an alternative authentication measure on top of passwords. Passwords can be reset through the challenge/response reset process, even if the password is not known.
For more information on computer accounts visit: Computer Accounts. For technical assistance please contact the Support Center at 277.4848 or go to: FastInfo and search for ‘password.’ For other issues or concerns on passwords contact Ivan Boyd, associate director, ITS at 277-8100 or boyd@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
On Tuesday, Aug. 28, the University of New Mexico Children’s Hospital celebrated a new literacy program called John’s Shelf. The celebration took place in the Pediatric Infusion and Dialysis Unit located in the Barbara and Bill Richardson Pavilion.
Katie Beatty, whose son, John, is a three year cancer survivor, started John’s Shelf to donate more books to children with cancer at UNM Children’s Hospital.
“When John was going through cancer treatment, he asked me to find the book Beowulf,” said Beatty. “I wondered at this request until we journeyed through the story’s evil and read about Beowulf defeating the monsters. Then, I understood the strength and hope the story brought John. He fought a monster that year, and the story provided a mean of defense.”
Beatty has collected books for all ages and of all genres and is still accepting donations. Books can be mailed to: UNM Children’s Hospital, Attention: Meloney Baty for John’s Shelf, 2211 Lomas Blvd., NE, Albuquerque, NM 87106.
Media Contact: Lauren Cruse, (505) 272-3690; e-mail: lcruse@salud.unm.edu
The first week of school has come to an end, and you may be wondering if there is an easier way to make your daily commute. If you’re looking for ways to save money and share driving responsibilities, carpooling or vanpooling may be for you.
Once you get past the stereotype of a bunch of coworkers crammed into a tiny car, spilling coffee on each other, there are many reasons to consider sharing a ride with your coworkers and fellow students.
Some of these include:
* Reduced transportation costs. If you include vehicle wear and tear, maintenance costs, insurance, gas and permit costs, carpooling and vanpooling can significantly reduce your monthly transportation costs. Commuters can estimate their commuting costs through the matching services’ “Savings Calculator”
* Reduced carbon footprint – the impact of your activity on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced.
* Vanpoolers will receive a free, premium parking space
* The Department has free guaranteed-ride-home programs available for users of alternative transportation (some restrictions apply).
* Beginning in January 2008, vanpooling payments by UNM faculty and staff can be made automatically using pre-tax dollars.
If you’re interested in carpooling or vanpooling to work but don’t know of any classmates or coworkers who are interested in riding with you, UNM Parking and Transportation Services has a new tool to assist you.
UNM Parking and Transportation Services announced that a free online rideshare matching service is available to all staff, faculty and students. The service is located at the Department’s Web site, Parking and Transportation Services, in the Alternative Transportation section.
Using the rideshare Web site, commuters interested in carpooling or vanpooling to campus can locate other students, staff members or faculty in their community. The privacy of people using the Web site is protected – last names and addresses are not displayed and people do not have to provide phone numbers or email addresses when signing up. The Department also has consultant, Helen Abrahamson, available to assist you in learning how carpooling, vanpooling, or other alternative ways of getting to campus might work for you.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
Timothy Graham, the director of the Institute for Medieval Studies at UNM, and his collaborator Raymond Clemens, associate professor of History at Illinois State University, have literally written the book on medieval manuscript studies. Their volume, “Introduction to Manuscript Studies,” will be released during the fall by Cornell University Press.
Graham says the book began as a series of seminars he taught while at Western Michigan University. The seminars, presented at the Newberry Library in Chicago, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and The British Library, initiated students and faculty into the complex world of medieval manuscripts.
The book explains in detail how parchment, inks and papers were made, and includes recipes used by medieval workmen. It explores the art of decoration and gives special attention to conventions of punctuation and abbreviation and the genres of manuscripts including books of hours, maps, calendars, rolls and scrolls. There is also an explanation of how to establish the origin and provenance of a manuscript.
The book contains more than 250 illustrations, and advance material in the Cornell University Press Catalog calls it “unique…in its scope and level of detail in this field.”
UNM has been internationally known for its medieval programs for years, and that attracted Graham to UNM along with the outreach program conducted by the Institute. That includes a public series of lectures every spring that is attended by up to 2,000 people.
Graham says there are seven professors who could be considered “hard core” medievalists at the university, and their upper level undergraduate classes are in great demand. Although New Mexico is far from medieval Europe, Graham believes in some ways the culture in this state has a stronger connection to the Middle Ages than other parts of the country.
The Institute for Medieval Studies lecture series for Spring 2008 will focus on medieval New Mexico. “There was a body of law in medieval Spain, the Siete Partidas, put together by King Alfonso the Wise. You can still see its influence today.”
He also says at least one traditional pueblo dance, the Matachines dance, actually embodies the ancient conflict between the Arabs or Moors in Spain and the Christian Spanish and was given a new twist when it came to the pueblos, who adopted it as their own. Graham points out the cult of the Virgin Mary and Our Lady of Guadalupe has its origins in the medieval Catholic Church.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
A national undergraduate research conference, “Weaving Success in the Doctorate through Research and Mentoring,” is set for Wednesday – Friday, Sept. 19 - 21, at the University of New Mexico main campus. Other conference hosts include UNM’s Ronald E. McNair Program and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy.
The conference will allow UNM students from around the country to:
* Present research to a diverse faculty panel in the presenter’s field of study;
* Present research to peers and faculty from across the country;
* Provide an opportunity to practice and enhance presentation skills;
* Meet with professionals, graduate students and faculty from departmental graduate programs;
* Provide them with cultural experiences in New Mexico through excursions;
* Learn about graduate school at UNM through workshops on transitioning from undergraduate to graduate education.
The conference is organized under the auspices of College Enrichment & Outreach Programs under the Associate Vice President for CEOP Tim Gutierrez. CEOP resides in the UNM Student Affairs. The conference is co-sponsored by the UNM Office of Graduate Studies, UNM Title V Program, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which, “works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change.”
According to Vice President for Student Affairs Eliseo “Cheo” Torres, “This conference is a terrific opportunity for UNM to showcase its many fine graduate programs to some of the best and the brightest students in the U.S. We are looking forward to hosting some great academic talent and to having these students network with our own fine graduate students, faculty and staff.”
CEOP Student Program Specialist Carolina Aguirre, who oversees the Ronald E. McNair and Research Opportunity programs at UNM, is chief organizer of the conference. The Ronald E. McNair Program at UNM, made possible through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, supports undergraduate students' scholarly activities year round. Through this program, UNM encourages students to pursue graduate studies and become faculty members.
To register visit: Conference Registration. Conference registration and abstracts are due Monday, Aug. 27. Information on lodging and abstract submissions for the conference can also accessible through this site.
For additional conference information, contact Carolina Aguirre at: mcnair@unm.edu or call (505) 277-0356.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Ernest Rodriguez-Naaz has been named chief development officer at the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico. Rodriguez-Naaz most recently served as the director of communications for the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority (MFA), where he oversaw the organization’s communication, marketing, public relations, and event planning activities.
“This is a unique opportunity for me to be part of the excitement that is taking place at Anderson and to forge new and strengthen old alliances with New Mexico’s business community as we aim to develop new resources that will further Anderson’s mission,” said Rodriguez-Naaz.
As director of communications at MFA, he reinvented the Governor’s 2006 Housing Summit and successfully raised sufficient funds to subsidize the registration fee and produce the first-ever surplus for that event. The three-day conference included 42 workshops, more than 80 speakers and two keynote luncheon speakers (including former U.S. Secretary Henry Cisneros and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor Olena Berg Lacy). Furthermore, Rodriguez-Naaz led the internal campaign that ultimately landed MFA as a finalist and honored as a “Best PlDavid Brookshire to Work” organization as part of New Mexico Business Weekly’s first employer survey.
Before joining MFA, Rodriguez-Naaz served as the staff director for the Center for Innovation and Leadership in Government at Baruch College’s School of Public Affairs. As staff director, he managed the operational activities for the Center, and developed the substantive content for policy forums, conference, and symposia addressing many pressing public policy issues. He played a key role on the expansion of the Municipal Archive on Finance and Leadership, a collection of material from New York City’s 1970s fiscal crisis.
In 2000, he served as director of development for the Puerto Rican Family Institute, where he expanded its annual fund, formalized its marketing program and diversified its funding sources to reduce its dependence on government support.
Rodriguez-Naaz is a graduate of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs with a master’s degree in public administration. He is also a graduate of Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business with an undergraduate degree in business administration.
Media Contacts: Leslie Venzuela, (505) 277-7117; e-mail: venzuela@mgt.unm.edu or Erin Gardner, (505) 306-9575; e-mail: news@mgt.unm.edu
Construction on the intersection of Yale Boulevard and Camino de Salud on North Campus – roads that lead to University Hospital, Information Technology Services, Physics and Astronomy, and the Law School – will begin on Sept. 17.
When the construction is completed, the area will be transformed into a “roundabout,” providing a smoother traffic flow through the stop-and-start intersection.
In addition to the change to the intersection, the entrance to the Information Technology Services and the Physics and Astronomy buildings will have moved from Yale Boulevard to Camino de Salud.
Traffic impact will be minimal during the early part of the construction. As the construction continues through the fall semester, Yale Boulevard will be reduced to one lane each way and flagmen will be stationed at various locations in the construction area to facilitate traffic flow.
In the final stage of the project, Yale Boulevard will be opened from Lomas to Camino de Salud. Yale will be closed from Camino de Salud to Tucker during this time. Commuters, students and staff traveling to the Law School, Health Sciences Center or parking areas will be diverted to the intersection of Camino de Salud and Tucker to avoid construction.
The project is currently on an accelerated schedule and will be completed by Jan. 11, 2008.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816. Email: bhendrix@unm.edu
UNM Health Sciences Team Discovered new estrogen receptor and are studying its effects on Advanced Endometrial Cancer
Congresswoman Heather Wilson recently announced that the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center has received a federal grant of $285,000 to study uterine cancer and the effects of a G-protein known as GPR-30. The grant comes from the National Cancer Institute and will support on-going studies at UNM.
According to UNM, collaborating scientists from the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University recently made a remarkable breakthrough in breast and women’s cancers. Publishing in two top tier medical research journals, Science and Nature Cell Biology, this team has discovered a novel receptor for the female hormone estrogen.
Eric Prossnitz, Ph.D., Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology at UNM, along with colleagues at the UNM Cancer Center and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at New Mexico State University who are members of the UNM Cancer Center’s Women’s Cancers Research Program, discovered that a novel G-protein coupled receptor on cell surfDavid Brookshire known as GPR30 binds estrogen.
UNM officials say this discovery will have a dramatic impact on our understanding of how women get breast and other female cancers and will lead us to better diagnostics and therapies for these diseases.
The grant Wilson announced today will help further that research.
Recently, the UNM School of Law’s Student Bar Association (SBA) held the first ever student leadership training meeting for the new leaders of the law school’s student organizations.
The meeting featured seminars that covered:
· Developing a leadership style
· Creating a positive impact while in law school
· Enhancing opportunities for success after graduation
“This is the first time that this type of formalized leadership training has ever been done for student leaders at the UNM Law School,” said Edmund Perea, UNM SBA President.
Law School student organizations represented at the day-long meeting included the Federalist Society, the Black Law Students Association, the Mexican American Law Students Association, Native American Law Students Association, Phi Alpha Delta, the Women’s Law Caucus, the Environmental Law Society and the Tax Law Club.
“I was impressed by the number of student leaders who are energized about making a difference in our community,” Perea added. “Many who attended our training will make a difference in the areas they choose to practice in and the people they represent.”
Guest speakers for the training included: UNM Law School Dean Suellyn Scarnecchia; Michael Gaylor, Vice President of Leadership Programs at the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce; John Blair, Chief of Staff to New Mexico State Auditor Hector Balderas; and Dr. Joe Vallez, former President of the Albuquerque Coalition of Neighborhood Associations.
Juan Marquez, president of the Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity organization at UNM, said, “I thought the training was great. There was useful information that I will use this year. Not only did the training help develop our personal leadership, but I think that it helped the organizations come together.”
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
Five professors have been promoted to the rank of University of New Mexico distinguished professor. Distinguished professors are individuals who have demonstrated outstanding achievements and are nationally and internationally renowned as scholars.
Interim Provost Viola Florez said, “The rank of Distinguished Professor is the highest faculty rank at the university. It is reserved for a very small number of individuals who have made major scholarly contributions to their fields. This year we had a very strong group of nominees, and we are proud of the accomplishments of each of them. The new awardees join a very select group of our faculty.”
The 2007-2008 inductees are:
David Craven
Professor in the Department of Art and Art History in the College of Fine Arts, Craven has been on the UNM faculty since 1993. He earned his Ph.D. in art history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1979.
Craven has published five books and more than 130 articles, and he has co-authored many other publications. He has held several positions as a visiting scholar including a recent appointment at Humboldt University in Berlin.
Craven’s work bridges art, philosophy and cultural studies, which establishes him as a leading authority on modern art, in both the United States and Latin America.
Abhaya Datye
Professor in the Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering in the School of Engineering, Datye has been at UNM for more than 22 years during which he has had a major impact on both the graduate and undergraduate programs in chemical engineering.
He has run the Center for Micro-Engineered Materials for 23 years and turned it into an NSF/industry supported hub for nano-materials research. He is also a key player in creating and managing the statewide NSF EPSCoR program in nano-materials.
Datye earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering in 1984 from the University of Michigan.
Larry Davis
Larry Davis, professor of neurology and research professor of microbiology in the Department of Neurology in the School of Medicine, earned his M.D. at Stanford University in 1966. He is an acclaimed scholar, researcher, educator, medical clinician, academic administrator and mentor who joined the UNM faculty in 1975.
One example of his expertise and the respect he has earned from his peers is that shortly following 9/11 he was invited to give the opening plenary lecture, “Bioterrorism: Biological Threats,” to 12,000 of his colleagues at the national meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.
Davis has been chief of Neurology Service at the VA for many years while simultaneously serving as vice chairman of the UNM Department of Neurology. In addition to his research, educational and administrative duties, Davis continues to be a dedicated clinician, rotating in-patient ward attending and on-call duties equally with his staff physicians and seeing patients in several neurology clinics weekly.
Linda B. Hall
Professor Linda Hall, History Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is an internationally distinguished scholar in her research on the Mexican Revolution and on relations between the U.S. and Latin America in the 20th century. Recently, her scope has broadened to embrace large-scale cultural studies such as the topic of the cult of the Virgin Mary in Spain and Latin America.
She has served as head of the History Department’s Latin American section and director of UNM’s Latin American Studies Program. She is currently president of the American Historical Association’s Pacific Coast Branch. She is a two-time recipient of Fulbright Fellowships and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Hall has been a Visiting Fellow at the Huntington Library and at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego and also at UCLA. Hall, who earned her Ph.D. in Latin American History at Columbia University in 1976, joined UNM as full professor in 1986.
Deepak Kapur
Computer Science Professor Deepak Kapur’s primary interests are in the areas of formal methods, automated deduction, algebraic and geometric reasoning and their applications. Kapur earned his Ph.D. in computer science at MIT in 1980. He has been on the UNM faculty since 1999.
Kapur has edited three books and published more than 150 journal papers, book chapters and conference proceedings, many of which appeared in top journals. According to CiteSeer scientific citation index, Kapur is in the top two percent of computer science researchers.
He has attracted more than $2 million in funding to UNM, much of it from the NSF. His theoretical work has led to the development of software systems, including Rewrite Rule Laboratory, which is especially well known and regarded.
Kapur initiated a program with the Albuquerque Public School’s Career Enrichment Center where he mentored high school students, some of whom went on to compete at regional, state and international science fairs. He has also pushed nomination of UNM’s best undergraduates for Computing Research Association’s Outstanding Undergraduate Awards.
Kapur serves on the executive boards of both the Computer Science Research Institute at Sandia and the Los Alamos Computer Science Institute at LANL.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
President David J. Schmidly and Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez officially launched the new Lobo Ride Pass program offered by the City of Albuquerque Transit Department. Earlier this year, Representative Gail Chasey – a third year UNM Law School Student – secured $35,000 from the New Mexico Legislature to jump-start the program. This program is designed to provide free bus rides for all UNM students during the 2007-2008 school year.
Photo: Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez and UNM President David J. Schmidly toured the UNM campus in a city bus.
President Schmidly and Mayor Chavez addressed the media Thursday morning at the Redondo/Duck Pond bus stop. After the press conference, Mayor Chavez, President Schmidly, UNM Parking Director Clovis Acosta, members of the media and other representatives of the City of Albuquerque and University of New Mexico toured the campus in a city bus.
Using the Lobo Ride Pass program can reduce the need of students to bring their cars to campus, thus reducing their expenses this school year. In addition, this program can decrease both traffic and greenhouse gases in the university area.
About the Program
Any UNM student, regardless of course load or current credit hours taken, can take part in the program. The program is valid for one year – those stickers handed out during the fall 2007 semester will be accepted through the start of the fall 2008 semester.
To get a Lobo Ride Pass sticker, students have to present their Lobo Card and current class schedule to verify their enrollment. Lobo Ride Pass stickers will be available at the following locations around campus:
· UNM Student Union Building
· Parking and Transportation Department Office
· Lobo Card Office
· UNM Bookstore
During the week of Aug. 27, representatives of ABQ Ride will also be on campus to hand out Lobo Ride Pass stickers.
The program is only offered to currently enrolled UNM students. Staff and faculty can continue to purchase monthly ABQ Ride passes at the UNM Bookstore for $20.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
University of New Mexico student Matthew Garcia was recently notified that he has received a Fulbright U.S. Student Scholarship to Spain where he will teach English as a foreign language. He will teach in Madrid at CEIP Rufino Blanco, a grade 6-12 secondary school. In addition to teaching, he will be conducting research on immigration, assimilation and identity issues.
“I will also be conducting an after school creative writer’s forum as a volunteer project to work with immigrant and local children as a means of examining the huge influx of immigrants and the resultant identity issues that arise when the cultures mix. My goal is to help these youth relate to the world around them,” he said.
Garcia worked at Isleta Pueblo as a youth advocate and court representative last year.
Garcia worked briefly as a substitute teacher for the Albuquerque Public Schools, which makes this his first real teaching experience. The reason he didn’t teach longer was because adventure beckoned.
“I left the country at the time to drive from Albuquerque through Mexico and into Central America. On that trip I went to Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru and Bolivia,” he said, adding that he only got as far as Belize by car before seeking other means of travel.
Garcia, an Albuquerque native, is a graduate of Valley Academy at Valley High School. He grew up in the North Valley with parents Robin Garcia and Joseph A. Garcia.
Garcia’s reason to pursue the Fulbright is that it allows him to “continue pursuing my passions.”
“Curiosity, travel and cultural investigation have always inspired me and pushed me through school and my personal pursuits. I have always wanted to live in Spain and learn about the culture and people firsthand,” he said.
The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Since its inception in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright, the Fulbright Program has provided approximately 279,500 people globally – including 105,400 Americans – who have studied, taught or researched abroad. The program operates in more than 150 countries.
For more information about the Fulbright Program, call the UNM Office of International Programs and Studies at 277-4032.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Political Science Professor Christine Sierra is the principle investigator in a recent study on the impact of the Voting Rights Act on non-white elected officials, which is featured in the July issue of PS: Political Science & Politics, a journal of the American Political Science Association. The article is also cited in the August 6 issue of Hispanic Link Weekly Report.
The National Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed the requirement that would-be voters in the United States take literacy tests to qualify to register to vote, and it provided for federal registration of voters in areas that had less than 50 percent of eligible minority voters registered.
The Act provided for Department of Justice approval for any change in voting law in districts that had used a device to limit voting and in which less than 50 percent of the population was registered to vote in 1964. It was signed in 1965, and signed for a 25 year extension by President George W. Bush on July 27, 2006. Sierra’s study focused on this area of the act, as well as Section 203, which requires voting assistance in languages other than English in certain jurisdictions.
Often considered a landmark in civil rights legislation, the Act has been criticized, especially during talks of renewal in 2006, as a bill that achieved its goal of minority voting and now has become overly demanding of certain states.
Thirty-two Hispanic members of the U.S. House of Representatives who served in the 109th Congress were elected from jurisdictions covered by the Voting Rights Act, Hispanic Link reports.
“It suggests if the VRA were not in place that indeed our Latino elected leadership would be greately reduced, and it even suggests that there would be no (Latinos) in the U.S. Congress,” Sierra said in the article.
Hispanic Link reports that in state elections 82 percent of Hispanics elected in 2006 had their districts covered by the VRA. It covered more than 90 percent of elections for county, municipal and school boards.
The study found that while people of color comprised 31 percent of the total U.S. population in 2000, congressional representation by people of color was below 12 percent.
“It is not only historically important but continues to be important for minority political enfranchisement,” Sierra said.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
With the start of the new academic year, the UNM Police Department is increasing its visibility and enforcement efforts in and around campus streets, and particularly in areas with dense pedestrian traffic, such as crosswalks. Pedestrian safety is important to our campus because so many members of the community walk, bicycle and skateboard to and from classes and activities. As Faculty, staff and students return for a new academic year, it is important for pedestrians, bicyclists and boarders to remain alert when crossing campus streets.
Crosswalks are provided for safe access across busy streets, and campus police will be targeting jaywalkers crossing outside of pedestrian safe crossings. Officers will also be targeting drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. Police officers are also closely monitoring speeders, using radar and other speed detection devices, to enforce the campus speed limit of 20 mph, unless otherwise posted.
Skateboarders are reminded that they are required to obey pedestrian laws as well, and can not ride their boards in the street and must dismount before crossing in a crosswalk. Because of their speed and quick maneuverability, skateboarders are often hard for drivers to spot.
As campus becomes more crowded and as schedules become more rushed, we all have to take extra steps to prevent accidents and needless injuries.
Pedestrians, skateboarders and bicyclists on campus can work to keep themselves safe by following a few simple tips:
-Before stepping off the curb into a crosswalk, stop and look in both directions to be sure that approaching traffic sees you. Although pedestrians have the right of way, not all drivers will stop, particularly if their view of you is blocked by the sun, parked cars or other traffic
-When riding a bicycle, travel with the flow of traffic, never into it. Approaching drivers are not looking for you to be driving at them and might not be prepared to avoid you in their lane of travel. Bicyclists are required to obey all traffic laws, just like vehicles. Other drivers are expecting bicyclists to stop and yield the right of way, just like another driver
-NEVER skateboard in the street, even in a crosswalk. Skateboarders are often too fast and too small to see for drivers
-Always wear a helmet when riding a bicycle or skateboard. Wear reflective clothing or lights at night to ensure that others can see you when biking
The UNM Police department also offers a 24 hour escort service to anyone needing an escort from an on-campus location to anywhere else on campus or to a location near UNM. Call 277-2241 for more information.
Additional information about this initiative, and other news from the UNM Police Department is available in the UNMPD Office in Hokona-Zuni Hall, or online at: UNM Police Department.
Information on traffic fines, including speeding and pedestrian fines, is available from Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court.
Media Contact: Pat Davis, (505) 249-8304
“Set in Stone: The Binational Workshop on Petroglyph Management in the United States and Mexico” will be held Wednesday, Sept. 19 - Friday, Sept. 22 at the University of New Mexico. Volunteers are needed for The Binational Workshop that will bring together scholars, partners and the general public in a forum to exchange ideas about cultural resources management issues regarding the protection and preservation of petroglyphs in the Greater Southwest and Northern Mexico.
The workshop will serve to address topics related to future exchanges of ideas about resource management, conservation and ethnographic techniques, as well as protection, interpretation and educational approaches.
Workshop papers will share cultural resource management information across the U.S.-Mexico border. In addition to providing opportunities for communication with traditional communities and scholars in both the U.S. and Mexico, the workshop will establish and/or reassert relationships with other research and educational entities.
Workshop organizers includes the National Park Service’s Petroglyph National Monument, which protects, preserves and interprets one of the largest concentrations of petroglyphs in the world, the University of New Mexico and the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH).
Individuals who are interested in volunteering can register on the conference Web site at: Volunteer.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Celebration of workplace breast pump legislation to be held Sept. 5
Mothers have a new option for safe, private breastfeeding on campus – the recently opened UNM Breastfeeding Support Program. Housed in the Women’s Resource Center, the program offers lactation spDavid Brookshire – some equipped with hospital grade breast pumps – and a listserv to enhance communication between breastfeeding mothers across campus.
UNM graduate student Lissa Knudsen successfully advocated for new breast pump use in the workplace legislation, which requires work sites to provide a suitable, private location for breastfeeding employees to use breast pumps. The law is critical to New Mexican mothers because while 78 percent initially breastfeed, many find they have to discontinue breastfeeding when they return to work.
“Breastfed babies are healthy babies. We want to support a mother in her decision to continue breastfeeding when she returns to work, and we want to help our lawmakers to keep New Mexico’s children healthy,” said Emilie Sebesta, UNM Hospitals pediatrician.
To use one of the designated lactation spDavid Brookshire on campus, breastfeeding mothers should register at http://www.unm.edu/~brstfeed/. The Web site also offers access to UNMH lactation consultants and classes, a family-friendly campus map highlighting lactation rooms, links to breastfeeding legislation, tips on how to use an electric breast pump, local breastfeeding resources, and tips and resources for how to become a “lactivist.”
Family-friendly advocates at UNM will hold a reception on Sept. 5, 12:30-2:30 p.m. in UNM Student Union Building ballroom A to recognize lawmakers who played a central role in passing the breast pump in the workplace legislation, and to begin setting a family-friendly agenda for the 2008 Legislature. New Mexico Representative Danica Picraux and Senators Linda Lopez and Dede Feldman are expected to attend. The event will include a virtual tour of the UNM Breastfeeding Support Program and a screening of the Motherhood Manifesto, a film produced by momsrising.org.
Sponsors of the reception include the Women’s Resource Center, Graduate and Professional Student Association, Staff Council and Peer Mentoring for Graduates of Color. About 20 other family-friendly organizations are expected to participate.
UNM President David J. Schmidly has announced the formation of a task force to examine the culture of the Greek system at UNM. The task force has been formed in the wake of several incidents over the past two weeks while the fraternities were recruiting members.
Schmidly said a major objective of this task force is to strengthen what the Greek system is really about. “ We want to remind those organizations of their important functions in terms of community service, leadership and behavior standards. These recent incidents have raised concern that there is an unhealthy climate in some of these organizations.”
The task force is still being formed and will include representatives from alumni and the community as well as student organizations and faculty representatives. It will be led by Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration David Harris.
Three of the six fraternities which make up the Interfraternity Council are now on emergency suspension by the UNM Dean of Students. Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Kappa Sigma and Phi Delta Theta are currently prohibited from conducting social or recruitment activities, pending an investigation and hearing by the Dean of Students.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
New Mexico members of Epsilon Sigma Alpha (ESA) International donated $5,622 to University of New Mexico Children’s Hospital Pediatric Oncology to further umbilical cord blood research. ESA member Sally Henning of Los Lunas, N.M. had the idea to raise money for the pediatric oncology department after meeting with Dr. Richard Heideman, chief of the division of pediatric hematology/oncology at UNM.
Photo: ESA members presented a check for $5,622 on Friday, August 17 at the UNM Children's Hospital.
“In talking with Dr. Heideman about cord blood research, I thought this was an important focus for our state,” said Henning. “ESA, on a national level, donates to other children’s hospitals and I thought it was important to keep the money we raise here in the state. Charity should start at home and this research is vital to our children in New Mexico.”
Cord blood is the blood left in the placenta and the umbilical cord after the birth of a child and the clamping and cutting of the umbilical cord. Cord blood is known to be a very rich source of hematopoietic or blood producing stem cells. These stem cells have the ability to become anyone of the normal blood cells such as an infection fighting white blood cell, an oxygen carrying red blood cell or a platelet that helps prevent easy bruising and bleeding.
The use of core blood can be used to treat patients with various cancers and give patients another option for treatment next to bone marrow transplants.
ESA is an international leadership and service organization that brings people together to pursue programs and projects that make a positive difference locally, nationally and internationally. New Mexico has 15 chapters. For more information on ESA, visit www.esaintl.com.
Media Contact: Lauren Cruse, (505) 272-3690; e-mail: lcruse@salud.unm.edu
Public television station KNME, Channel 5 presents the following science, nature and technology programs in September. Many NEW shows, include: “Seeing in the Dark,” “Accidents in Space,” “Lords of the Gourd,” “The World According to Google,” “Oceanos Deep Quest,” and the continuing “History Detectives” series.
Programs are listed in chronological order below.
Also, on Sunday, Sept. 2, KNME premieres two returning older-children’s series, on new days and times – “DragonflyTV” and “Design Squad” at 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., respectively. These science-oriented programs serve as a natural companion to the adult Sunday morning science series and specials, including “Nova” and “Nature.”
Visit KNME TV for complete schedule.
Explore global initiatives and volunteer opportunities in the Peace Corps at an information session on Monday, Aug. 27 from 6 – 8 p.m. at the Latin American & Iberian Institute, 801 Yale NE on the University of New Mexico campus.
International work experience and opportunities are available in more than 70 countries where Peace Corps volunteers perform a variety of jobs in business, education, community development, environment, health, information technology and agriculture.
Learn more about these opportunities by joining Lisa Paton, recently returned volunteer and recruiter, for a film presentation and informational session.
Opportunities are available for those with a four-year degree or a combination of job experience and a two-year degree or substantial experience, in lieu of a degree, in specialized areas. Specialized areas include: skilled trades, farm/agribusiness, vegetable gardening/nursery/forestry or fish cultivation/production, business management, computer technology, nursing (RN/LPN/LVN), non-profit management/organizational development, and work with at-risk youth.
Peace Corps benefits include medical, dental and housing, as well as a monthly stipend, transportation to and from the host country, graduate study benefits, 24 vacation days a year, and a $6,075 readjustment allowance after a 2-year service. Some student loans can be deferred during Peace Corps service. After the 2-year service, former volunteers receive one year of noncompetitive eligibility for employment in the federal government.
Peace Corps is a 27-month commitment, which includes 12 weeks of language training in the host country.
UNM Political Science Professor Gregory Gleason will be a visiting professor at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch, Germany, during 2007 and 2008. The Marshall Center is a U.S. Department of Defense and German Ministry of Defense educational institute focusing on international relations and national security.
Photo: Political Science Professor Gregory Gleason
“It’s a graduate school designed for people interested in international affairs,” Gleason said. “It’s a training institute operated by the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency.”
As a professor of Security Studies, his areas of emphasis include international relations – including issues of democracy building in former totalitarian countries, peace and conflict studies and regional security.
Gleason’s responsibilities at the Marshall Center include working directly with scholars and government officials from Central Asia and the Caucasus region of Eurasia. The class instruction will be given in English and Russian.
“These countries have just gone through a difficult period of communism and post-communism reconstruction,” Gleason said. “They are moderate Muslim countries that play an increasingly important role in international affairs, especially given their wealth of mineral and energy resources. Today these countries face very serious challenges from political extremism, international terrorism and poor governance practices.”
In Gleason’s nearly two decades of university service as a political scientist at UNM, he has been a close observer and prolific writer about political affairs and international relations in the countries of Eurasia. The demise of the Soviet Union changed Gleason’s views on the theory and practice of international affairs.
Since its inception in 1993, the Marshall Center has provided instruction in international security to more than 5,600 military and civilian government officials.
The Marshall Center engages international specialists in security studies, consisting of 32 faculty members from 10 countries, including the U.S. and Germany, as well as Austria, Canada, Croatia, France, Poland, Switzerland, Ukraine and the UK. The Marshall Center’s program participants come primarily from the Middle East, South and Central Asia, and the countries of the former USSR.
Ever since the 2004 presidential election concerns in Ohio – with allegations of people hacking into electronic voting machines – issues about election administration and voter confidence have permeated the political world. In 2006, New Mexico became the first state to mandate that optical scan ballots be used instead of electronic voting machines for elections. This simple step helped calm voters concerns about the validity of their votes.
During the 2006 general election, researchers from the University of New Mexico, California Institute of Technology and the University of Utah studied the election. Today their studies were released as “The New Mexico Election Administration Report: The 2006 November General Election.”
This report is the product of three independent research projects that were focused on election administration in New Mexico during the 2006 election. The principal researchers in the report were UNM Political Science Professor Lonna Atkeson, Dr. R. Michael Alvarez from the California Institute of Technology and Dr. Thad Hall of the University of Utah.
The results of this study will be useful to the federal government when the U.S. Congress begins to debate moving from electronic voting and replacing those machines with optical scan paper ballots voting machines. With the passage of legislation mandating optical scan ballots in the state, New Mexico leads the nation from a predominantly electronic voting system to one that mandated optical scan paper ballots for elections.
“There is legislation in Congress pushing the country to move to a paper ballot system to provide a verifiable voting record. New Mexico has already taken that step and served as a test state in 2006 to show the effectiveness of this kind of voting technology in reaffirming confidence in the electoral process,” said Dr. Atkeson.
Prior to the 2006 election cycle, New Mexico implemented election reforms designed to create fairer, more accurate and voter-verifiable election administration. This new system was designed to provide a paper trail so future elections could be audited for greater accuracy and to enhance voter confidence in the New Mexico election system. The statewide implementation took place in the fall 2006 general election. Prior to this election at least six different voting technologies were used throughout New Mexico.
“New Mexico is on the cutting edge of election administration and has executive and local leadership forging aggressively ahead with the intent of building a better, stronger, efficacious and more voter-confident voting system,” according to the report.
Part one of the study focused on Election Day observations in three (3) N.M. counties: Bernalillo, Doña Ana and Santa Fe. The study found that overall the new voting technology worked on Election Day, but better training of poll workers and judges – as well as better education of poll workers, judges and voters – should enhance the accountability and quality of the election experience.
Part two examined the attitudes and experiences of a random sample of poll workers in Bernalillo, Doña Ana and Santa Fe counties. The survey showed that poll workers need the rules governing voter identification clarified, ensure that polling plDavid Brookshire are accessible to the disabled and to improve poll worker training to better reflect Election Day realities.
Part three looked at the experiences of a random sample of registered voters in New Mexico’s First Congressional District. The report examines factors associated with the voting experience, experience with the ballot, the polling site, voter interaction with poll workers, and voter confidence.
Copies of the report are available on the UNM Vote 2006 Web site at Vote2006 UNM.
Staff Council is the voice of UNM staff, and new President Vanessa Shields said she’s here to be the voice of Staff Council. Her principal role, as she sees it, is not to set the council’s goals but to communicate its initiatives to the university administration.
Photo: UNM Staff Council President Vanessa Shields with David Harris.
Her experience of working with UNM President David Schmidly has so far been promising. She said he’s been open and has followed through on his promise to regularly include staff, faculty and student leaders in executive cabinet meetings.
Shields has played several roles within the university, giving her a broader perspective. “I’m able to give a lot of input – not just as staff,” she said. She joined UNM in 1998, playing Lobo volleyball while studying for her B.A. in criminology and women studies.
While working on her M.S. in sports administration, she became a graduate assistant at the Graduation Project, where she is now a full time student programs specialist. The project finds UNM seniors who dropped out and helps them navigate re-admission, financial aid and other potential hurdles to graduation. “We try to cut the red tape for them,” Shields said.
Shields became a staff councilor after a coworker’s pregnancy made her aware of the need for paid maternity and paternity leave. She joined Staff Council in 2004 to advocate for improved maternity/paternity benefits, an issue that remains important to her.
In her new role as president, Shields will provide continuity to see the council’s initiatives through to completion, which can be a multi-year process. “My job is to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks,” she said. Some ongoing issues include catastrophic leave, tuition remission, dependent education, and APS/UNM spring break alignment.
Shields also represents UNM staff on a statewide coalition, the New Mexico Higher Education Staff Association. At her first meeting, she was appointed to represent all New Mexico higher education staff on the Higher Education Advisory Board, which advises the New Mexico Higher Education Department. In this position, she will help shape state policy on critical issues like retirement and compensation.
The next Staff Council meeting is Tuesday, Aug. 21, 1-3 p.m. in the Hokona-Zuni theatre.
Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1593; e-mail: michal@unm.edu
HEP graduation ceremony scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 22
The University of New Mexico’s High School Equivalency Program, or HEP, has received $405,765 for the first year of a new five-year funding cycle, according to information from the U.S. Department of Education and the Office of New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici.
HEP, operated out of UNM’s College Enrichment & Outreach Programs under the Office of the Vice President of Student Affairs, will receive more than $2 million in funding over the course of its new funding cycle, continuing a successful program that has aided hundreds of New Mexico students over the last five years, according to Eliseo “Cheo” Torres, vice president of Student Affairs.
The purpose of HEP is to recruit, assess, and provide GED and ESL instruction, life-skill workshops, job-readiness training, and concurrent support services such as childcare, stipends and transportation, for 60 migrant and seasonal farmworkers or their offspring each year. The objectives of the project are to have at least 65 percent of UNM HEP participants successfully complete their GEDs, and to have at least 85 percent of UNM HEP graduates move into a post-secondary education program, land a career position, or gain entrance to the military.
“We are delighted that this program has been renewed for another five-year funding cycle, since this program has helped many New Mexicans to improve their lives by completing their high school diploma and going on to higher education, vocational training, a career position, or the military,” Torres said. “Some HEP participants who have received their GEDs are now at UNM or at Central New Mexico Community College,” he added.
According to statistics provided by HEP Student Program Specialist Susy Sarmiento, in all, some 225 HEP students have come through the program during the current five year cycle ending this year, and 130 HEP students have successfully passed the GED and graduated from the program. Fourteen graduates have gone on to attend UNM, while the other graduates have been placed at CNM or in jobs.
“We’re excited to have received this grant again because we will be adding a new residential component and know that we will be able to do additional outreach to the more rural communities in southern New Mexico,” said Sarmiento. “We look forward to collaborating with many agencies in order to better serve the migrant population in our state.”
The 2007 HEP graduation ceremony, to be held Saturday, Sept. 22, at 1 p.m. at the UNM Student Union Building, will feature 29 successful HEP graduates, 22 of whom are from the Albuquerque area, with the remaining seven students are from Hatch, in southern New Mexico. Torres and Associate Vice President Tim Gutierrez will provide welcoming remarks for the ceremony, at which students will be receiving their completion certificates.
For more information please contact Susy Sarmiento at 505-277-0276 or susy@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Seven Retiree Association members were elected to the board at the 2007 Annual Membership Business Meeting in May. Those elected were Roy Johnson, Frank Martinez, Karl Schwerin, Carolyn Tinker, Margaret Weinrod, Louise Williams and Beulah Woodfin. They join continuing members Ken Frandsen, Scott Alley, Mary Ellen Smith, Ilse Gay, Clarice Jenkins and Susan Deese-Roberts.
Photo: UNM Retiree Association Board Members
The board elected officers at its June meeting. Susan Deese-Roberts, President-Elect, and Louise Williams, Treasurer-Elect, join Kenneth Frandsen, Past President; Ilse Gay, President; and Clarice Jenkins, Treasurer, as 2007-2008 officers of the association. Margaret Weinrod was elected Secretary at the August meeting.
The Retiree Association organizes events and advocates for UNM retirees.
Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1593; e-mail: michal@unm.edu
Beginning this week a new Web site, UNM Live, will feature free podcasts of University of New Mexico news, events, interviews, arts and more.
Podcasts are audio or video files that can be downloaded to a computer or portable MP3 player. Current features include an interview on the campus climate for women with Summer Little, Women’s Resource Center, and poetry by M.F.A. student and National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow Lisa Gill.
The University Communication and Marketing department created UNMlive to reach increasingly multimedia-savvy audiences and to deliver free education and “edutainment” to on- and off-campus communities.
Any UNM department or program may contribute content to UNMlive. Professional recording services are available from Media Technology Services.
For more information contact University Communication and Marketing at: unmlive@unm.edu.
Peer Mentoring for Graduates of Color (PMGC) invites the campus to the annual welcome back event for grads of color and allies, the PMGC Bienvienida, to kickoff the UNM fall 2007 semester on Wednesday, Aug. 22, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Free food, music, networking, prizes and resources!
PMGC will be overviewing the PMGC calendar of activities and workshops including the Critical Issues Roundtables, Faculty of Color Network, Graduate School Day, New Visions: Graduates of Color Research Colloquium, PMGC Membership Meetings, Peer Mentoring Training, Students of Color Retreat and other events and programs to recruit and retain UNM graduate and professional students of color.
The Bienvenida will also be a chance for graduate and professional students of color to learn more about other graduates of color organizations: Black Graduate & Professional Student Association, Raza Graduate Student Association and Society for Native American Graduate Students.
For more information contact Christopher Ramirez or Lisa Tsuchiya at 277-7397 or RSVP by e-mail at, gradpeer@unm.edu.
In order to open more lines of communication and bring more transparency to the operations of the University of New Mexico, UNM President David J. Schmidly has posted several key documents on his website for easy access and viewing. To view these documents, please visit President Schmidly’s Web site at: President Schmidly.
During his first 80+ days on the job, Schmidly has worked with his leadership team to develop a vision document for the University titled, “UNM in the 21st Century – A New President’s Vision.” This document serves as a comprehensive guide to what President Schmidly sees as the future of the state’s flagship university.
At their August 14 meeting, the UNM Board of Regents unanimously approved a dozen goals and major milestones for the President to accomplish. The aim of this document is to guide the president and his executive leadership team as they work on an ambitious agenda for the university and the State of New Mexico. It will also serve as the basis of the President’s annual evaluation.
“I am a strong believer in evaluation,” said Schmidly, “It is the only way to move the institution forward.”
Additionally, President Schmidly has directed the office of Institutional Research to develop a 5-year academic ledger for the entire university. This document provides information on UNM’s student body, faculty, research revenues and expenditures, fundraising data, tuition data, and others. A similar document is being completed for the Health Sciences Center.
Also available online is the President’s Report, which is presented to the Board of Regents at its regular meeting. This report highlights the accomplishments of the university.
President Schmidly urges university stakeholders to review each of these documents and offer suggestions via e-mail. You can e-mail President Schmidly at: unmpres@unm.edu with comments on these documents or for any other issue.
Media Contact: Susan McKinsey, (505) 277-1989; e-mail: mckinsey@unm.edu or Jeremy Lafaver, (505) 277-1540
As a professor in the Anderson School of Management, Faculty Senate President Jackie Hood brings business sense to her new position. “I’m a business professor, so I understand that we have to work with the organization to get things done,” she said.
Hood foresees a smooth relationship with university administration, including new UNM President David Schmidly. She said it’s great to have a president with an academic background, one of the senate’s goals during the search.
“I’ve found him straightforward,” she said. “He seems to be what he says he is – open to suggestions.” She hopes Schmidly will bring stability and help the university get back to its primary mission – educating students.
While Hood works to enhance the Faculty Senate’s role in shared governance, she also plans to improve communications to get more faculty involved. “Too many people sit back and let the university run itself,” she said. “There are too many bright people out there to let them do that.”
Among the issues the senate will address, faculty compensation is always a priority. Hood said that while increases have been good, they haven’t brought UNM salaries in line with peer institutions.
She has been meeting with the operations committee over the summer to get a head start on senate business. “They’re a devoted group of people,” she said. She also plans to work closely with President-Elect Howard Snell to ensure continuity.
Hood said that as in business, efficiency – or lack thereof – in the senate’s structure can affect how well it performs. “In order for the Faculty Senate to be an influential and effective body, we have to make sure we have effective processes,” she said.
To accomplish that goal, she will continue streamlining the committee process, work begun last year with the elimination of committees that had outlived their function. This year, the senate will review committee charges and craft a reporting process.
Hood said the senate also needs to have a standing policy committee, rather than creating ad hoc committees as problems arise. “We want to be a more proactive body that makes positive change for the university,” she said.
The next Faculty Senate meeting is Tuesday, Aug. 28, 3-5 p.m. in the Student Union Building Lobo room. The senate will also hold a retreat on Friday, Aug. 31.
Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1593; e-mail: michal@unm.edu
UNM Vice President of Research and Economic Development Terry Yates has been awarded the Regents’ Meritorious Service Medal to recognize his extraordinary and distinguished service to the University. The Medal is awarded for outstanding teaching, service to students, research, scholarship, publications, and performance in faculty and University governance.
Yates is an internationally recognized scholar, researcher, lecturer and leader in the academic world. In addition to his administrative work at UNM he is a professor in the Departments of Biology and Pathology and Curator of Genomic Resources for the Museum of Southwestern Biology.
His work in building and organizing the mammal collections at the Museum helped it move into a position of national prominence, and the specimens were used by Yates and the Centers for Disease Control in the 1990’s to identify the host and transmission mechanism for the Hantavirus, later named the Sin Nombre virus. That significant accomplishment was included in the National Science Foundation’s “Nifty Fifty” list, a catalogue of its federally funded research activity that has been of the greatest societal benefit
Yates came to the University of New Mexico in 1978 as an assistant professor of Biology, and has since published more than 125 papers in refereed journals. Additionally, he has served as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on grants and contracts totaling more than $45.5 million. The American Society of Mammalogists has nominated Yates as an honorary member, the highest honor the society can bestow.
During his long career, Yates and a colleague Sydney Anderson have done extensive research on mammals in Bolivia. Their team has surveyed much of the country and doubled the number of mammal species known to occur there. As part of their work, they mentored dozens of Bolivian students. In addition, their research set a new standard for field research for funding agencies such as the NSF.
He also helped create the Long Term Ecological Research site near Socorro, used by UNM students involved in a wide variety of research projects. Most recently Yates and his team published a paper that linked weather patterns to vegetation growth and the increase in rodent populations. They were able to predict an increased danger to humans from Hantavirus in specific areas of the southwest in 2006 and to work with public health authorities in time to warn local residents of their increased risk for the disease.
Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Ray Birmingham’s T’birds soared with him at the controls. He expects a howl heard ‘round the world when his Lobo baseball team takes the field. Birmingham is UNM’s 11th baseball coach. He joins Lobo athletics after 18 seasons at New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs. He has an impressive 818-328-2 (.713) record in 20 seasons as a collegiate head coach.
Photo: Lobo Baseball Head Coach Ray Birmingham
Birmingham had the opportunity to retire from coaching and move into the business world – likely a more lucrative endeavor – but he answered the call.
“I went with my heart. When I got here, I felt the electricity and the positive move forward,” he said.
Birmingham likes to win, but winning begins before the players pull on that cap and walk out on the field.
“It’s important to break down the walls between athletics and academics. I am not a coach first, but a teacher. I was an English teacher. Baseball people are literary people. It’s about developing well-rounded people who don’t come to the university just to play baseball,” he said. He added, “When we walk out there, we’re not just winning a game. We’re winning at life,” he said.
He backs it up. He boasted 31 All Americans from NMJC, now in professions ranging from doctors and lawyers to teachers and professional ballplayers.
Birmingham sees UNM’s potential campus-wide.
“Look at the new Richardson Pavilion and you see good stewardship of New Mexico resources. We all want UNM to grow as an academic institution. We don’t want it to become an athletic machine. But I do want people in Texas to think, ‘Look out, here comes UNM,” he said.
Timing is everything he said, adding, “A school is only as good as its people: President David Schmidly, Athletic Director Paul Krebs, Assistant AD Tim Cass. This is a great time for Lobo athletics. The stars are aligned.”
Birmingham plans to build with New Mexico talent. “I can go out and recruit from Arizona, California, Texas and Oklahoma from my reputation. Young men want to play for me. We do need to find some pitching, but we have good baseball players in this state. I want to win with New Mexico boys,” he said.
He plans to enjoy getting to know the UNM family. “What I liked about Dr. Schmidly is that he and I both come from the Permian Basin South Plains influenced by oil and cotton fields. He ’s just a guy. I want to take him out quail hunting,” he said.
Returning to the sport he loves, he said, “I have a passion for New Mexico. I want to walk off the field in the NCAA championships and have people know that UNM has the best team in the whole country.”
It’s a dream he plans to make a reality.
| Scrimmage to Help Establish Heritage |
|---|
| Birmingham plans to establish a heritage of Lobo baseball. To launch it, he is hosting a scrimmage game between current and former Lobo baseball players on Saturday, Sept. 29 at 1 p.m. tentatively scheduled at Isotopes Stadium.
Prior to the game, the alums and the Lobos will take some batting practice, as will UNM President David Schmidly, AD Paul Krebs and Asst. AD Tim Cass. Organized by former players Ernie Blackstone, (’78), Rick Ronquillo (’83) and Walt Arnold (’80), the connections between former and current players are already being made. "I invite everyone to come and be a part of this. We are about building a family first. We want families to attend. The game is just for fun and we will have a little tailgating afterward with sandwiches and chips. After that, we all need to cross the street and go watch the Lobo football team beat BYU,” he said. |
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
A week of activities is planned to welcome new and returning students to UNM. Welcome Back Days is an annual tradition, celebrated this year Monday, Aug. 20 to Friday, Aug. 24, offering information about university departments, organizations and programs, along with food and entertainment.
Promote your area of campus on Monday, Aug. 20, during UNM Department Day. Monday is also the President's Ice Cream Social with ice cream served by VIPs. Reserve your table space by calling 277-4706. Arrive early, as tables are first-come, first-serve around the Duck Pond from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Other events include:
Tuesday, Aug. 21
* Health and Wellness Day
Wednesday, Aug. 22
* Multicultural and Women’s Day
Information about UNM’s ethnic, cultural and women’s center programs and departments. Enjoy free green chili stew and Pepsi along with live music throughout the day at the duck pond.
Thursday, Aug. 23
* Student Organization Day: Student leaders share information about student organizations on campus.
* African American Student Services Welcome Back BBQ
Friday, Aug. 24
* Community Service and Alumni Day
* Students interested in working on campus will have an opportunity to meet with department and program representatives during a UNM Student Job Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Duck Pond.
The fair is being sponsored by UNM’s Career Services and the Student Engagement Graduation Task Force Initiative. For more details, see the Welcome Back Days schedule at Welcome Back Days.
Media Contact: Laurie Mellas, (505) 277-5915; e-mail: lmellas@unm.edu
More than 250 Navajo Chapter leaders from throughout the Navajo Nation in New Mexico and Arizona are participating in a special two-day summit meeting on the UNM Gallup campus Aug. 16-17. Navajo President Dr. Joe Shirley, Jr. keynoted the conference.
Photo: Harry Moore Jr. and Leland Leonard
“The purpose of the conference is to develop plans for transferring greater levels of responsibility for managing governmental affairs from the Navajo national government to the 100+ Chapters,” said Harry “Sonny” Moore Jr., UNM-G Community Affairs.
Known as the Local Governance Act, the Navajo Nation passed a law offering greater responsibility to local governments in the Nation provided the local leaders are able to certify that their Chapter is ready to handle the duties.
Members of the Navajo Nation Office of the President have worked closely with UNM Gallup staff leaders to host the event. The two-day event includes plenary sessions and numerous breakout meetings to discuss issues including accounting, human resources and project management. UNM Gallup Community Education specialists, under the leadership of Harry Moore, Jr., have been working with Chapter leaders to offer special training classes that help qualify the Chapter staff for certification.
Leland Leonard, special assistant to President Shirley, said, “The educational partnership between the Navajo Nation and the University of New Mexico Gallup branch is extremely important to our nation. This summit is but another example of how the nation and UNMG are working closely together to bring educational opportunities throughout the Navajo Nation.”
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
If you're on campus Friday night, swing by Johnson Field for the official ceremony to celebrate the new lights that were installed over the summer.
Starting at 10:45 p.m., students will be lead from the SUB through Mesa Vista tunnel and along Redondo Court to Johnson Field, part of which will be lit by the new lighting system installed over the summer.
Teams from the UNM Men's and Women's rugby teams and other student sports teams will be holding scrimmages and practices on the south end of the field, which will be lit by the new lights.
A small balloon glow will be taking place on the darkened north end of the field before the official lighting of the field at 11 p.m.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
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The University of New Mexico Student Affairs Division announces that Jennifer (Jenna) Crabb has been selected as Career Services director.
Crabb brings to the position a successful and progressive background within student affairs, including experience in management and as a diversity issues trainer and presenter. Additionally, she is active with numerous regional and national professional organizations.
Crabb received her bachelor’s and master’s in counseling education from UNM. She is currently pursuing her doctorate of philosophy in counselor education at the university.
Crabb begins her new appointment Aug. 20, 2007.
AIMS@UNM, the unique charter school that launched two years ago, is once again undergoing another improvement as it prepares for the opening of the fall 2007 semester. Under the leadership of Principal Kathy Sandoval Snider, the school will dedicate its new building on the University of New Mexico Campus Friday Aug. 17, at 10 a.m. The school, located at 933 Bradbury S.E., will open its doors to returning 10th and 11th graders and will also extend a welcome to its new sixth and ninth grade classes.
Last year at this time, with the arrival of Sandoval Snider at the school, the charter school changed its name from High Tech High, to the Albuquerque Institute for Mathematics and Science @UNM. The new name more accurately reflected its partnership with the University of New Mexico. Additionally, at that time, a $1.3 million appropriation from Gov. Bill Richardson toward a permanent facility for the school on UNM campus was announced. In recognition, a ribbon cutting and dedication of that facility will occur Friday.
Currently AIMS@UNM is the only high school, charter or otherwise, to be housed on the UNM campus. The school provides a rigorous mathematics and science curriculum to students, requiring all students to attend UNM concurrently during their junior year. The school currently enrolls grades 9-11 and will start a middle school component with sixth graders this fall. Students will be able to take college courses at UNM at no cost to the student, and receive both high school and college credit.
“We have accomplished an incredible amount in the past year” Sandoval Snider said. “This school is unique, because of its partnership with the University of New Mexico and its supportive relationship with the City of Albuquerque, particularly with Mayor Martin Chavez whose vision established the school two years ago. Students here have an incredible opportunity not found anywhere else in the state.
“Here, one can find a rigorous, one of a kind math and science curriculum which will prepare students to compete in the global economy, and at not cost to the student. Students here have the constant message and climate that a four-year degree is in their immediate future.”
Students attending the school must take two years of either Chinese or Japanese language, four years of mathematics and science. Additionally, students must enroll at UNM during their junior year. Upon graduation, students will exceed the graduation standards for the State of New Mexico, and have the potential of completing the equivalent of a full year of college.
“This school is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea,” said Sandoval Snider. “Students who attend AIMS are very motivated, very mature and have a very specific direction toward college.”
Applications are currently being accepted for the schools incoming sixth grade and ninth grade classes. There are limited spDavid Brookshire available in the 10th grade class as well. For more information on the school, go to AIMS@UNM.
For more information contact Sandoval Snider at (505) 459-2860.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The College of Education at the University of New Mexico has received a five-year, $1.5 million federal grant through the U.S. Department of Education designed to train more teachers in strategies to meet the academic needs of English Language Learners or ELL’s. The grant will fund the Academic Literacy for All Project (ALA), which will develop and design activities to improve UNM’s teacher education program, better preparing teachers to provide effective instruction to students with limited English proficiency.
“One of the big problems is that ELLs’ oral language English proficiency outpDavid Brookshire their literacy development,” said Holbrook Mahn, associate professor of Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies (LLSS) in the College of Education, who is the project director for the grant and co-principal investigator with Leroy Ortiz, associate professor, LLSS and director of the Multicultural Education Center.
“While the number of ELL’s has increased, the number of teachers trained in effective instructional strategies to meet their needs has not. The goal of the grant is to train more teachers to help English language learners develop academic literacy, especially at the secondary level,” Mahn added.
“This funding will help provide teachers with the skills they need to help students become proficient in English,” said Sen. Jeff Bingaman.
The high percentage of ELL’s in the state creates a domino effect in relation to students failing in school. According to Mahn, New Mexico has one of the highest percentages of ELL’s in the country. Many of these students fail to reach grade-level proficiency on New Mexico standards-based assessments because of their lack of academic literacy, which also contributes to them failing and dropping out in school.
“They need language and literacy development in their science, math, social studies and language arts classes, but their content teachers have not necessarily been educated in ways to help them,” Mahn said. “A comprehensive and integrated effort is needed to address this problem.”
Mahn and Ortiz have developed five different comprehensive initiatives for the ALA project including: the creation of a professional development summer institute for UNM faculty, Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) and Los Lunas Schools (LLS) classroom teachers and administators; the development of courses and curriculum in UNM programs involved in educating teachers; the creation of professional development teams in APS middle and high schools to educate teachers on fostering ELL’s language and literacy development as they learn content; creation of an Academic Literacy for All web site; and collection of training assessments and data on ALA project initiatives’ influence on APS and LLS ELLs’ academic achievement. Each initiative is designed to build long-term capacity.
The ALA project is comprehensive because of the different populations that influence the instruction the ELL’s will receive. They include UNM faculty being responsible for educating teacher candidates, pre-service teachers, APS and LLS professional development personnel, APS and LLS classroom teachers, and ELL’s in APS and LLS.
Over the duration of the five-year grant, Mahn estimates that 35-40 UNM professors will have attended the ALA summer institute and nearly 1,000 teacher education students will have taken courses influenced by the ALA project.
Approximately 90-100 APS and LLS teachers will have become experienced ALA team leaders for on-site professional development, more than 500 teachers will have participated in ALA activities, and several thousand ELL’s will have taken classes taught by ALA-trained teachers.
Mahn added that he would like to see a “trickle down effect” in regard to academic literacy that ELL’s receive by extending the program to students in grades 3-5. Mahn says the elementary schools could address the academic literacy needs of ELL’s at an earlier age to ensure a higher success rate as they move through middle and high school.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico and the Governing Board of Central New Mexico Community College recently approved a memorandum of agreement to work together to provide higher education, career development, skill development and lifelong learning opportunities for the citizens of New Mexico. This signals a new partnership between New Mexico’s flagship research university and the leading community college in the state.
Photo: CNM President Katharine Winograd and UNM President David J. Schmidly discuss a memorandum of agreement between the two institutions.
As part of the agreement, UNM and CNM will also work together to provide for the higher education needs of Rio Rancho, including jointly establishing a Rio Rancho campus.
“Our bottom line is student success,” said UNM President David J. Schmidly. “Working with CNM, we can provide for the varied needs of New Mexico students while keeping focused on the ultimate goal of seeing they earn a degree.”
“For the state of New Mexico, this is an important and groundbreaking agreement between a university and a community college,” said CNM President Katharine Winograd. “This agreement is focused directly on student success and it will help move higher education in New Mexico in a more progressive and effective direction.”
Among the provisions in the agreement, UNM and CNM will work together to:
* Develop joint initiatives such as 2+2 programs, dual enrollment collaboration and Gateway programs.
* Embrace opportunities for creating seamless enrollment and financial aid processes.
* Provide selected shared services.
* Share data to monitor and address student success issues.
* Develop a schedule of non-duplicated courses to meet the needs of Rio Rancho, with lower division courses offered through CNM and upper division and graduate courses offered by UNM.
* Jointly establish a comprehensive facilities master plan in Rio Rancho and establish a higher education campus. The first instructional building will be built and owned by CNM with planned course offerings from both institutions.
As part of the agreement, the two institutions also commit to supporting each other in upcoming elections in Rio Rancho. UNM will actively support the election to expand CNM’s district to include all of Rio Rancho and CNM will support the gross receipts tax election to be held by UNM in Rio Rancho.
Media Contact: Susan McKinsey, (505) 277-1989; cell: (505) 362-5530; e-mail: mckinsey@unm.edu
University of New Mexico President David J. Schmidly has announced the reorganization of the reporting structure in the Department of Athletics, creating a structure of dual reporting that emphasizes teamwork and transparency. The goal is to build a stronger academic, compliance and financial foundation for Athletics.
“In keeping with my philosophy of teamwork, this revised organization will provide for strong checks and balances and emphasize a culture of openness,” said Schmidly. “ Vice President for Athletics Paul Krebs is totally on board with this. He’s the best athletics administrator I’ve ever had to work with, and he will see that this reorganization is accomplished smoothly and seamlessly.”
President Schmidly also noted that the NCAA advocates this model of institutional governance.
While administration will continue to reside with Athletics, the control of several functions will be under appropriate senior leadership in the university.
* The day-to-day oversight of academic advisement will reside with the appropriate associate athletic director who reports to the Vice President for Athletics. The control of this function will be under the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs.
* The day-to-day administration of the Athletic Department’s business office, budget and technology will reside with the appropriate associate athletic director who reports to the Vice President for Athletics. The control of these functions will be under the Executive Vice President for Administration.
* The compliance office will report directly to the President with periodic communication to the Vice President for Athletics.
“The integration of athletics into the campus community is an important step in helping us reach our goal of being a premier athletic program and a national leader in collegiate athletics,” said Athletics Vice President Paul Krebs. “Perhaps more importantly, this move sends a clear message regarding the role of athletics here at UNM and the critical need to assimilate athletics into the University.”
The revised structure goes into effect immediately.
Individual robots do individual tasks. They don’t work together. They work separately and there’s a reason for that. It hasn’t been done before. In the field of robotics, only recently have researchers started to develop a theoretical framework to allow robots to work and solve problems cooperatively. Scientists are just beginning to understand how to design algorithms that make groups of robots exhibit global collective behaviors from simple, individual actions.
Photo: UNM Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Herbert Tanner
UNM Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Herbert Tanner wants to take this goal one step further. With the help of a $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, he is investigating how different robots can learn how to combine their different capabilities and solve problems that none of them can tackle on their own.
Tanner’s grant is a Faculty Early Career Development award in the field of robotics, provided by the Information and Intelligent Systems Division of the Computer Science and Engineering Directorate of NSF. This is basically a bet by the U.S. government that Tanner and his students will find a way to begin solving some of the very difficult details involved in programming robots so that they can work as a team.
Tanner is currently working with doctoral student Wenqi Zhang to provide an outline that lays out what is not known. Tanner says his work with Zhang on the unknown will show what is missing in the theoretical area.
Zhang is using a simple puzzle - the kind children can slide tiles around on to make a sequence of numbers - as a starting point. She is looking at what it would take for robots to work together to solve the puzzle. For example, how would they move the tiles, how would they choose which tiles to move, how would they go about planning a way to solve the puzzle. As part of her doctoral work, she will list the gaps in scientific theory that would stop the robots from solving the puzzle together.
As the work progresses, Tanner hopes to put together swarms of robots that can act as a team, communicate and allocate tasks among themselves, and sort through possible solutions to find a plan of action and execute a task. Ultimately he believes the robots could be used for applications ranging from search and rescue efforts, where they could be sent into difficult environments to look for people, to autonomous construction of structures in space without human intervention or guidance.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
The University of New Mexico Board of Regents voted Tuesday to support Lobo Energy, Inc. entering into a contract with energy conservation expert Energy Education, Inc. (EEI) to implement an energy conservation program at UNM. When fully realized, this program could potentially save significant amounts of money now dedicated to utility expenses.
According to EEI estimates, UNM could expect projected savings in excess of $50 million over the next 10 years. That’s a 20 percent savings. Under terms of the proposed contract currently being worked out, UNM’s costs to implement the program are guaranteed. Should the university not save enough to cover the costs of implementation, then EEI will refund the difference between savings and costs. According to EEI, the majority of its clients actually exceed projected savings, resulting in larger net savings.
Based on its 21-year history of working with institutions, EEI would implement a comprehensive program aimed at developing a conservation culture at UNM, putting into place standardized best practices and programs that promote responsible energy management among students, faculty and staff.
The program is designed to ensure faculty and students are comfortable during class and scheduled activities, and that energy is used as needed, but not wasted.
“Rising energy costs are a constant drain on University resources. I believe we all have a social obligation to do everything we can to practice conservation,” said UNM President David J. Schmidly. “Money saved on utilities means more funds available down the road for our academic and research enterprise.”
EEI is based in Dallas, Texas. More than 840 public school districts across the United States have used EEI’s proprietary energy conservation program, which according to the company has resulted in an estimated $1.3 billion in cumulative and verified energy savings. Earlier this year, Oklahoma State University and the OSU System became the first higher education institutions to implement EEI’s program.
“Entering into a contract with EEI will clearly support President Schmidly’s signing of the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment,” said Lobo Energy President Steve Beffort. “Our work with EEI will also fit nicely into our overall sustainability initiatives.”
Schmidly was one of the original signatories of Presidents’ Climate Commitment in June.
Media Contact: Susan McKinsey, (505) 277-1989; cell: (505) 362-5530; e-mail: mckinsey@unm.edu
David J. Schmidly will be officially installed as the University of New Mexico’s 20th president during a ceremony Sunday, Oct. 7, at 2:30 p.m. in Popejoy Hall. The public is invited to the ceremony and the reception that follows at University House. Reserved seating tickets will be available at UNM ticket offices Sept. 17.
The ceremony will include a variety of music, an academic procession and the formal installation with participation by the UNM Board of Regents, special guests, students, faculty, staff and alumni organizations. UNM’s tradition of installing or investing presidents dates back to 1912.
The UNM president’s inauguration goes beyond the installation ceremony. A weeklong series of events will showcase UNM’s contributions in the areas of community service, sustainable environments, health policy, research and innovation, athletics, arts and culture. The theme is “Connect,” which illustrates President Schmidly’s commitment to build and enhance connections between the University and communities.
Activities kick off on Friday, Sept. 28, in the Student Union Building ballrooms with the symposia “40 Years of Community Activism: 1967-2007, Civil Rights Reform, Then and Now.” Henry Cisneros, current chairman of CityView Housing and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, will deliver the inaugural address “The 1967 Cabinet Committee Hearings on Mexican American Affairs & Civil Rights Reform: 40 Years Later.”
Other symposia (locations/times to be announced) include:
· Monday, Oct. 1
Sustainable Environment: Connecting Cultures and Nature in the 21st Century
· Tuesday, Oct. 2
Educating for Innovation
· Wednesday, Oct. 3
Connecting the Arts, Humanities and the Social Conscience
· Thursday, Oct. 4
Creating Health Policy to Connect and Improve Community Health
· Friday, Oct. 5
Connecting Athletics & Academics
Campus-wide receptions for faculty, staff and students will be held throughout the week: on main campus Wednesday, Oct. 3, from 3 to 5 p.m. at University House; and at the Health Sciences Center Thursday, Oct. 4, from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. on Domenici Plaza.
A retiree reception will be held Thursday, Oct. 4, from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at the Science and Technology Park Rotunda.
On Saturday, Oct. 6 ~ 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
UNM will host “Explore UNM,” a campus-wide open house for prospective and current students and their families. Schools, colleges, departments and disciplines will showcase their facilities and programs.
Hands-on activities, demonstrations, student research, performance, exhibitions, lectures and workshops for parents and students are among activities planned.
For more information, and to participate or volunteer, visit the inauguration Web site, President Schmidly's Inauguration.
Students interested in working on campus will have an opportunity to meet with UNM department and program representatives during the first annual UNM Student Job Fair Friday, Aug. 24, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Duck Pond.
Departments with student job openings are encouraged to participate. The goal of this event is to promote student employment opportunities and encourage students to be more connected with campus through the UNM job experience.
Departments can register to participate at the Career Services Web site, Career Services.
The fair is sponsored by the Graduation Task Force Student Engagement Initiative and UNM’s Career Services.
Media Contact: Laurie Mellas, (505) 277-5915; e-mail: lmellas@unm.edu
The final Summer Staff Appreciation Concert will be at noon, Friday, August 17, featuring the band Jasper. Come celebrate the last Friday before the start of classes at UNM.
Photo: Jasper will perform at UNM on Friday, Aug. 17.
Concerts are held at the Modern Sculpture, near the SUB and Johnson Center. Seating in the shade is available. Bring your lunch and enjoy the sounds of Jasper, a trio of veteran Albuquerque musicians who perform cool rock & roll, New Orleans-inspired material and more.
Members are Terry Bluhm, bass; Frank McCulloch Jr., guitar and banjo and Jefferson Vorhees, drums. Jasper is sure to get your feet tapping.
Concerts are presented by UNM Staff Council and the Work + Life Committee and are made possible through funding provided by the Office of Institutional Advancement.
Come join the fun and be appreciated!
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
University Libraries recently hosted a celebration to recognize the role that UNM Information Technology Services and High Performance Computing Center have played in creating an infrastructure that ensures University Libraries services will still be available even in the event of disaster. All library servers are located in the ITS building and a duplicate set of servers is located across campus at the HPC building.
The first phase was the relocation UL servers to ITS, which put the UL’s electronic services out of harm’s way when Zimmerman Library was heavily damaged by a basement fire during finals week of the Spring 2006 semester. The fire occurred within 150 feet of the former location of the library servers. Library electronic services were never interrupted and were available to students during and after the disaster.
The system supports elibrary.unm.edu, eReserves, interlibrary loan, the Rocky Mountain Online Archive and content housed on dspace and CONTENTdm such as Himalayan Journal of Development and Democracy, the Robb Musical Archive, and the Latin American political poster collections.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Engineering graduate student Elise Switzer and her advisor Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Professor Abhaya Datye have returned from a professional workshop on Heterogeneous Catalysis and Surface Chemistry conducted at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics is Dalian, China.
Photo: UNM Engineering graduate student Elise Switzer and Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Professor Abhaya Datye in Dalian, China.
The conference focused on heterogeneous catalysis, which plays a central role in all chemical conversions. Catalysis is so pervasive in modern day chemistry that it is estimated that 60 percent of today’s chemical products and 90 percent of current chemical processes are based on catalytic chemical synthesis.
An example of a heterogeneous catalyst we use every day is our car’s catalytic converter which takes toxic pollutants caused by combustion such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen monoxide and hydrocarbons and quickly converts them to harmless gases like carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.
The process is so central to modern day chemistry that it is widely estimated that 60 percent of today’s chemical products and 90 percent of current chemical processes are based on catalytic chemical synthesis.
Switzer, who received a scholarship to attend the workshop, presented her research on “Nanostructured Catalysts for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells.” Datye gave an invited lecture on the “Dynamics and Mobility of Nanoparticles in Heterogeneous Catalysts.” The workshop also included presentations from American and Chinese scientists representing both public and private institutional research.
“The U.S. China workshop provided a unique opportunity for us to see first hand some of their capabilities in science and technology,” said Datye. “We came back truly impressed by their infrastructure and scope of research being conducted at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics. The visit will pave the way for future collaborations.”
Following the workshop, students from the Partnership for International Research and Education (PIRE) Electron Chemistry and Catalysis at InterfDavid Brookshire (ECCI) program of the University of Santa Barbara led a tour to business and industrial regions of Shanghai and Beijing. The tour featured technology centered corporations including Microsoft, Kodak, BASF, General Electric, Accelergy and the Beijing office of the National Science Foundation.
The PIRE program of the National Science Foundation aims to enrich global experiences in interdisciplinary research for U.S. students.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
The Research Study Group (RSG) was charged recently by the Provost to review and make recommendations for improvement of all aspects of main-campus research administration. The RSG has submitted its final report to the Provost. It is available to the campus community (UNM NetID required) at: Research Study Group.
"Our study drew on input from the entire main-campus research community and makes recommendations for substantive changes in the structure of the Office of Vice President for Research and in the organization, resources, and culture of pre- and post-award sponsored-project administration," said Professor Carlton Caves, RSG chair. "UNM's senior administration has responded favorably to our report, and we now are sharing it with the campus community."
The RSG will present a summary of its findings and recommendations at a faculty/staff forum, to be held 2 to 3:30 p.m., Friday, Aug. 24, in the Roberts Room (Scholes Hall).
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico is pleased announce its annual Back to School Barbeque and Club Daze. The event will be held Wednesday, Aug. 29, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Anderson Student Center. The event will showcase student organizations at the Anderson School currently recruiting students as new club members.
Students who attend can learn how joining student organizations can increase opportunities to meet other students and faculty in their chosen fields, to network with business professionals, and to develop teamwork and leadership skills.
The event is free and open to the public.
Media Contacts: Leslie Venzuela, (505) 277-7117; e-mail: venzuela@mgt.unm.edu or Erin Gardner, (505) 505-306-9575; e-mail: news@mgt.unm.edu
Helen Padilla is the new director of The American Indian Law Center, Inc. (AILC). Padilla is a native New Mexican from the Pueblo of Isleta and a 1997 graduate of the University of New Mexico School of Law and brings a strong and varied background in Native American legal issues to her new position.
Photo: Helen Padilla, director, The American Indian Law Center, Inc.
“I look forward to building on the programs and services at the American Indian Law Center, to provide more legal training to tribes and to continue furthering the development of Indian Law nationwide,” Padilla said.
Before joining the American Indian Law Center, Padilla served as the general counsel and tax administrator for the Pueblo of Tesuque where she helped establish a Tax and Revenue Department in addition to providing legal counsel.
Previously she had been appointed by Gov. Bill Richardson as general counsel for the New Mexico Indian Affairs Department, where she strove to improve relationships between tribal governments and state agencies.
While at the agency, she worked to streamline the process for administering capital outlay funds for tribes, helped form tribal-state work groups on taxation issues, negotiated intergovernmental agreements with tribes and established tribal consultation policies that require state agencies.
Padilla is a graduate of the American Indian Law Center’s Pre-Law Summer Institute program – an intensive, two-month program to prepare Native American and Alaska Native students for the rigors of law school by recreating the first semester of law school.
She also served as a teaching assistant for the program in 1995. Padilla also earned her Indian Law Certificate while attending UNM Law School.
Prior to entering the UNM School of Law, Padilla had earned her bachelor’s degree and her master’s in business administration at the University of New Mexico.
Currently, Padilla serves on the Board of Directors for the Indian Law Section of the New Mexico State Bar and is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna Gaming Control Board.
The American Indian Law Center celebrated its 40th anniversary this year and is the oldest-existing Native American controlled and operated legal and public policy organization in the United States.
The AILC began at the UNM School of Law and has continued to run its programs from offices at the school, even after it became an independent non-profit organization in 1976.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
“Red or green?” is New Mexico’s state question. Most know that chile peppers are a major New Mexico crop. What other crops is New Mexico geography especially suited for? And how do you prepare it, once you’ve grown it? Come celebrate Sustainable Foods with the KNME Science Café at the Rio Grande Botanic Garden, in the Education Building on Saturday, Aug. 18 from 10 a.m. to noon.
Admission is free, but reservations are required and are limited to the first 75 people. Call 848-7180 to reserve your spot.
Learn about the journey of food from-field-to-plate, discover the diversity of crops that can be grown in New Mexico, and talk with a chef about preparing delicious dishes from the local harvest at “Growing Sustainable & Diverse Foods in New Mexico” at KNME’s tenth “Science Café,” presented with support from New Mexico Tech and Lockheed Martin/Sandia National Labs.
KNME-TV presents a new kind of café, a Science Café. Six or more times a year KNME hosts a Science Café at various locations. The concept is to show clips from an episode of Nova scienceNOW or a comparable program, with an expert on hand to answer questions, and have an open discussion with the audience in a cafe style atmosphere. Take part - or listen to the discussion. It’s fun, it’s casual, it’s laid back...
On August 18, watch “Lab Meat,” a short TV segment from an episode of the PBS national series Nova scienceNow, which looks at how scientists can grow edible meat from a few animal cells.
Participants can then take part in a discussion with local experts about sustainable food. Experts include Chef John McCrary, CHM, CFM, asst. general manager Shark Reef Café (Albuq. Biopark) Isaura Andaluz, co-leader, Slow Food Rio Grande Convivium (beekeeper, grower and advocate for local foods and farmers)
This edition of KNME Science Café is presented in conjunction with Rio Grande Botanic Garden’s Sustainable Food Festival, kicking off Friday, Aug. 17.
For more information call: (505) 277-1218 or (505) 848-7180.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales (505) 277-5920; email cgonzal@unm.edu
Dr. Cheryl Willman was recently elected, by her peer group of other NCI Cancer Center Directors in the nation, to the Board of Directors of the American Association of Cancer Institutes. This board is the national governing body of the NCI Center Directors and those institutions in the process of attempting to gain NCI Designation, with about 80 institutional members. Willman will serve a three-year term beginning in October.
The honor is significant for Willman and UNM alike because it will lead to important involvement in national cancer issues in Washington D.C. with both NCI and the U.S. Congress.
“Dr. Willman's election to the Board of Directors of the American Association of Cancer Institutes represents her well deserved outstanding reputation as a leader in cancer treatment and research and that of our world-class faculty and staff at the Cancer Research and Treatment Center," said Paul Roth, Executive Vice President for HSC, Dean UNM School of Medicine.
Willman has also been asked to present how UNM/New Mexico achieved NCI designation and give an overview of our programs and strategic plans to AACI meeting in October and the NCI Board of Advisors this September. For more information on AACI http://www.aaci-cancer.org/ab_fact.asp?navid=1&pid=12
University of New Mexico sign language students recently spent several weeks in Siena, Italy, learning Italian Sign Language and learning about Italian culture.
Photo: Four UNM undergraduate students from the sign language interpreting program attended. From left are are Amanda La Prelle, Vicki Brown, Errol Bennett and Shelley Collins. Also pictured on far right is a student from Gallaudet University.
"The students attended the Siena School for Liberal Arts and took classes from their faculty," said Sherman Wilcox, chair of the linguistics department, the UNM department where sign language resides.
The program was not exclusively for UNM students, but also included others from Gallaudet University, Purdue and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, among others.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The Jonson Gallery will present the opening reception for “At First Sight, Incoming Graduate Students in the Department of Art and Art History” on Friday, Sept. 7, 5-7 p.m. The exhibit introduces the newest crop of diverse, talented artists to join UNM’s world- class fine arts program.
Image: Echo Creek by Beau Timothy Carey
On Tuesday, Sept. 18 at 5:30 p.m. the gallery will hold a panel discussion with the participating artists.
The show runs Sept. 7-Oct. 5 and is free and open to the public. For more information visit www.unm.edu/~jonsong.
Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1593; e-mail: michal@unm.edu
Albuquerque Reads is seeking volunteers to tutor incoming kindergarteners at three Albuquerque Public Schools. Volunteers contribute one hour per week to prepare students to enter first grade reading at or above grade level, working one-on-one with the same two students throughout the school year.
Over the last four years, the Albuquerque Reads program has demonstrated success. Following the 2006-2007 school year, test results showed Reads students finishing the year with 81 percent of students reading at or above grade level, compared with 38 percent before the implementation of Albuquerque Reads.
Albuquerque Reads is a partnership between APS and the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce. Contact Nena Perkin at 764-3736 or nperkin@abqchamber.com for information and enrollment forms.
Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1593; e-mail: michal@unm.edu
Staff Members at University Libraries are putting together a quilt that will allow them to put the turbulent feelings they have about the fire in the basement of Zimmerman Library last year into a work of art. About 30 staff members are involved so far. The quilt will include images of books designed and created by staff members, flame images and will have actual photographs of the aftermath of the fire printed onto part of the fabric borders.
The corner blocks will commemorate the subject areas with the greatest losses - African-American Studies, Asian Studies, Pre-Columbian History, and Native American Studies.
The fire, which damaged many shelves of journals in the basement of Zimmerman, dislocated more than 100 staff members. Many were given temporary space in other UNM Libraries, while waiting for their offices to be cleaned and repaired. Some are still waiting for office space in the rebuilt basement.
Construction is underway now in the Zimmerman basement, which is scheduled to reopen to students in time for the spring 2008 semester. Project organizer Raelynn Richardson says they hope to have the completed quilt ready in time for the reopening.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
United States Senator Jeff Bingaman visited the University of New Mexico recently to talk about recently passed legislation that makes higher education more affordable and accessible to New Mexicans. The Higher Education Access Act of 2007, which passed on July 24, makes Pell Grants available to students year round so they can attend during the summer and finish college earlier.
It simplifies the financial aid form (FAFSA) each student must complete, provides loan forgiveness as well as scholarships and fellowships, and it removes barriers for students with disabilities and students with limited English proficiency to qualify for financial aid.
“I believe these changes will address the rising costs of college, and make it much easier for New Mexico students to navigate the financial aid process and qualify for financial assistance,” Bingaman said.
UNM President David Schmidly applauded Bingaman’s efforts and said that UNM has as a priority to recruit and retain students and to see them graduate. “We also want to graduate more minority students in graduate programs so that we can hire more minority faculty,” he said.
Gabriel Chacon, an undergraduate student in mechanical engineering, talked about the hardships he faced coming from rural Northern New Mexico to UNM.
“Without Pell Grants I would not have been able to pay my rent, buy food or have transportation. With the grants I didn’t have to worry about finances and I could focus on school,” he said.
Bernadine Hernandez, a graduate student in English, said that financial assistance allowed her to pursue a graduate degree after earning an undergraduate degree thanks to the Lottery Scholarship.
“There was no realistic way for me to continue my education without being in a financial crisis…I was able to obtain a master’s degree because I received a teaching assistantship. While getting paid a stipend to teach English classes, I was able to hold a graduate assistantship in the office of the Associate Vice President for Government and Community Relations to pay my bills. I am truly blessed to have obtained such great opportunities here at UNM,” she said.
Bingaman and other bill supporters likened this legislation to the GI Bill. Senator Edward Kennedy wrote, “Historians credit the GI Bill with creating the American middle class and modernizing America…It is estimated that for every dollar invested by the GI Bill, our country received seven dollars in return.
“This bill…ensure[s] that federally subsidized student loan programs put students’ interests first. The Higher Education Access Act of 2007 will provide more than $17 billion to help students and families pay for college,” he wrote.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Several UNM departments are involved in the initiative
In a large urban center like Albuquerque, it’s easy to forget that many parts of the world – and the state – lack access to basic resources taken for granted in city life. Internet to the Hogans (ITTH) is a movement to bridge that gap by connecting northwest New Mexico to the Internet and digital television, expanding access to services like distance education and telehealth.
Photo: Navajo Nation Council Delegate Leonard Tsosie (center) shows an elder and youth from ToHajiilee how to access the Internet for distance learning and telehealth.
“It’s a movement to close the digital divide in Native American communities,” said Colleen Keane of the UNM Institute for American Indian Education.
In 2005, then-Senator and current Navajo Nation Council Delegate Leonard Tsosie decided to bring together representatives of the Navajo Nation, technology corporations, universities and national labs to address the digital divide in northwest New Mexico. Keane helped him arrange a gathering at Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint, where ITTH was born.
The “Hogan Heroes,” as Keane calls them, bring together complimentary resources to form a holistic information technology plan – from communications infrastructure to the services it will deliver – linked with the broader Navajo Nation IT plan spanning Arizona and Utah as well as New Mexico.
Casting the ’Net across northwest N.M.
The first step for ITTH is building a backbone of communications technology. Once in place, that backbone will spread through a wireless canopy to bring service to homes and hogans, traditional Navajo dwellings.
UNM Information Technology Services is helping Navajo Technical College to get connected to LamdaRail, an ultra-high-speed network serving universities and research organizations. Navajo Technical College is erecting a tower to establish a point to point wireless connection with the Albuquerque GigaPop, New Mexico’s onramp to LambdaRail.
“They’re leapfrogging in technology,” said ITS Director Moira Gerety, pointing out that the Navajo Nation is building its own infrastructure with newer, more cost effective technology.
The Center for High Performance Computing is consulting with Navajo Technical College on developing cyber-infrastructure and high performance computing projects. “I really like the idea of having a technical school bring technology to the local community,” said UNM Chief Information Officer Barney Maccabe.
ITTH is also expanding access to digital television. One goal is to produce Navajo language programming. Through a signal sent by KNME, the Ramah Navajo community is one of the first native communities in the United States to receive digital public television. One day, Council Delegate Tsosie would like to see PBS’s Big Bird speak Navajo to help Navajo children become fluent in both the Navajo and English languages.
Content, the key ingredient
“It’s not about the Internet. It’s about the services you can provide on the Internet,” Gerety said. UNM can supply some of those services – particularly telehealth and distance education.
Telehealth uses communication technologies to provide health care, information and training at a distance. Center for Telehealth Medical Director Dale Alverson has been consulting with Navajo Nation telecommunications officials on how to best serve their specific health needs.
One priority area is behavioral health, especially for returning veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and for suicide prevention among adolescents. Alverson said that virtual counseling through two-way video “gives that sense of presence as if you were physically face-to-face.” Other priorities that can be addressed through telehealth include diabetes, substance abuse and Alzheimer’s.
Through Extended University, UNM will make distance education available to Navajo communities, including online and interactive television courses. In addition, the Institute for American Indian Education is providing e-mentoring to New Mexico Native American teachers and pre-service teachers with the support of a grant from the New Mexico Public Education Department.
Benefits for UNM
With so many services – from admissions applications to course registration – moving online, Internet access is virtually a prerequisite for access to higher education. As ITTH plans develop, UNM will have greater opportunities to reach potential students.
“We have looked at utilizing this technology and network as a means to expose more students to health careers, and a mechanism to prepare students for those fields as well through electronic education,” said Gayle Diné-Chacon of the Center for Native American Health.
Ken Van Brott of the Extended University Gallup Center said that he sees ITTH as an opportunity to build partnerships with Diné College and Navajo Technical College. The extension of wireless connections through northwest New Mexico will also directly benefit the campus by providing access to LambdaRail.
Hogan Heroes come to UNM Aug. 15
The University Libraries Indigenous Nations Library Program will host the next ITTH meeting at Zimmerman Library, Willard room on Aug. 15. To participate, RSVP to Colleen Keane at (505) 379-3315 or ckeane@unm.edu.
Photo credit: Colleen Keane
Do you want to impact wellness on campus?
UNM's senior leadership is committed to support your best wellness ideas. Do you have a great idea for a group wellness effort? If so, these efforts should be designed to impact the wellness culture at UNM or be a specific program like a walking group, wellness lounge, or some other group oriented project. If you are interested in learning more, plan to attend an Employee Health and Promotion Program information session to learn more about the application and mini grant writing process on Aug. 15 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the Student Union Building Lobo rooms A and B.
If you are unable to attend, e-mail ehpp@unm.edu with the subject line stating Mini-Grant, and information will be provided to you after the event.
For more intformation contact Eli Maurx via e-mail at, emaurx@unm.edu or by telephone at, 272-4460.
Jason Scott Smith, assistant professor of history at the University of New Mexico recently received the American Public Works Association Abel Wolman Award, presented annually to recognize the best new book published in the field of public works history. The title of Smith’s award-winning book is “Building New Deal Liberalism: The Political Economy of Public Works, 1933-1956” (Cambridge University Press, 2006). It covers the history of New Deal public policy regarding construction of public works projects.
Smith said, “The book deals with a side of the New Deal often neglected by historians. I hope the book will raise awareness about how the authority of the federal government can be used to transform the nation’s landscape, economy and politics.”
The APWA selection committee found Smith’s book notable both for its ambition and scope, and for the depth and quality of the historical research underlying its conclusions. According to the committee, Smith made a major contribution both to public works history as well as the broader history of the United States during the 20th century.
Established in 1987, the Abel Wolman Award provides encouragement and recognition to historians whose research and publications contribute generously to the body of public works history. Smith was selected by a committee of public works professionals and scholars.
Smith completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. Before joining the UNM faculty he held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard and Cornell. Smith has authored articles and essays for publications including USA Today, Reviews in American History, Journal of Social History, Pacific Historical Review and Journal of Interdisciplinary History.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The Initiatives for Minority Student Development (IMSD), Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) & Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) Programs will host their 2007 Student Research Symposium from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 9, at the University of New Mexico.
These programs provide biomedical research opportunities to UNM undergraduate students, as they prepare for successful admission to Ph.D. Programs. IMSD and MARC are funded through the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the University of New Mexico Office of Research.
Thirty-two students will present on a wide array of topics including students Antonio Abeyta, who is investigating the role homologous recombination proteins involved in the repair of damaged DNA, genome stabilization and malignant tumor suppression; Alexandria Bachicha who is studying factors affecting predisposition towards Post Traumatic Stress Disorder using a mouse model; Christine Chee, who is investigating the functional genomics of sexual development in the fungus, Neurospora crassa; and Marco Terrezas, who is searching for new antibiotics produced by microorganisms found in the caves of New Mexico.
For more information contact Roxanne Candelaria-Ley at, 277-0884 or roxcley@unm.edu.
University of New Mexico Libraries will present Revisioning Tradition, which features serigraph prints by Rafael López Castro, one of the leading graphic designers working in Mexico City today, and digital prints by renowned Chicana artist Delilah Montoya, a native Texan, Master of Arts graduate of UNM’s Department of Art and Art History, and professor of Photography and Digital Media at the University of Houston. The exhibit opens Aug. 13 and runs through Dec. 14 in the gallery of the Center for Southwest Research on the ground floor of Zimmerman Library at UNM.
The works by López Castro are recent acquisitions for Special Collections in the CSRW. Montoya’s works are on temporary loan by the artist for this exhibit. Although the artists work in different media, their work is united by their interest in drawing traditional Mexican and Chicana/o iconography, events and concepts such as the Virgin of Guadalupe, Benito Juárez, Emiliano Zapata, pre-Columbian motifs, the Spanish/Indian encounter, or mestizaje (miscegenation) into a contemporary setting and dialogue.
Montoya will give a lecture on “Guadalupe en piel” on Nov. 20, 2007 at 3 p.m. in the Willard Reading Room in Zimmerman Library. That will be followed by the reception in the CSWR gallery.
The exhibit is sponsored by the Center for Regional Studies, CSWR, and the Division of Iberian and Latin American Resources, and it is being curated by CRS Post-Doctoral Fellow Teresa Eckmann. For more information about the exhibit, please contact Teresa Eckmann at (505) 277-1010 or Eckmann@unm.edu.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy at the University of New Mexico hosts an informal lunch and discussion of HIV/AIDS policy on Tuesday, Aug. 7, from noon-1:30 p.m. For more information or to RSVP, please contact the RWJF Center at 277-0130 or rwjf@unm.edu. The event will be held in Anthropology room 178, is free and open to anyone interested in HIV/AIDS policy or health policy. Lunch will be provided to those who RSVP.
Photo: Antonia Villarruel to be guest speaker.
The discussion features Antonia Villarruel the 2007-08 Carter Fleck Visiting Professor of Nursing at UNM. Villarruel is the Nola J. Pender Collegiate Chair in Health Promotion and director of the Center for Health Promotion at the University of Michigan School of Nursing in Ann Arbor.
On faculty at the University of Michigan since 2000, she also served on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in health promotion and risk reduction at the University of Michigan.
An award-winning teacher and researcher, Villarruel was inducted into the Michigan Nurses Hall of Fame and listed in the “Top Latinas in Health and Sciences” by Hispanic Magazine in 2004. Villarruel’s current research focuses on HIV/AIDS prevention and risk reduction among Latino youth.
The RWJF Center for Health Policy at UNM seeks to encourage greater ethnic and racial representation in the national health policy dialogue. The Center accomplishes this by providing educational opportunities for doctoral students in the social sciences at UNM; increasing awareness about the need for greater ethnic diversity in US health policy decision-making; and conducting independent research and supporting a national research agenda that promotes a better understanding of health issues, including access, cost, and health care quality to inform the policy debate.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The University of New Mexico welcomes to campus incoming freshmen and their families during Freshman Family Day, Sunday, Aug. 19, at 4 p.m. The event kicks off the 2007-08 academic year, providing students and parents with an opportunity to meet faculty, administrators and fellow students. Freshmen participate in a class crawl and receive free tee-shirts.
Activities for all ages include a picnic with live music, parent information table, slam poets, Brazilian martial artists, Jazz quartet, kids' double slide and jumper. An original Batmobile will be on display.
Due to renovation work in Popejoy Hall, in lieu of a formal convocation, festivities will be held at the UNM duck pond and at University House, where President David J. Schmidly will welcome attendees.
“UNM expects to partner with families from freshman day through graduation day. I look forward to meeting our talented incoming class on the eve of my first academic year as president. It’s a significant time for the university, students, parents and for me, personally,” Schmidly said.
Incoming students are asked to visit the Family Freshman Day Web site to register to participate by Thursday, Aug. 16, Freshman Family Day. Check the site for parking and other event-related information.
Media Contact: Laurie Mellas, (505) 277-5915; e-mail: lmellas@unm.edu
Old mark shattered by more than $24 million
The University of New Mexico and the University of New Mexico Foundation established a new institution benchmark for fundraising, topping $72 million for the first time in the university’s history. UNM exceeded its previous mark by raising more than $72.2 million for fiscal year 2006-07, an increase of more than $24 million from last fiscal year’s then-record $48.6 million. The number of donors also increased to more than 19,500 donors, up from nearly 18,000 donors last year.
The UNM Foundation, Inc. is an incorporated not-for-profit organization with the responsibility to receive, invest and distribute gifts of private support to UNM. Gifts raised by the foundation help support student scholarships, initiatives to help students volunteer in the community, funds for new construction and renovation, and support for faculty and course development.
“This is a remarkable achievement,” said UNM President David J. Schmidly. “UNM has ambitious goals focused on student success, which will only be reached with the help of our donors."
“The entire Foundation Board is so pleased that we’ve achieved our goals this year,” said UNM Foundation chair Thelma Domenici. “This is just the beginning of things to come.”
The funds came from a variety of sources including 37 percent from foundations, 20 percent each from corporations and friends, 16 percent from other organizations and seven percent from alumni.
“Our amazing fundraising success was a total team effort-bottom up and top down,” said Pam Hurd-Knief, interim associate vice president for Development, Institutional Advancement. “From the frontline fundraisers to our gift processors, the UNM Foundation Board to our research staff; the field and UNM Central Office staff worked together to achieve the $72.2 million. We not only grew our goal, we significantly grew the number of donors and widened the variety of areas those donors supported.”
Foundation Board officers include: Thelma Domenici, chair; Gary Gordon, vice chair/chair-elect; Judith Lavender, national vice-chair; and Anne Yegge, secretary; Michael Kingan, president of the UNM Foundation and vice president of Institutional Advancement, David Harris, treasurer and David J. Schmidly, UNM president, as officers on the Board of Directors.
The UNM Foundation office can be reached by calling (505) 277-4503 or by going to the UNM home page at, http://www.unm.edu.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
In the fourth week of the Great Campus Cleanup campaign, members from the Physical Plant, Surplus Property Department, Housing, Safety and Risk Services, and the University Archivist will visit the following buildings on Friday, August 3:
Ortega Hall – 402 Yale Blvd. NE
Humanities building – 400 Yale Blvd. NE
Woodward Hall – 300 Yale Blvd. NE
Center for Environmental Research, Informatics & Art Building
If you have items that might be of interest to the University Archivist, please contact unmarchv@unm.edu or call 277-5707.
If you have further questions, contact the UNM Physical Plant Department at 277-2421.
Mickey Byrd, manager of the Management Development Center (MDC) at the Anderson School at UNM, has been chosen as one of the participants in this year’s “Leadership Albuquerque” class.
“This is a highly selective program, so it’s a real honor for Mickey,” said Interim Dean Amy Wohlert. “It’s also an honor and benefit for Anderson, since it gives us a great chance, through Mickey, to communicate with our community.”
The Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce Leadership Albuquerque program was developed more than 25 years ago to enhance the skills and enrich the understanding of current as well as aspiring volunteer community leaders. Each year, nearly 50 people are chosen for the program, all of whom have demonstrated their willingness to give their time and effort in working for Albuquerque.
Leadership Albuquerque brings together emerging leaders from across the community to participate in the projects and interactions that result in a shared vision for the greater Albuquerque area. The program, designed for mid to senior level executives from the private, public and voluntary sectors of Albuquerque, is eight months long.
Media Contacts: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu or Erin Gardner, (505) 505-306-9575; e-mail: news@mgt.unm.edu
Kimberly Gauderman, associate professor of history and director of the Latin American Studies Program, presented a keynote address at the Colonial Americas Studies Organization (CASO) conference, organized by Georgetown University and the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. In her address, titled "Dos Mujeres, Una Ciudad: Herencias Modernas en la Historia Colonial" ("Two Women, One City: Modern Legacies in Colonial History"), Gauderman focused on the limitations of using modern gender paradigms for interpreting the past by discussing the issue of domestic violence in colonial and modern times.
“Surprising to some, research shows that women had greater legal recourse in their confrontations with violent spouses in seventeenth-century Quito than they had in modern Ecuador until domestic violence was criminalized in 1995,” she said.
Other invited speakers from the US included Stuart Schwartz and Rolena Adorno, both from Yale University, and Tom Cummins, from the University of Chicago.
“This was such a wonderful experience and I felt very honored to represent the University of New Mexico at an event that drew participants from Europe, Latin America and the United States,” she said. Gauderman was able to connect with scholars from around the world and represent UNM’s commitment to Latin American scholarship.
“I was able to promote UNM’s status as the premier Research I university serving Hispanic populations, and our desire to strengthen our connections to Latin American universities and scholars,” she said.
She added, “The quality of Latin American scholarship at UNM is internationally recognized. In my discussions with scholars and administrators from various universities, I was reminded, yet again, that UNM plays an important role in strengthening and promoting Latin American scholarship across the globe.”
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Four business leaders have joined the Foundation of the University of New Mexico’s Anderson School of Management. They are: Ed Kraft, CEO, Zia Trust, Inc.; Gopal Rao, Director, Fab/Sort Manufacturing Research, Intel Corporation; Sherri Wells, Publisher, New Mexico Business Weekly and Tim With, Senior VP, Principal of Grubb & Ellis/New Mexico.
The newest Executive Committee member is Dave Gifford, Treasurer Chair of the Finance Committee and partner of Grant Thornton LLP.
The Anderson School Foundation Board is comprised of area business leaders who provide direction and support to the Anderson School of Management. In addition to serving in an advisory capacity to the Dean, the Board sponsors the annual Hall of Fame awards and generates resources for Anderson’s nationally recognized programs in business education.
Media Contacts: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu or Erin Gardner, (505) 505-306-9575; e-mail: news@mgt.unm.edu