Geologist Fraser Goff, author of Valles Caldera: A Geologic History, will be at the UNM Bookstore on Friday, April 17, at noon to discuss and sign copies of his book. The Valles Caldera in New Mexico’s Jemez Mountains, with its large collapsed crater and active geothermal system, has long attracted researchers from around the world. The UNM Bookstore is located at 2301 Central Ave. NE at the intersection of Cornell and Central.
In the 1880s, explorer John Wesley Powell first described Jemez Mountain volcanism, and from the mid 1990s on, the Valles Caldera has been a focus for environmental, ecological, and climate change research.
Surprisingly, until Goff, no one had written a geologic history of the Valles Caldera and its environs. Goff reviews the geologic and geothermal history of the caldera, offers insights into the area’s pre-caldera geology, and acts as a guide for field trips around the Jemez Mountains. The book contains more than 60 color photographs of rocks and minerals and examples of geological processes that adventurers and scientists alike will appreciate.
Commissioned by the board of the Valles Caldera National Preserve, the body that manages the Valles Caldera, Goff’s book provides a readable scientific overview of this remarkable natural wonder, during a time when its preservation and governance is under question and in the news. For more than a century, the caldera was held safe within the 89,000-acre Baca Ranch, but now some environmentalists question whether the preserve should be managed by the National Park Service.
Fraser Goff (B.S., San Jose State; Ph.D., University of California-Santa Cruz) is retired from the U.S. Geological Survey and from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). He is now an adjunct professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of New Mexico. While at LANL, Goff conducted research on more than 40 geothermal systems and fifteen active volcanoes worldwide. Dr. Goff has spent 30 years working in or near the Jemez Mountains and Valles Caldera.
For those attending the event, parking will be validated in the parking structure for up to one hour with purchase. Please call Lisa Walden at 505-277-7494 for more information.
The University of New Mexico Press has announced a two-part reorganization plan. Part one results in downsizing the Press’s editorial and marketing staffs by three people by the end of April. Part two calls for soliciting proposals to outsource the Press’s order fulfillment operations, including warehousing, shipping, receiving, customer service, invoicing, returns processing and accounts receivables.
The outsourcing initiative could affect nine full and part time university employees and three student employees. No time line for completing the second part of the plan has been established and no decision to outsource has been made.
According to Press Director Luther Wilson, the decision to reorganize was a difficult one to make but is the result of forces in the marketplace that have affected both university presses and commercial publishers alike. “Over the past year and a half, the Press has experienced a significant reduction in sales income. With no direct subsidy from the university or state, the Press must cover its operating expenses through sales and occasional outside funding for new books but, in the current recession, that’s not happening.”
According to Wilson in the last 18 months, “The Press has pruned its non salary operating expenses to the point where there is little or no place left to realize savings without impacting our ability to acquire, publish and market quality books. The ultimate goal of the reorganization and outsourcing is to preserve the fundamental mission of the Press, which is to publish works of scholarly, intellectual or creative merit, often for a small audience of specialists.”
Because of staff reductions in editorial and marketing, the Press plans to cut the number of new titles it publishes from more than 80 a year to about 60, which is more in line with today’s economy. Wilson stated that every effort will be made to absorb displaced employees into other university job openings.
Outsourcing the Press’s order fulfillment functions is being looked at because it allows costs to fluctuate with sales. If sales go up, costs go up but if sales go down like in the current economy costs also go down. The purpose of soliciting proposals is to determine if outsourcing is more cost effective than the Press’s current in house operations.
Outsourcing order fulfillment is becoming more and more common among university presses with approximately 60 presses or about half of the members of The Association of American University Presses already having taken this step. There are a number of providers of order fulfillment services today including the Chicago Distribution Center, an entity under the University of Chicago Press and Hopkins Fulfillment Services, an arm of the Johns Hopkins University Press.
A number of university presses have also partnered to form regional consortia to provide order fulfillment services. These providers charge a percentage of sales for their services and, because of their size, generally have more clout in the marketplace than individual presses. Outsourcing also takes advantage of economies of scale and investment in new technologies.
In addition to its own books, the Press also provides order fulfillment services for approximately 30 client publishers, including the Museum of New Mexico Press, the New Mexico Magazine, West End Press, La Alameda Press, Fresco Fine Art Publications and Maxwell Museum of Anthropology.
Client publishers are an important source of income for the Press and that will be taken into account when evaluating the pros and cons of outsourcing. According to Wilson, if the decision is made to outsource the Press’s order fulfillment functions, the Press will work with client publishers to find the best business solution for both the Press and the client for these services.
The University of New Mexico Press was established in 1929 and, with more than 80 new titles a year and 900 titles in print, is the largest book publisher in the State of New Mexico. The Press currently has 30 full and part time employees and employs another 10 students and graduate interns.
April Fool’s Day seems like a good time for hoaxes and phony scares, but this year a real threat is out there and is set to launch Wednesday, April 1. The threat, a computer virus called Conficker and also known as Downadup, is currently circulating on the Internet infecting unprotected Windows computers.
Unfortunately, Conficker spreads from computer to computer with little or no human involvement, using a security hole in Microsoft Window’s operating systems. The hole was repaired and security patches were issued by Microsoft, so it is important to ensure you have applied the Microsoft security patch that was issued back in October 2008.
If your Windows system is set up to do Automatic Updates on your system, you should already have the patch. However, although the patch has been widely available since October, there are still many computers that have not been patched. Do a Google keyword search on Google and type in Microsoft security patch 2008 to learn how to get and apply the patch.
The second thing to do is make sure your computer has current antivirus software installed. You can do a Google keyword search and type in antivirus Conficker removal to learn how to safely and securely install antivirus software, run the software and remove Conficker if necessary. A combination of these two practices will ensure your Windows computer will not be fooled on April 1st this year.
Contact the Information Assurance office at 277-1212 or send an e-mail to security@unm.edu if you have questions or concerns about your system being infected by Conficker.
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
ITS Communications Network Services (CNS) has scheduled a system upgrade that will result in a 4-hour rolling telephone system outage Wednesday, Apr. 1 from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. The downtime will affect Main, North, and South Campuses, UNMH, all off-campus clinics, and leased buildings utilizing UNM telephone services.
During the upgrade cellular phones should be used to report emergencies to the Campus Police, as Code Blue phones will be out of service intermittently. Campus Police can be reached at 505-277-2241.
For questions regarding the upgrade and outage, contact CNS Customer Care at 277-1111.
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
Registrations for TextMe UNM have begun to expire. If your registration is due to expire in the next 30 days, you will receive a text message prompting you to log in so that you can continue to receive emergency notifications.
If you have difficulty logging in, or have any questions, contact Information Technology Services CNS Customer Care at 277-1111 or visit Fast Info for assistance.
Christina Durán, assistant professor of history, New Mexico Highlands University, presents, “Re-Mexicanizing the Streetscapes of New Mexico,” on Thursday, April 2, at 3 p.m. in the Student Union Building Santa Ana rooms A&B. The lecture, a presentation of the Center for the Southwest in the UNM Department of History, is free and open to the public.
The four lectures in the Borderlands Series present scholarship on the U.S.-Mexico region by scholars working in both Mexico and the United States.
For more information on the 2009 Borderlands Lecture Series, or other events sponsored by the Center for the Southwest, call 277-7688 or e-mail: cntrsw@unm.edu.
The University of New Mexico Physical Therapy Graduate Program was recently approved to transition from offering a Master of Physical Therapy (MPT) to a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT). The DPT curriculum is expected to start in Fall 2009. The MPT degree will be phased out after full inception of the DPT curriculum.
With this new degree program, the UNM Physical Therapy Graduate Program will be able to provide a curriculum that leads to an entry-level professional DPT for students who enter the program with a baccalaureate, and will later provide a modified curriculum that allows UNM MPT graduates to complete the added requirements for a DPT.
There has been a significant increase in physical therapy educational programs across the nation upgrading to the doctoral degree, with 93 percent of entry level programs currently offering the DPT degree and the remaining seven percent in the process of converting to the DPT degree.
As the only physical therapy graduate program in New Mexico, the UNM program wanted to be able to offer its in-state students an opportunity to earn a DPT instead of having to go out-of-state.
The New Mexico Department of Labor projects a 41.9 percent growth in physical therapist jobs through 2012.
With the need for physical therapists in New Mexico rising, UNM’s movement to offer a DPT should help with keeping graduates in-state to meet the demand. Currently, over 70 percent of practicing physical therapists in New Mexico are UNM graduates.
For more information on the DPT at UNM, contact Nikola Toledo: ntoldeo@salud.unm.edu.
Technology Business Plan Competition Set for April 3
Surya Suncare Corporation, the winner of the 2008 TVC Lockheed Martin Prize in the UNM Technology Business Plan Competition, has been accepted into this year’s Technology Ventures Corporation (TVC) Equity Symposium. The Surya team, comprised of EMBA graduates Klaus Mueller, Miles Nelson, Will Reichard, and Steve Renfro, continued to improve their business plan after the UNM competition.
They worked with representatives from TVC and were chosen for the final pool of 15 presenters selected from 52 entered plans. Surya Suncare is commercializing an optically transparent sunscreen for protection against cancer-causing UVA and UVB radiation.
A nonprofit arm of Lockheed Martin, TVC surrounds teams accepted into its symposium with advisors who work with the groups to further improve their plans, all at no cost to the teams. Firms who have presented at the symposium in previous years have the opportunity to return to vie for subsequent rounds of funding in later years.
Technology Ventures Corporation has helped startup firms attractmore than $1 billion in funding over the past 15 years. Located in only three places in the United States, TVC brings free, expert support to technology startups in Albuquerque, and our community is very fortunate to have them here. A primary factor in creating more than 12,000 new jobs, TVC builds economic development from the raw materials of innovation and sound business planning. Symposium teams will present their plans to scores of investors on May 6 & 7. See Technology Ventures for more information.
From the 2008 symposium program, “When Technology Ventures Corporation was created in 1993, Lockheed Martin Corporation, the founder, issued a challenge to TVC’s executives: Facilitate the commercialization of technologies developed in the national laboratories and research universities to create thriving companies and good jobs in New Mexico. TVC identifies technologies with commercial potential, coordinates the development of business and management capabilities and seeks sources of capital investment for the business. TVC is not a funding institution, but a bridge between technology and investment."
For all four years of the UNM Technology Business Plan Competition, TVC has sponsored the $10,000 TVC Lockheed Martin Prize.
Says Surya Vice President Will Reichard, "This is the real deal, and there is not a more supportive environment than UNM in which to try. This competition is one of the best examples I've seen of what is making New Mexico the premier place in the country to create technology-related businesses."
Now Reichard and his team are taking another step forward.
For more information about the UNM Technology Business Plan Competition taking place April 3, visit Technology Business Plan.
The Anderson School of Management presents its 2009 Distinguished CEO Spring Lecture Series featuring Garrett Thornburg, chairman, Thornburg Companies, on April 14, at 5:30 p.m. in the Paul R. Jackson Student Center. Thornburg will discuss the "Financial Crisis: The U.S. Government’s Ultimate Role." The Paul R. Jackson Student Center is located on the UNM Campus adjacent to the Parish Library.
Photo: Garrett Thornburg
Thornburg will discuss some of the unprecedented challenges facing the American economy. He will address how some of the changes currently underway in Washington will forever change how the economy functions and operates in the future.
What role will the government play in the mortgage market? Are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dead? What role will it play in regulating financial institutions? Will this include hedge funds and other non-regulated entities? Will the government increase its oversight of the rating agencies? Will the government use the SEC or some new regulator to have more control over accounting standards? How else will the government change the financial life of America?
Thornburg is Chairman of the three Thornburg companies, all of which he founded. Thornburg Investment Management was established in 1982; Thornburg Securities Corp. in 1984 and Thornburg Mortgage in 1993. Prior to moving to Santa Fe in 1982, Thornburg was employed at Bear, Stearns & Co., where he was a Limited Partner and founding member of its public finance department.
Prior to that, he was Chief Financial Officer of New York State’s Urban Development Corporation. Thornburg also served as a co-fi nancial advisor to the State of New Mexico’s Board of Finance in its fi rst bond refunding activity ever undertaken. He holds a BA from Williams College and an MBA from Harvard University.
Seating is limited, rsvp via e-mail: rsvp@mgt.unm.edu or call (505) 277-6413 for more information by Wednesday, April 8. Sandwiches and beverages will be served.
Parking is available in the lot immediately north of the Anderson School are available free on a first-come, first serve basis. Additional spaces may be found at the parking structure next to Popejoy Hall or the Hospital Structure for a nominal fee as well as paid meters along Las Lomas.
David W. Orr will present a Lecture on "Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic and Confronting Climate Change on April 9, 2009 at 2 p.m. in the George Pearl Hall at the School of Architecture & Planning. The street address is 2401 Central Ave. NE. Orr's lecture is part of the Regents Lecturer Series. Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College and a James Marsh Professor at the University of Vermont.
His career as a scholar, teacher, writer, speaker, and entrepreneur spans fields as diverse as environment and politics, environmental education, campus greening, green building, ecological design, and climate change.
He is the author of five books and co-editor of three others. Ecological Literacy (SUNY, 1992), described as a “true classic” by Garrett Hardin, is widely read and used in hundreds of colleges and universities. A second book, Earth in Mind (1994/2004) is praised by people as diverse as biologist E. O. Wilson and writer, poet, and farmer, Wendell Berry.
Orr is the recipient of four Honorary degrees and other awards including The Millennium Leadership Award from Global Green, the Bioneers Award, the National Wildlife Federation Leadership Award, and a Lyndhurst Prize.
He has lectured at universities throughout the U.S. and Europe. He serves as a Trustee for several organizations including the Rocky Mountain Institute and the Aldo Leopold Foundation.
In 1987 he organized studies of energy, water, and materials use on several college campuses that helped to launch the green campus movement. In 1989 Orr organized the first conference, co-sponsored by then Governor Bill Clinton, on the effects of impending climate change on the banking industry.
In 1996 he organized the effort to design the first substantially green building on a U.S. college campus. The Adam Joseph Lewis Center was named by the U.S. Department of Energy as “One of Thirty Milestone Buildings in the 20th Century,” and by The New York Times as the most interesting of a new generation of college and university buildings.
The Lewis Center purifies all of its wastewater and is the first college building in the U.S. powered entirely by sunlight. It became a laboratory in sustainability that is training some of the nation’s brightest and most dedicated students.
The story is told in two books, The Nature of Design (Oxford, 2002), that Fritjof Capra called “brilliant,” and a second, Design on the Edge (MIT, 2006), that architect Sim van der Ryn describes as “powerful and inspiring.”
Two All-Star high school basketball games will be played on Tuesday, March 31 in Rio Rancho, with proceeds supporting UNM Children’s Hospital. The Senior Charity Classic will take place at the Santa Ana Star Center. Teams consist of the best high school boy’s and girl’s senior basketball players from throughout the metro area. Tip-off for the girl’s game is at 5:30 p.m.; the boy’s game begins at 7:30 p.m.
The Senior Charity Classic benefitting UNM Children’s Hospital is presented by Tom Swisstack and Rio Rancho – the City of Vision, the New Mexico Guard, Otero’s Dairy Queen, Graphic Connection, and FM Sports Radio 101.7, The TEAM.
All are welcome to support these all-star seniors and the UNM Children’s Hospital or catch the games live via radio with Mike Roberts on 101.7, The TEAM, Rio Rancho/ABQ.
Tickets for children 12 and under are $1, students are $3 and all others are $4.
The new exhibit, “Revolution in Retrospect: 50 years of social change in Cuba” is open to the public in the Herzstein Latin American Gallery on the second floor of Zimmerman Library. There will be a public reception on Monday, April 3 at 3 p.m.
Fifty years ago a group of Cuban patriots, in alliance with rural campesinos and urban students, proved that a concerted armed rebellion could defeat a dictator’s army and bring social revolution to Cuba. From that moment on, Cuba played a historic role on the world stage – inspiring many, while frustrating its powerful neighbor with the inseparable combination of dogged independence and evolving socialism.
The exhibit offers a glimpse into the island and its people. Books, posters and other ephemera from Zimmerman Library holdings and student contributions depict key figures and themes from the decades following the revolution.
Contemporary photographs reveal the social reality of everyday life alongside official state messages.
The exhibit is sponsored by the University Libraries’ Division of Iberian & Latin American Resources & Services (DILARES), the Latin American & Iberian Institute and the Gorham Foundation.
For more information, contact mboravi@unm.edu
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627; kwent2@unm.edu
Faculty, staff, students and the community is invited to participate in a series of open forums with members of the Higher Learning Commission’s Accreditation Consultant/Evaluator Site Visit Team. The team will be on campus April 6 – 8, as part of the university’s re-accreditation process.
The forums have been set as follows:
Faculty Open Forum, Monday, April 6, 3:45 to 4:30 p.m., SUB Ballroom A
Staff Open Forum, Monday, April 6, 3:45 to 4:30 p.m., SUB Ballroom B
Student Open Forum, Monday, April 6, 3:45 to 4:30 p.m., SUB Lobo A & B
Community Open Forum, Monday, April 6, 3:45 to 4:30 p.m., Continuing Education Building, Room C
The Higher Learning Commissions evaluates universities on a number of criteria, which include
• Mission and integrity
• Preparing for the future
• Student learning and effective teaching
• Acquisition, discovery and application of knowledge
• Engagement and service
In addition to addressing the evaluation criterion, UNM has included a special emphasis topic of minority student achievement in its self study. The university’s goal is to achieve equitable access to undergraduate, graduate and professional education across all population groups in the state. The self study can be accessed online here
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627; kwent2@unm.edu
The Indigenous Nations Library Program at University Libraries is sponsoring a lecture, “Asserting Self-Determination in an Age of Biocolonialism” by Debra Harry on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 from 3 p.m. – 5 p.m. in the Willard Room of Zimmerman Library. There will also be a brown bag discussion from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the Herzstein Room of Zimmerman Library.
Harry is a Northern Paiute from Pyramid Lake, Nevada. She serves as the Executive Director of the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism, a non-profit organization based in the U.S. created to assist indigenous peoples in the protection of their genetic resources from the negative effects of biotechnology. She completed her doctoral work at the University of Auckland in December 2008.
Harry will examine Indigenous People’s experiences with human and non-human genetic research and the misappropriation of Indigenous knowledge and resources, within a global system known as “biocolonialism.”
She believes this is furthered by governments through international treaties, national laws and regulations which facilitate scientific, academic institutions, and corporate interests with unfettered access and the use of genetic material and indigenous knowledge of the their lands and waters.
Harry says biocolonialism is the result of manipulation and alienation of the collective heritage of Indigenous Peoples. She will also discuss the elements of wisdom, principles, values and traditional law as the most relevant context from which Indigenous Peoples may address the impacts of biotechnology in their lives.
For more information about the lecture, please contact Lecture Series Coordinator Savannah Gene at (505) 277-7433.
Media contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627; kwent2@unm.edu
Roger Schluntz, dean, UNM School of Architecture and Planning, announces the appointment of Associate Professor Kuppu Iyengar as Regents’ Lecturer. The three-year Regents’ Lectureship is funded by the UNM Board of Regents. Iyengar’s professional work and research have been at the forefront of energy efficiency and sustainability efforts relative to civil and structural engineering.
Iyengar earned a master of architecture degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a bachelor of civil/structural engineering from the Institute of Engineering in Calcutta, India.
He was an invited lecturer at the Art & Design Center in Pasadena, California, and also served as lecturer and adjunct associate professor at UCLA School of Architecture.
He has extensive professional experience including sirector of Energy Services and associate vice president of Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall in Los Angeles, California; senior vice president for Synergic Resources Corporation in Los Angeles; principal and designer with ANCO Engineers, Inc.; and president of ANCO Design, Inc. also in Los Angeles.
Iyengar has been a member of the architecture faculty since 2000. He teaches courses on alternate construction, structural engineering and sustainable architectural design. He has lectured and conducted numerous workshops on energy efficiency and sustainability program design throughout the U.S. and abroad and has published numerous articles addressing these global issues.
His current research has led to a book project, “Sustainable Architectural Design – 101”, focusing on site, building materials, air quality, water management and minimizing waste. Iyengar is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Society of Building Sciences Educators.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales (505) 277-5920; cgonzal@unm.edu
The University of New Mexico is engaged in the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a low stakes measure of students’ critical thinking, analytical reasoning, problem solving and written communication skills. UNM is one of 415 postsecondary institutions in the country using the CLA to learn more about students’ acquisition of core postsecondary skills.
UNM will participate in the CLA for the first time in the fall of 2009 and spring 2010. Several participation dates will be scheduled for freshmen between mid-August and October and for seniors between February and mid April.
“Like many academic and life-tasks, the questions are open-ended and require the participant to construct a reasoned response, sometimes requiring the analysis and referencing of supplemental materials. Cohorts of beginning and graduating students participate,” said Tom Root, outcomes assessment planning manager in the Provost’s Office.
UNM, and the other public New Mexico universities, as well as an additional 200 other national universities, is participating in the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA), a joint project of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges.
“We hope to learn how well students at UNM grow in these skills over their course of studies; how measured ability in these skills correlate with graduation; and how achievement in these skills varies across subpopulations,” Root said.
Each year a random sample of first semester freshmen complete the CLA in the fall term and a random sample of second semester seniors complete the CLA in the spring term. Students work online in a proctored setting to do their analysis and construct their response in a 90 minute session.
“Participation is voluntary and participating students receive an individual score report of how well they did on each part of the test and how they compare to their peers at UNM and nationwide, and incentives from the University in appreciation for their contribution to UNM research,” Root said. He added that UNM receives fall interim reports, a spring institutional report, a student level data file to help with correlation analysis, and a PowerPoint ® presentation of results.
The VSA requires UNM to measure educational outcomes to identify effective educational practices using one of three possible instruments. A group of UNM faculty researched and evaluated all three assessment options and selected the CLA. The CLA was created by the Council for Aid to Education to improve teaching and learning.
“UNM expects participation in the CLA to contribute to the improvement of teaching and learning of critical thinking, analytic reasoning, problem solving and written communication skills,” Root said.
For more information, contact Tom Root at 277-4130 or troot@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales (505) 277-5920; cgonzal@unm.edu
To celebrate “Earth Day” on April 22, “New Mexico in Focus” will feature a four-part series looking at the emergence of renewable energy technologies and practices in New Mexico. The first episode in this series examines the potential of wind power providing energy to New Mexico. This episode of “New Mexico in Focus” will air on KNME-TV, channel 5 on Friday, March 27 at 7 p.m. and repeat on Sunday, March 29 at 6:30 a.m.
In the first episode of “Sustainable Energy 2009,” “New Mexico in Focus” visits Corona, New Mexico – a microcosm of many of New Mexico’s renewable possibilities. From sheep ranchers who are considering adding giant wind turbines to their property, to college students traveling to Mesalands Community College to study wind engineering, wind power have captured this New Mexico town’s imagination.
Co-host David Alire Garcia sits down with Michael McDiarmid, a mechanical engineer and manager of the New Mexico Wind Power Program, Greg Nelson, director of PNM’s Advanced Generation Development, and a representative of Sandia Labs to discuss the future of wind energy in New Mexico.
Then co-host Gene Grant and “The Line” panel are joined by guest panelists Teresa Cordova, a professor with the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning, Marco Gonzales, an attorney with the Modrell Sperling law firm, and Steve Terrell, a reporter at the Santa Fe New Mexican to discuss the future of wind energy in N.M.
Producers of ‘New Mexico In Focus’ are Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer. Closed captioning has been made possible by a gift from Mrs. Elspeth G. Bobbs.
Media Contact: Evy Todd, (505) 277-1218;etodd@unm.edu
Regents Professor of Philosophy Russell Goodman has been named a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh. He will spend the summer of 2009 working on philosophers of the "Scottish Enlightenment" of the mid-18th century, including David Hume, Adam Smith, Thomas Reid and Francis Hutcheson.
“These European figures are important influences on 18th century American thinkers, including the political philosophy of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Benjamin Franklin,” Goodman said. He will write about them in a new history of American Philosophy Before Pragmatism that Oxford University Press asked him to write.
Goodman specializes in 19th and 20th century philosophy, especially Wittgenstein, American philosophy and pragmatism. He has written a number of books, among them “American Philosophy and the Romantic Tradition”, “Pragmatism: A Contemporary Reader”, and “Wittgenstein and William James.” He has also written a number of encyclopedia entries in the field of philosophy.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzalez (505) 277-5920; cgonzal@unm.edu
The University of New Mexico’s Energy Conservation Initiative has reduced energy usage at UNM’s Albuquerque campus by 13.4% in its first 10 months, leading to reduced utility spending of $2.4 million, according to Mary Vosevich, Director of the University’s Physical Plant Department. The program reduced UNM’s carbon dioxide emissions by 13,603 metric tons, the equivalent of removing 2,440 automobiles from the highways, Vosevich added.
During the 10 months since it was launched last May, the Initiative has produced an 18.5% reduction in the University’s steam usage and a 3% reduction in overall electricity use. Chilled water consumption was reduced by 16.4% during the same period, Vosevich said.
“We’re very pleased with the initial results of our relatively young Energy Conservation Initiative,” Vosevich said, “and we’re looking forward to additional savings as the Initiative expands to our branch campuses and the UNM Hospital.” So far, the Initiative has been launched only on the university’s Albuquerque’s campus, she explained.
Over the course of the next decade, the Initiative hopes to save taxpayers upwards of $57 million, Vosevich noted.
As part of the Initiative, teams of UNM “energy conservation educators” work with professional engineering and technical staff from a private concern, Energy Education, to currently perform detailed physical and mechanical assessments and proper adjustments to 160 buildings located on UNM’s main, north and south campuses to monitor and reduce cooling, heating, water and lighting usage. Since many of the structures are older and some are quite large (Main Campus structures alone occupy approximately 10 million square feet), the effort requires a building-by-building, room-by-room analysis, Vosevich explained.
“This Energy Conservation Initiative is intensive with regard to the number of energy evaluation points across our campus, vigilant in its constant auditing of each building, and aggressive in its effort to train our UNM energy conservation educators on how to perform the extensive and often complicated daily measurement and verification process that’s required.”
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix (505) 277-1816; bhendrix@unm.edu
The Spanish Language of New Mexico and Southern Colorado is a linguistic atlas that delves into Spanish as it is spoken by the Hispanic population of New Mexico and southern Colorado. Authors Garland Bills and Neddy Vigil will be at the UNM Bookstore on Friday, April 3 at 4 p.m. to discuss and sign copies of the book. The UNM Bookstore is located at 2301 Central Ave. NE at the intersection of Cornell and Central.
The Spanish language and Hispanic culture have left indelible impressions on the landscape of the U.S. Southwest. The role of cultural and geographical influence has had dramatic effects on the sustainability, development and change of the Spanish language. A new book explores the evolution of the region’s Spanish language.
History shows the condition of New Mexican Spanish and what the future holds for its speakers. With two major dialect regions, one in the north and one in the south, detailed maps illustrate the geography of linguistic variation for the Spanish spoken in the region.
This diverse language has evolved since its origin in Spain with influences that include Native American languages, exposure to English; and Mexican immigration in the 20th century. Snippets of New Mexican folklore and folk etymology give voice to that evolution. Bills and Vigil detail the effects of inevitable encroachment that intensified during the 20th century and seriously threaten the continued viability of this dialect.
Garland D. Bills is professor emeritus of linguistics and of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of New Mexico. His publications include An Introduction to Spoken Bolivian Quechua, The Spanish and English of United States Hispanos, and Spanish and Portuguese in Social Context. Neddy A. Vigil, a research professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, has been the director of the Language Learning Center at the University of New Mexico since 1967. He received a research award as co-principal investigator for the Linguistic Atlas and Archive of the Spanish of New Mexico and Southern Colorado from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Parking for those attending the Bookstore event will be validated in the parking structure for up to one hour with purchase. Please call Lisa Walden at 505-277-7494 for more information.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales (505) 277-5920; cgonzal@unm.edu
Student Organization for Latin American Studies (SOLAS) presents, “Trade,” a film that addresses the issue of sex/human trafficking that occurs on the North American continent. The film will be shown tonight, Thursday, March 26 at 6:30 p.m. in the Latin American and Iberian Institute.
To see the trailer on the movie, click here
In the film, a series of women lives unfold to reveal the brutality of the sex industry and graphically show how women are coerced and forced to participate as sex slaves to repay debts. Most of the movie takes place in either Mexico or Texas using women immigrants as prime targets for sex trafficking.
“Trade” illustrates many issues that will be presented at the conference, Modern Day Slavery in the Americas: A Regional Approach to a Global Epidemic jointly collaborated between the International Law Students Association (ILSA), SOLAS, the LAII, and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute and the Mexican Consulate of Albuquerque.
“Trade” features a star-studded cast – Kevin Kline, Kate
del Castillo – and director Marco Kreuzpaintner.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales (505) 277-5920; cgonzal@unm.edu
Jeremy Sanchez, Deming High School 2002 graduate, is among the DPAC students working with the Deming project. Although starting his academic career as an Aggie, he was only one semester in when he transferred to UNM. He discovered it wasn’t so much engineering he was interested in, but rather architecture. He earned his undergraduate degree in 2007 and moved immediately into the master’s in architecture program.
This is his first community experience, he said. He’s learned a bit about his hometown.
“It’s interesting to see the way the community has broken into 100 little communities and the ebb and flow in the way the city has grown and shrunk. Agriculture comes into the city in cycles,” he said.
He wants to see the town thrive. “There are towns that have grown comfortably, sustainably. Many Deming residents go away from Deming to go to school, but they come back. They bring back their education and put it to use for the community. They provide hope for Deming’s future,” he said.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Joseph L. Cecchi, Dean of the UNM School of Engineering, has been elected by his national peers to a two-year term as Vice Chair of the Engineering Deans Council Executive Board. He had previously been elected to 2 two-year terms as a Director on the Executive Board.
The Engineering Deans Council (EDC) is the leadership organization of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), a non-profit organization of 10,000+ members from the academic, government, and industrial engineering communities dedicated to the support of engineering and engineering technology education.
The EDC includes more than 300 deans of engineering across the United States. The objectives the of the EDC are to assess and recommend policies affecting the administration of engineering colleges, to provide a forum for discussion of issues and experiences in engineering colleges, and to speak on policy issues on behalf of member engineering colleges to the engineering community and the federal government.
The nine-member Executive Board serves as the governing body of the EDC. The Vice Chair is also the EDC Chair-elect. In addition to serving on the EDC Executive Board, Dean Cecchi is a member of the EDC Public Policy Committee, which organizes an annual colloquium in Washington, D.C. to facilitate communications between engineering deans and key public policy makers and federal legislators on engineering education and research issues.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627;
Build it and they will come. Communities across New Mexico struggle with decline in city centers and a need to reestablish their identities and forge plans for future development. Before it can be built, it must be envisioned and designed. Enter DPAC, the Design Planning Assistance Center, the community outreach arm of the UNM School of Architecture and Planning. DPAC has worked with scores of towns and villages in just such initiatives, in concert with New Mexico MainStreet.
This semester the DPAC studio – team taught by Phil Gallegos, DPAC director, Steve Borbas, adjunct professor, Jacobo Martinez, DPAC program specialist and Levi Romero, research scholar – are ambitiously pursuing projects in three communities.
In Deming and Lovington downtown revitalization is at the forefront of community conversations and classroom collaborations; and in Grants, they are designing a pavilion for the town’s annual Fire and Ice Bike Rally. They’ve got an eye focused on Grants’ Main Street, too.
The students are divided into groups. Each group visits its assigned community armed with maps and demographics, drawing paper and laptops. They hit the streets with cameras to look at buildings, peer in windows, observe traffic flow and scan alleyways.
Deming...
Deming isn’t just about its duck races, they heard. One of the many ideas the students received was for a farmers or growers market in the city center. “A market for farmers to sell watermelons and other produce that isn’t the right size for commercial sale would be a good idea,” one community member said.
The residents noted with pride the town’s 16 historic buildings and their potential as retail space.
At the end of their intensive two days, the students presented their ideas to a community gathering at the old train depot. The interstate needs to be a bigger draw, they said.
The students posted paper where Deming residents could fill in the blank: Deming Is____________. Deming is wine country, they said – St. Clair Winery is located four miles out of town. One thought was to have a tasting room in the city center. Students took identifying imagery that included windmills and sunshine and transformed them into alternative energy statements about Deming.
The students suggested enhancing downtown pedestrian experiences by providing vegetation, widening sidewalks, providing shade structures and adding benches.
Gallegos said, “The students were keenly aware that the meetings weren’t reflective of Deming.” Few Hispanics attended the session. Martinez and Romero, took a different approach to gather information about Deming.
“We took cultural context into account and used storytelling to elicit people’s sense of place in Deming,” Martinez said, adding that they held writing workshops with adults and youth. The students are doing the same thing in compiling and categorizing themes to see what emerges, he said.
Martinez and Romero’s work will enhance the charrette process, Gallegos said.
“The charrette is just a start at revealing what the real community story is. We believe in the power of the story’s ability to reflect complexity of place,” Martinez said.
Lovington...
The Lovington group had the benefit of a presentation of a downtown market analysis presented by Jeff Mitchell from UNM’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research.
Through community meetings, students heard that Main Street is used as a gathering place for events. They saw the downtown’s defining beige brick buildings. “Many buildings sit vacant. In other buildings prime retail space is used for storage while other spaces are used for service industries – accounting or insurance offices – instead of for retail or commercial use,” Borbas said.
Residents reported a need for greater vitality downtown, replete with streetscapes, shopping, restaurants and cafes.
A visit to the local high school revealed a need for more youth-oriented places. Currently teens travel to Hobbs to bowl, skate and such.
As was suggested for Deming, the Lovington group proposed mixed use for the town’s historic buildings. Students explained that the upstairs can be used as living space while the ground floor can be used commercially. The students also saw development potential in vacant land off Main Street. Ideas about a gateway for the town were also floated.
Grants...
The Grants group is hustling to get their ideas off the ground. Grants received a $100,000 special appropriations grant from the governor’s office that must be spent by June 20.
The pavilion the UNM Design and Build team looks to design four shelters and have them built by late June. “We are essentially moving backwards in Grants. They already have the money and specific recommendations for building types. We’ll then work to develop a master plan,” Gallegos said.
New Mexico MainStreet urban design specialist Charlie Deans said, “The success of the Lovington charrette illustrates how effective the partnership between NM MainStreet and the UNM DPAC studio can be for our rural town centers. The synergy created between the 25-year success of the MainStreet four-point approach to downtown revitalization in NM, and the energy and talent of the DPAC studio students and faculty, really raised the awareness and aspirations of the Lovington community about the potential of their downtown, both as a great place to be, and as an economic engine for the town and region. Everyone came away with a higher level of expectation and hope for the future, and the students received a great experience in the importance of community involvement in creating their ideas and designs.”
Next Steps...
Lovington and Deming leaders and interested community members will come to Albuquerque, to the School of Architecture and Planning on April 10 to see further refinement and development of ideas. Ultimately, they will seek funding to make the ideas reality.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
For the first time since 1985, the University of New Mexico baseball team has cracked the national polls. The Lobos are ranked or receiving votes in five of the six national collegiate baseball polls. Collegiate Baseball has the Lobos ranked the highest at No. 20, and Baseball America has the Lobos ranked No. 21, the first appearance in that poll since 1985. Ping! Baseball has the Lobos ranked No. 30, while the NCBWA and the USA Today/ESPN Coaches polls have the Lobos receiving votes. Senior Kevin Atkinson became the second Lobo to earn MWC Player of the Week honors in 2009.
The Information Center for New Mexicans with Disabilities, a program within the Center for Development and Disability at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, has launched a new online Disability Resource Directory.
This searchable database includes New Mexico programs, agencies and organizations that serve individuals with disabilities. Anyone may search the database by entering an organization name, a category, or specific service.
To ensure information is current, the directory will be updated on a regular basis by Information Center staff.
To access the visit: Center for Development and Disability Disability Resource Directory and click on the Resource Directory link.
For additional information or to speak to one of the Resource Specialists, call 1-800-552-8192 or (505) 272-8549, or e-mail: infonet@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Lauren Cruse, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: lcruse@salud.unm.edu
The University of New Mexico Chicano Hispano Mexicano Studies, Water Resources Program and the UNM-Taos Water Institute present, 'Acequia Culture and Systems of New Mexico and Chihuahua Documentary Field School,' set for June 8 to July 3, during the first summer session.
Weeks 1, 2 and 4 will be held on campus from 9 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday, while week 3 will take place in Valle de Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico.
“The field seminar features a field based survey of acequia culture and systems of New Mexico and Chihuahua. Special attention will be paid to folkways associated with traditional management of land, water and agriculture,” said Enrique Lamadrid, director, Chicano Hispano Mexicano Studies.
This overview of the ecology, history, ethnography, and sustainable systems of the region is accompanied by training in digital documentary technology, interview techniques, field notes, archiving, analysis and the ethics of cultural representation. Day trip fieldwork will be conducted in Albuquerque and Carnuel, with extended field trip to Valle de Allende in the state of Chihuahua.
The field site in Valle de Allende was founded in 1569 and originally named San Bartolomé. The beautiful spring-fed valley fed the Santa Bárbara mines. An 80 mile riparian forest of native pecans is the ecological setting.
“In 1598 the colonists who settled New Mexico spent many months here. Well into the 19th century Valle de Allende was the aduana or entry point into New Mexico. The area was the cradle of the new agriculture of New Mexico and is still home to an astounding variety of heritage crops. The acequia system also dates to the 16th century and is remarkable for its transition from rural to urban zones, where it flows alongside streets, under sidewalks, and through houses, where precious water is captured in patio fountains and aljibes or stone water cisterns,” Lamadrid said.
Course objectives include a special emphasis on cultural mapping and qualitative research. Training in contemporary ethnographic techniques and digital documentation; observation of the landscape, settlements, village plazas, etc. and an analysis of small scale irrigation systems and the “acequia culture”: its ecological landscape, soils, rivers, aquifers, flora and fauna; as well as its material bases such as dams, ditches, canals and irrigated plots, is also included. Another objective is exploring Chihuahua and New Mexico acequia systems with overview of cultural history and the development of agriculture.
For more information contact Enrique Lamadrid, lamadrid@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The Southwest Hispanic Research Institute Land Grant Studies Program presents a panel discussion titled, 'Land Grants: Current Perspectives and Future Prospects,' Friday, March 27, from 3 -4:30 p.m. in the Willard Reading Room in Zimmerman Library’s West Wing.
Presenters include:
Juan Sánchez, NMLG C/C & Merced del Pueblo de Chililí
Daniel Antonio Herrera, Manzano Land Grant
Jerome Padilla, Atrisco Land Grant
Wayne Sandoval, San Antonio de Las Huertas Land Grant
A 2009 legislative update will be presented by: Arturo Archuleta, Mexicano Land Grant Education and Conservation Trust and moderated by: Manuel García y Griego, director, Southwest Hispanic Research Institute.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Strategies for Improving Native American Success at UNM, a faculty led discussion on diversity, is set for Tuesday, March 31 from 12:30 p.m. – 2 p.m. in Lobo rooms A&B on the third floor of the Student Union Building.
A question the panelists will address is: What resources exist on campus to help me better respond to the needs of Native American students?
Panelists are Tiffany S. Lee, assistant professor: Native American Studies; Glenabah Martínez, assistant professor, Language Literacy & Cultural Studies; Steven Verney, assistant professor, psychology; Rebecca Blum-Martínez, associate professor, Language Literacy & Cultural Studies; Glenda G. Kodaseet, graduate student, Public Administration; and undergraduate representatives from the Native American Studies Indigenous Research Group (NASIRG).
The panel will be moderated by Gabriel Sánchez, assistant professor, political science.
Light snacks will be provided and no registration is required to attend.
The panel discussion is presented by the Title V Faculty Committee, OSET, UNM Division of Equity and Inclusion in conjunction with Native American & Indigenous Studies.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Back by popular demand, and in a larger venue, the Staff Council Work+Life Committee will offer the second annual “Youth Summer Program Presentation” Thursday, April 2, from noon to 1 p.m. in SUB Lobo Rooms A-B. Light refreshments will be provided.
Each summer, working parents and guardians face the challenge of identifying quality childcare and youth enrichment experiences for dependants. In 2008, UNM’s Work+Life Committee responded by bringing in local professionals to share information about the variety of summer programs available to families.
“The response to the first presentation was incredible. We had parents spilling out the doors at the event so we knew we would have to offer it annually and in a larger room to accommodate employees and students,” said Karin Retskin, Staff Council administrator.
Presenters will include Trish Heaton of UNM Human Resources Client Services who organizes UNM’s Summer Helper Program, which provides campus employment opportunities to high school students.
Naomi Sandweiss, youth program supervisor for the UNM Division of Continuing Education, and Riann Powell, cultural activities coordinator for the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library System, are among other presenters.
Also speaking are representatives of the YMCA, City of Albuquerque Parks and Recreation Department and Albuquerque Biological Park.
Prized editions of the New Mexico Kids Magazine outlining an updated array of summer youth programs, camps and schools in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and the East Mountain area will be distributed.
For more information, call 277-1532 or e-mail scouncil@unm.edu.
A panel of five faculty and graduate students present “Radicalizing the Pro-Choice Debate: Moving Beyond National Boundaries,” a discussion on feminist research and debate surrounding pro-choice issues, on Friday, March 27, 1-4 p.m. at the Student Union Building, Trailblazer/Spirit room.
The event explores cross-cultural solidarity of women. Panel participants will talk about the need for a paradigm shift in the liberal pro-choice debate in order to make it more inclusive of women’s human rights. Participants will propose radical ways of looking at the pro-choice debate using concepts from feminist and developmental economics.
The aim of the panel is to show that supporting women’s right to make choices over her own body does not exclude cases where women choose to do gender-selective abortions. Panelists will attempt to show that ultimately in each case women’s choices are subsumed under structural inequalities and patriarchy.
The panelists are Rinita Mazumdar, visiting lecturer in women studies, Feroza Jussawalla, professor of English, Rosemary Keefe, professor emerita, University of Wisconsin-Superior, Emira Ibrahimpasic, anthropology Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant in women studies, and Sachi Sekimoto, communication and journalism Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant in women studies.
For more information, email emira@unm.edu or visit: Women's Studies.
Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1593; e-mail: michal@unm.edu
Visiting French scholar Jeanine Belgodere presents “Beyond Conventions: the Modernist and Humanistic Vision of Isadora Duncan as a Revolutionary Dancer and Choreographer” on Friday March 27, 1 p.m. in Carlisle Gymnasium, room 114. The lecture is free.
Isadora Duncan is considered as the daring woman who drastically dismissed the long-standing tradition of ballet and sowed the seeds for the emergence and flowering of what has been known as modern dance. She started her revolution in the field of dance at a time when far-reaching changes were sweeping through society and the arts.
Duncan came at the right time, when concerns about the improvement of man’s social condition and women’s aspiration to freedom were growing. The lecture will cover the relationship between Duncan’s artistic revolution and political involvement.
The lecture is sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Dance. Contact dance@unm.edu or (505) 277 3660.
Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1593; e-mail: michal@unm.edu
El Centro de la Raza presents “Latinas/os and Education,” part of the Latina/o Faculty Brown Bags, on Tuesday, March 24, noon-1 p.m. in the Willard Reading Room at Zimmerman Library. Roberto Ibarra, associate professor of sociology, will speak on “Context Diversity and Latinos in Higher Education” and Diane Torres-Velasquez, associate professor of teacher education, on “Making Science Come Alive in a Spanish-English Dual Language Middle School Classroom.”
The El Centro de la Raza Latina/o Faculty Brown Bags highlight the research of UNM’s Latina/o faculty and pairs faculty from different academic disciplines to present timely research about or affecting the Latina/o community. El Centro de la Raza co-sponsors the spring 2009 Latina/o Faculty Brown Bags with the University Libraries Chicano, Hispanic and Latina/o Collection (CHIPOTLE) and Division of Latin American and Iberian Research Services (DILARES).
The next brown bag, to be held Wednesday, April 22, noon-1 p.m. in the Willard Reading Room, focuses on Latinas/os and the arts, with presentations by Ray Hernandez-Duran and Brian Herrera.
Contact El Centro de la Raza at elcentro@unm.edu or (505) 277-5020.
The Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico has voted to move the university’s employee health benefits to a self-insurance plan. UNM will continue to offer a three tier design with options to use the LoboCare Network and UNM Hospitals, the Lovelace and Presbyterian tier two network providers and hospitals, as well as out-of-network providers.
These are the same providers and hospitals offered in UNM's current medical plan. However, this strategic move means UNM and employees will see a zero percent increase in health insurance costs for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010.
A significant change for next year is UNM’s prescription drug coverage will be offered through Express Scripts, one of the largest prescription drug carriers in the nation. No matter whether you select Lovelace or Presbyterian, you will receive prescription drug coverage through Express Scripts. This eliminates the confusion and 'middleman' issues that employees currently face.
There is a financial incentive to purchase mail order generic prescriptions for a $10 co-pay, reduced from the current mail order $20 co-pay. However, employees will still be able to obtain prescriptions from retail pharmacies. An additional enhancement is a zero co-pay for diabetic supplies. These changes will result in prescription drug savings to the University of $725,000, a contributing factor to the zero percent increase in health premiums.
The only other plan design change is an increase in emergency room visit co-pays to $150. Helen Gonzales, vice president for Human Resources, says the university will also pursue a strategy of improved urgent care accessibility.
She says the move to self insurance for health benefits will save the university about $1.5 million for FY 2010. This savings will be placed in the insurance reserve fund.
The financial report given to the regents can be found at: UNM Health and Pharmacy Insurance Proposal.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Donna V. Robertson, professor and dean of the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture, presents a lecture, Monday, March 23, at 5:15 p.m. in the George Pearl Hall auditorium. Robertson is the first Marjorie Mead Hooker Memorial Visiting Professor, a professorship established as an endowed faculty position in the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning as a gift established in honor of his late wife from Van Dorn Hooker and his children, John Hooker and Ann Clarke.
Photo: Donna Robertson
As the school’s first endowed professorship, Robertson has visited the studios of Kramer Woodard, associate professor, School of Architecture and Planning, where they worked on urban infill issues.
Robertson, also the John and Jeanne Rowe Endowed Chair, is an academic leader of national and international stature. During her tenure, she has led the College of Architecture to national prominence. Demonstrating a remarkable range and depth of contemporary professional practice and knowledge, Robertson has established a graduate program in Landscape Architecture, organized the design and construction of the McCormick Tribune Campus Center, the State Street Village residence hall and the restoration of S.R. Crown Hall. She also brought the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, an international initiative on new high-rise projects, to the IIT campus.
In 2006 Robertson was named an American Institute of Architects Fellow, in recognition of her significant contribution to architecture and society and achievements in the profession. She has been named as one of the top thirty most respected educators by Design Intelligence magazine for bridging the practice of architecture with higher education.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
For the third consecutive year, a student from UNM-Valencia will represent New Mexico as the New Century Scholar at the national American Association of Community Colleges conference. Candice Chavez will also be honored as a Bronze Scholar, a first for a UNM-Valencia student.
Chavez is president of the UNM-Valencia Wellness Club and scholarship officer for the campus’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa honor society. She graduates this spring with an associate’s degree in pharmacy and will apply to the main campus pharmacy program. She plans to complete a doctorate in pharmacy.
She and fellow student Ysennia Aguirre, who just started the bachelor’s in nursing program at main campus, were named to the All-New Mexico Academic Team in February, making Chavez eligible for the national New Century Scholar award. A panel of judges selects award recipients without knowing the candidates’ names or schools. The top scoring student from each of the 50 states is named a New Century Scholar.
Chavez will receive a $2,000 scholarship from the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation and an additional $1,000 award for being named a Bronze Scholar. Scholars will be listed in USA Today.
Look out “Super Size Me.” With a mix of humor and science, “Fathead” challenges conventional wisdom about fast food, saturated fat and obesity. UNM student Tom Monahan composed the quirky soundtrack for the new documentary, released worldwide and opening in Albuquerque at the Guild Cinema on Friday, April 17, with showings at 7 and 9 p.m. Monahan will answer questions following the screening.
“The movie basically challenges current dietary myths,” he said.
Unlike “Super Size Me” writer/director Morgan Spurlock, “Fathead” writer/director Tom Naughton actually lost 12 pounds after 28 days on an all fast food diet. Naughton, a comedian and former health writer, calls the attitude in “Super Size Me” paternalistic, saying that Spurlock fails to credit people with common sense and personal responsibility.
“‘Fathead’ puts the responsibility of eating in the hands of the dieter,” Monahan said. “Rather than fast food restaurants forcing bad food on us, ultimately the choice is ours.”
Monahan became friends with Naughton while they both lived in Chicago. “Our musical and creative sensibilities were very similar,” Monahan said. Naughton thought Monahan’s musical style would be a good fit for “Fathead.”
Monahan, a senior majoring in theatre education, has lived in Albuquerque 13 years.
He started composing as a hobby with a shoe-string recording budget. When he was in his 20s, someone suggested he audition for “Beyond the Magic Door,” a children’s television show produced in Chicago. He got the job and later shared an Emmy Award for children’s broadcasting.
Monahan said he’s had an ear for music from an early age. The twist is that he’s always had difficulty reading music. Explaining how he gets past that barrier as a composer is tricky.
For “Fathead,” Monahan initially composed demos for the score using Apple’s GarageBand, a virtual recording studio. He said while computers are good at imitating many instruments, others sound obviously fake. But if the lead instruments are real, people will perceive the whole track as more natural.
Monahan worked with the film’s sound producer, Martin Blasick, to complete the score by transferring everything into ProTools, the current film industry standard, and integrating real instruments to finish the process. Working without sheet music, the two came to an organic process, “experimenting with a similar language until everything fit,” Monahan said.
The movie is also available on DVD. Visit Fathead-Movie.com.
The Success in the Classroom conference is a mark of UNM’s leadership in research on teaching and learning, said Janice Denton, professor of chemistry, University of Cincinnati, Raymond Walters College. Denton gave the keynote address, “Let’s Talk Publicly About Scholarly Teaching.”
“Many of us in academe who are interested in teaching and learning bemoan the fact that we have very few opportunities to get together and talk about our work. But you have created here… a fabulous opportunity for the rich exchange of ideas,” she said.
At the annual conference, organized by the Office of Support for Effective Teaching with the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Medicine, faculty share insights into improving teaching practices and student engagement. This year’s conference focused on student success, assessment and teaching with technology.
Denton chaired the University of Cincinnati’s academic assessment committee for more than 20 years. She summed up assessment as identifying, measuring and analyzing important learning outcomes.
“Despite the fact that we the faculty have always assessed student learning, I have a number of colleagues who still wonder what it is,” she said. “It is presented as some new age, out there concept instead of what it is, and that is classroom action research, an investigation of student learning. When it’s presented in this light, we can all relate to it, because we are all equally committed to helping our students learn.”
Denton said research on teaching and learning falls into a continuum from reflection to “controlled, traditional educational research.” In the middle of that continuum is classroom action research, or CAR.
“This is where you and I systematically inquire into some aspect of student learning, and we use data to answer practical questions about teaching and learning in our courses. CAR is more data-based and systematic than reflection, but it’s less formal and controlled than traditional educational research,” she said.
Denton said it’s important to acknowledge CAR as scholarship, particularly given the demands of attaining tenure. “It seems to me that to fail to recognize all the great teaching and learning that goes on within classrooms does a disservice to faculty scholars and ignores the teaching mission of the university.”
Denton and a colleague developed a program at the University of Cincinnati that places CAR on a level with other scholarly research. Faculty wrote a series of articles on course planning, teaching strategies and a CAR project, which were then peer reviewed according to the standards of scholarly research and shared with colleagues.
“This has proved to be a model that works well, mainly because it considers teaching to be a serious intellectual process associated with scholarly work, rather than a technique or a presentational method,” Denton said.
The Office of Support for Effective Teaching is gathering inquiries from faculty interested in pursuing a similar project at UNM. OSET offers workshops and other teacher support year-round. Call (505) 277-2229 or visit OSET.
Listen to Denton’s lecture at: Let’s Talk Publicly About Scholarly Teaching.
ITS Communications Network Services (CNS) has scheduled a system upgrade that will result in a 4-hour rolling telephone system outage Wednesday, Apr. 1 from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. The downtime will affect Main, North, and South Campuses, UNMH, all off-campus clinics, and leased buildings utilizing UNM telephone services.
During the upgrade cellular phones should be used to report emergencies to the Campus Police, as Code Blue phones will be out of service intermittently. Campus Police can be reached at (505) 277-2241.
For questions regarding the upgrade and outage, contact CNS Customer Care at 277-1111.
UNM-Valencia recently received a $9,000 donation from the St. Nicholas Project that will become part of the campus’ endowed scholarship fund. Kathy Esquibel and Judy Andrews, founders of the project, presented Alice Letteney, executive director of the campus, with the check.
Now in its 10th year, the project has focused on providing assistance to needy families during the holiday season, ranging from food to gifts, but with a twist: they wanted the parents to retain some input in the process.
“We gave the help to the parents,” Esquibel said. “The children never knew where the gifts came from. The parents did all the shopping themselves.”
The project has served close to 3,000 children since its inception, according to Esquibel.
This year Esquibel and Andrews decided to branch out with the project by establishing a scholarship, and they contacted UNM-Valencia. They pointed out that the funds from this project come via donations from community members, and that this donation reflected the wishes of the donors.
The campus will establish the St. Nicholas Rural Relief Scholarship Fund and will include the donation in its endowed fund, which receives matching funds from the federal government.
The 2009 John Donald Robb Composers’ Symposium, Sunday, March 29-Wednesday, April 1, features MacArthur fellow and Columbia University Professor of Music George Lewis, a prominent composer and performer in the experimental music tradition. The symposium is one of the longest on-going festivals of new music in the world. Most events are free.
Lewis was a member of the famed Chicago musician’s cooperative, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, on which he recently completed the definitive history, “A Power Greater Than Ourselves.” His appearance at the symposium is co-sponsored by the Outpost Performance Space, where Lewis and an ensemble featuring Nicole Mitchell and Hamid Drake will give the opening concert on Sunday, March 29, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $22 general, $17 for members and students.
On Monday, March 30, 7:30 p.m., a concert in Popejoy Hall includes the world premiere of Christopher Shultis’ “Openings” by the UNM Wind Symphony and a performance of John Donald Robb’s “Viola Concerto” by soloist Kim Fredenburgh with the orchestral ensemble “Chatter” conducted by David Felberg. Earlier that day is an outdoor performance near the Kiva auditorium at 4 p.m.
The symposium’s ensemble- in-residence, the Hoffman-Goldstein Piano-Percussion Duo, will be featured on Tuesday, March 31, 7:30 p.m. in Keller Hall. An afternoon performance of assorted composers will be held in Keller Hall at 2 p.m. Also on Tuesday, the UNM Art Museum presents the New Mexico premiere of Dada intermedia artist Kurt Schwitters’ 1923-32 Sound Poem, “Ursonate,” 5:30 p.m. in the George Pearl Hall Auditorium. The performance is by actress and vocalist Kristen Loree with a backdrop of projections by visual artist Jack Ox.
Concert performances guest curated by composer Raven Chacon on Wednesday, April 1, 7:30 p.m. in Keller Hall, emphasize radically new developments in contemporary music. Chacon will also present a collaborative electronics performance with William Fowler Collins at the UNM ARTS Lab, corner of Pine and Central, at 4 p.m.
The symposium also features the composition selected for the biennial UNM Robb Trust Composers’ Competition by an international panel of judges. The competition awards $3,500.
A series of panel discussions, meet the composer events and composition seminars are held throughout the symposium.
For more information, visit Robb Trust or call (505) 277-8967.
The University of New Mexico School of Law Women’s Law Caucus will present the 2009 Justice Mary Walters Award to Lorene Ferguson, one of the first women to be appointed to the Navajo Nation Supreme Court at a dinner on Thursday, March 26 from 6-8 p.m. at the School of Law Forum room.
Ferguson was born and raised on the Navajo Reservation. She graduated from the UNM School of Law in 1983 returned to the reservation to serve as a law clerk and staff attorney for the Navajo Nation Department of Justice. In 1992 she was appointed as a District Court Judge, and in 2001 she was appointed to the Navajo Nation Supreme Court as an associate justice, where she served until her retirement in 2007. She has also served as a faculty member with the Judicial College in Reno, Nev. on Alternative Dispute Resolution and Peacemaking.
Ferguson graduated from Fort Lewis College in 1965 with her B.A. in English Literature and taught at Headstart School in Kinlichee, Ariz. and taught kindergarten at the Rough Rock Demonstration School. Also prior to entering law school, she opened the Bison-Tentative coffee house and restaurant in Albuquerque.
The Justice Mary Walters Award is a yearly award presented to an outstanding woman in the legal community. This year, UNM law professor Eileen Gauna will present the keynote address during the dinner and awards ceremony.
Tickets to the event are $25 per person, $100 for a half-table of four or $200 for a full table of eight. Those purchasing a full table will also be acknowledged as a sponsor of the evening program. For more information, or to reserve a seat, please contact Kitren Fischer at fischeka@law.unm.edu or call 612.834.0190.
The federal government recently enacted major changes to the Family Medical Leave Act. The FMLA provides eligible employees up to a total of 12 workweeks of leave during any 12-month period for the following reasons: birth and care of an employee’s newborn child, placement of a child with the employee for adoption or foster care, care for an immediate family member (spouse, child or parent) with a serious health condition, or an employee’s own serious health condition that makes the employee unable to work.
The most significant changes involve clarifying the definition of a serious health condition, improving communication between employers and employees, and revising the regulations regarding military leave. In particular, the new FMLA ruling focuses on how and when employees notify their employer regarding FMLA leave and on the timing, approach and content of employers’ responses.
The Division of Human Resources proposed a series of revisions to the current FMLA policy, not only to ensure compliance with the new regulations, but to align current practices more closely with other universities. One of these common practices is to run FMLA leave concurrently with sick leave. The proposal was submitted to campus for consideration.
Extensive feedback was received from individuals and the Staff Council Work+Life Committee. The input highlighted the absence of a short-term disability program at the university and raised the concern that running FMLA leave concurrent with sick leave might be a hardship for employees. After careful consideration, we decided to only implement federally mandated changes at this time and to study the sick leave recommendation further.
For more information on FMLA regulations, contact a Human Resources consultant.
By Helen Gonzales, vice president, Human Resources
Today, black women artists use storytelling, a long time tradition in the black community, to portray life and history through their eyes. Africana Studies presented “Black Women Authors, Black Women’s Lives,” marking the close of Black History Month and commencement of Women’s History Month.
“I am inspired by everything that happens around me,” said Kimberla Lawson Roby, New York Times bestselling author. “I want to write about that real life issue.”
By writing about controversial issues in a fictional format, Roby urges readers to look at reality through a lens that can also be applied to their own lives.
Karen Jones Meadows, playwright and screenwriter said, “For me, usually the characters sit down and torment me until I write about them.”
Roby read from her book, “The Best of Everything,” which tackles issues like self-centeredness, deceit, infidelity and divorce.
Evie Shockley, poet, author and Rutgers University professor, read poems about racial issues and the women who have contributed to the unveiling of the feminine mystic, like Gwendolyn Brooks, Alison Saar and Anita Hill.
“I started thinking about what I might read for a program that is devoted to black women’s lives and I realized quickly that I would run out of time long before I had gone through even half of what I have written,” Shockley said.
Meadows performed a scene from her play, “Harriet’s Return,” about the life of Harriet Tubman and black female empowerment.
During a panel discussion following the performances, the audience asked about their challenges, inspiration and motivation as artists.
“The struggle is the how,” Shockley said. She added that as an artist, you want to write about an issue in a way that will distinguish you from what others have said.
The authors agreed that artists need a way to reconnect with the community they display in their work.
“Writing is a very lonely job,” Roby said. “Because you are sitting alone writing and sometimes it’s days and days on end.”
When you get to interact with other writers you have a chance to discuss your stories or storytelling methods with someone who can help you to get the message across, Roby said.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Basement Films and UNM’s Department of Cinematic Arts present Experiments in Cinema v. 4.2. The four-day celebration is designed to introduce Albuquerque to the international community of contemporary cinematic experimentalists and to nurture a home-grown community of experimental filmmakers whose works might join the larger conversation about the future of filmmaking in New Mexico.
Photo: Bryan Konefsky, founder of Experiments in Cinema.
For the first time, the festival features Albuquerque-based work produced by students attending YDI/Mi Voz, P.A.P.A. Charter High School and Albuquerque Academy on Thursday, April 16, 7:30-8:30 p.m. at 516 Arts, 516 Central Ave. SW. This event is free.
Kerry Laitala presents a filmmaking workshop on Friday, April 17, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and a screening on Saturday, April 18, 6-9:30 p.m. at the Guild Cinema, 3405 Central Ave. NE. Laitala’s hand-made 35mm films evoke the earliest days of cinema and have been screened at prestigious international film festivals. The screening also features a portrait of underground film visionary Mike Kuchar, “Cloud Cuckoo Land,” with video-art pioneer Joan Jonas. Guild Cinema tickets are $5 for students or $7 general admission. Workshop enrollment is limited to 10 participants and costs $25. To register, email bryank@unm.edu.
Short films from around the globe will be featured at the Southwest Film Center, Student Union Building, on Friday, April 17, 6-9:30 p.m. Films include “Manuelle Labor” by Marie Losier and Guy Maddin and works by Jennifer Hardacker, Roger Deutsch, Caroline Koebel, Penny Lane and David Finkelstein. Tickets are $3 for students, $4 faculty or $5 general.
Award-winning hand-made filmmaker Ben Popp will screen “The Tale of the Sea’s Dream” on Sunday, April 19, noon-3:30 p.m. at the Guild Cinema and facilitate a hand-made 16mm filmmaking workshop on Saturday, April 18, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. The screening also includes work by Jason Halprin, Chris Kennedy, Edgar Endress and Scott Stark and a presentation by visiting artist/curator Doug Katelus, director of the New Nothing Cinema in San Francisco, of work produced by the founder of that venue, Dean Snider. The workshop is limited to eight participants and costs $15. Contact Ben Popp at susejhead@yahoo.com.
For more information, contact Bryan Konefsky at (505) 235-1852 or bryank@unm.edu.
No fooling, the University of New Mexico Parent Connection Workshop Wednesday, April 1, is focused on getting students a job and on the path to a meaningful career during the college years. The free workshop is from 6-7 p.m. in the Dean of Students Conference Room, Student Services Center. Students get ahead of the Lobo pack by gaining professional experience while in academia.
UNM Career Services expert Marty Apodaca will talk to families about ways students can explore interests that may lead to a college major. He will also discuss how to find summer internships, co-ops, and employment opportunities, and how to land a “real” job after graduation.
Participants of the workshop will also take a short tour of the UNM Career Services Office, which is open to students, alumni and the community year-round.
UNM’s parent workshops are held the first Wednesday of each month in the Student Services Center, Dean of Students Conference Room, 2nd floor. From the Cornell Parking Structure (parking is $1.75 per hour), go north on Cornell Mall. Pass by Popejoy Hall and the Student Union (SUB). When you reach the north end of the SUB to east to the Student Services Center, located behind Mesa Vista Hall.
Check-in begins at 5:30 p.m. Parent Association members are on hand to visit with you about their experiences.
The series is sponsored by UNM’s Dean of Students’ Family Connection Program, Parent Relations Office and Parent Association.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Back by popular demand, and in a larger venue, the Staff Council Work+Life Committee will offer the second annual “Youth Summer Program Presentation” Thursday, April 2, from noon to 1 p.m. in SUB Lobo Rooms A-B. Light refreshments will be provided.
Each summer, working parents and guardians face the challenge of identifying quality childcare and youth enrichment experiences for dependants. In 2008, UNM’s Work+Life Committee responded by bringing in local professionals to share information about the variety of summer programs available to families.
“The response to the first presentation was incredible. We had parents spilling out the doors at the event so we knew we would have to offer it annually and in a larger room to accommodate employees and students,” said Karin Retskin, Staff Council administrator.
Presenters will include Trish Heaton of UNM Human Resources Client Services who organizes UNM’s Summer Helper Program, which provides campus employment opportunities to high school students.
Naomi Sandweiss, youth program supervisor for the UNM Division of Continuing Education, and Riann Powell, cultural activities coordinator for the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library System, are among other presenters.
Also speaking are representatives of the YMCA, City of Albuquerque Parks and Recreation Department and Albuquerque Biological Park.
Prized editions of the New Mexico Kids Magazine outlining an updated array of summer youth programs, camps and schools in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and the East Mountain area will be distributed.
For more information, call 277-1532 or email scouncil@unm.edu.
In April, STC.UNM will present awards to Assistant Professor for Electrical and Computer Engineering Pradeep Sen and five of his computer gaming students. The students conceived and developed simple versions of computer games, and Sen is working with STC.UNM to help them navigate the legal hurdles and copyright their games. One of the games is now in Beta testing with Xbox, and development is proceeding with the others.
Photo: Pradeep Sen
Sen says Xbox allows players to develop games and submit them to the playing community on the Xbox site. Players critique them and offer suggestions, which can be used to improve the game until the playing community deems it ready. At that point the game can be offered on the site either for free or a small amount of money. If any of the games make it to that final stage, the developer of the game will make royalties, and the university, through STC.UNM, will also make money from sales.
Sen would like to take each group of students in his computer gaming classes through the copyright stage because he believes it will help them understand the legal process needed to protect their intellectual property if they want to develop games professionally. He says it will also help develop UNM’s reputation as a welcoming place for gamers to perfect their skills.
Sen explains, “I would like to see UNM develop the reputation for supporting game development. This allows students to do complex problem solving in a context they understand.” This is the first group of gamers to have copyright projects through the university.
Students who will receive the creative awards from STC.UNM are Justin Kellogg for “Missile Defender,” Jeremy Wright and Craig Vineyard for “Buccaneer Bonanza,” John Harger for “Toybox Racing” and Guanyu Wang for “XTank.”
Lisa Kuuttila, President and CEO of STC.UNM, the wholly owned corporation that patents and markets intellectual property at the university says, “The games created by the talented students in the class are a welcome addition to the STC Intellectual Property portfolio. STC is a technology leader in technology transfer and used a variety of tools, including its on-line end-user licensing mechanism called foliodirect to transfer copy materials.”
The STC.UNM Creative Awards will be presented during a reception on Monday April 13, 2009 at 5:30 p.m. in the Science and Technology Park Rotunda at 801 University Blvd. SE on UNM’s south campus. The public is welcome to attend.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Raymond Sanchez has been unanimously elected as President of the Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico in a special meeting. Jack Fortner was elected as the Vice President and Carolyn Abeita is the Secretary/Treasurer for 2009. Sanchez says he hopes to have a good working relationship with the board and will work to repair relationships and tear down walls within the university.
Photo: Regents President Raymond Sanchez
The board had postponed the election of officers pending the confirmation of three members of the board. But Senator Linda Lopez, the chairperson of the Senate Rules Committee, indicated the committee has not yet been able to schedule confirmation hearings for Jamie Koch, E.G. (Gene) Gallegos and student regent Emily "Cate" Wisdom.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Incentives have been luring more film and television productions to New Mexico in recent years, but is the estimated $55 million spent each year worth the return? This week on “New Mexico in Focus” co-host David Alire Garcia speaks with New Mexico State Representative Dennis Kintigh – (R) Roswell, Jon Hendry, business agent with the Local Film Technicians Union, and Arts and Entertainment Reporter Dan Mayfield about this incentive program. “New Mexico in Focus,” KNME-TV, channel 5’s weekly one-hour news show, will air on Friday, March 20 at 7 p.m.
Co-Host Gene Grant will also be joined by regular panelists Jim Scarantino and Whitney Cheshire and this week’s guest panelists, reporter Marjorie Childress and former New Mexico Democratic Party Chairman John Wertheim to discuss the aftermath of the largest kickback scandal in New Mexico, the Democratic candidates in Albuquerque’s mayoral race that have dropped out so far, and ask of the newly-announced “Bless Me Ultima” movie will ever do justice to Rudolph Anaya’s award-winning book.
Producers of ‘New Mexico In Focus’ are Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer. Closed captioning has been made possible by a gift from Mrs. Elspeth G. Bobbs.
Media Contact: Evy Todd, (505) 277-1218; e-mail: etodd@knme.org
Student Employee of the Year Award nominations due April 3
Nominations are due for the second annual UNM Student Employee of the Year Award by Friday, April 3 at 5 p.m. Submit nominations in a sealed envelope to: Lisa Delgado, Dean of Students Office, Student Services Center, Room 280, MSC06 3600, or via e-mail at ldelgado@unm.edu.
Students employed through the office are eligible to participate in the awards contest and National Student Employment Week festivities, sponsored by UNM’s Graduation Task Force Student Engagement Committee.
For awards, students will be judged on quality of work, initiative, reliability, and professionalism, uniqueness of contribution, community and campus service.
Employers are encouraged to recognize and celebrate the contributions of UNM’s student workforce in a variety of ways within departments and programs. In addition, campus celebrations will be held during student employment week, as follows:
“Carnival”: Wednesday, April 15, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the SUB Atrium. Refreshments and entertainment provided for student workers and their employers.
“Student Employee of the Year Awards Ceremony”: Friday, April 17, at noon in the SUB Atrium.
For more information visit: Student Employment Week or contact Lisa Delgado, 277-7870.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The Minority Opportunities in Research (MORE) section of National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) at National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded UNM a four-year, $1.39 million grant to help in the training and the development of under-represented minority graduate students, and to assist them to perform successfully in the biomedical science/engineering Ph.D. programs.
MORE administers research and research training programs aimed at increasing the number of minority biomedical and behavioral scientists. Support is available at the undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral, and faculty levels, as well as for education and research infrastructure improvements.
This grant will go to the Postbaccalaureate Research and Education Program at UNM under the direction of Associate Chair and Associate Professor of Biology Richard Cripps.
“The overall idea is that many students wishing to go to graduate school decide to do so only late in their BS careers, and they have either little or no opportunity to perform research as undergraduates,” said Cripps. “Alternatively, some students wish to change fields between BS and Ph.D. This is a major challenge because most of the good graduate schools now not only prefer but also require laboratory experience as part of the graduate school application requirements. PREP will take these students and rigorously prepare them for the challenges of graduate school.”
The goals for the PREP program include identifying a cadre of qualified post-baccalaureate scholars, specifically minority BS/BA graduates, who chose to postpone graduate studies and to recruit them into the PREP program before they give up the idea of pursuing a graduate level career; provide these scholars with research and training opportunities that will give them the skills, confidence and time needed to prepare for graduate studies; and facilitate application and acceptance into a biomedical related graduate program.
“PREP is also focused upon reducing health disparities, diseases that show higher than-average occurrence in particular human populations in this country; we therefore hope that our Scholars will ultimately contribute directly to addressing these important issues,” said Cripps.
In 2005 UNM received a similar grant from the NIH and nearly 85 percent (16 of 19) students applied successfully to such notable schools like Stanford, Cal-Berkeley and the University of Michigan.
In hopes of making the PREP Program even more successful, a new wrinkle will be added. Graduate students will be evaluated on their expectations of graduate school while they are preparing for graduate school and while they are newly enrolled. The study will be in collaboration with Paul Guerin at UNM’s Institute for Social Research.
“We expect that it will not only enable us to better prepare our PREP scholars for graduate school, but can also positively impact UNM graduate school practices,” said Cripps.
Cripps said the dean of UNM’s Graduate School is a member on one of the steering committees for the program.
A new website for the PREP Program is in the works with plans for completion in April. Thereafter, applications will be accepted with the first group of approximately nine students to begin in early-summer.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The Anderson School of Management is hosting two information sessions for UNM staff interested in the Master of Business Administration or Master of Accounting programs. The first session will be held on Tuesday, March 24, from Noon to 1 p.m., at the Graduate School of Management, Room 226. A session for North Campus employees will follow on Wednesday, March 25, from Noon to 1 p.m., at the Domenici Center for Health Sciences Education, Room 3010.
Attendees will meet with admissions staff and learn about the Anderson School’s graduate management programs, the admissions process, tuition remission, admissions test requirements/preparation, and much more. Lunch will be provided.
To attend, RSVP by Monday, March 23 to John Benavidez at 277-1263 or benavidez@mgt.unm.edu. Please include your sandwich preference (turkey, chicken salad, or cheese) with your response.
Anderson’s MBA program is designed for students from a wide variety of backgrounds including liberal arts, sciences, education, law, business and for entry- and middle-level managers who want to enhance their career skills. The Anderson School is well recognized for delivering first-rate graduate education at an affordable cost. The school has the distinction of being the only business school in the greater Albuquerque area to be accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
For more information visit, Graduate Management Education.
Media Contact: John Benavidez, (505) 277-1263; e-mail: benavidez@mgt.unm.edu
Ambassador Vicki Huddleston will speak on “Retrospect: U.S. and Cuban Relations” on Thursday, April 2 at 6 p.m. in the Willard Room of Zimmerman Library. This is part of a series of lectures and panels being hosted by University Libraries to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution. For more information visit: Lectures and Exhibits.
Photo: Vicki Huddleston
Ambassador Vicki Huddleston is a visiting fellow at Brookings Institution (where she is a member of the Cuba Study Group) and a commentator for NBC Universal. She recently completed fifteen months as the acting American Ambassador in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
She has served as Ambassador to Mali and Madagascar, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Africa. She has also had extensive experience with Cuba, having served as Chief of Mission at the United States Interests Section in Havana and as Director and Deputy Director of Cuban Affairs at the Department of State.
April 4 - 2 p.m. - Willard Room, Zimmerman Library
Nelson P. Valdes is one of two lecturers on “Fidel and the Fiftieth: Film and lecture on legacy of the Cuban Revolution. Valdes retired from the University of New Mexico Sociology Department and has studied, taught and researched Cuba for many years. He was born in Cuba and as part of the Operation Pedro Pan (the largest recorded exodus of unaccompanied minors in the Western hemisphere) arrived in New Mexico at the age of 15.
Saul Landau is an internationally known scholar, author, commentator and filmmaker on foreign and domestic policy issues. Landau’s most widely praised achievements are the more than forty films he has produced on social, political and historical issues and worldwide human rights. He has one the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award, the George Polk Award for Investigative Reporting and the First Amendment Award as well as an Emmy for “Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang.”
April 7 - 6 p.m. - Willard Room, Zimmerman Library
This panel of students will speak on “Healthcare, Billboard Messaging and Energy Policies: Measures of a Revolution, Cuba 1959-2009.” Speakers include Max Fitzpatrick, PhD candidate in Sociology; Joseph Garcia, PhD candidate in Latin American Studies; and Lauren Koller, Law Program and MA candidate in Latin American Studies.
The lectures are sponsored by the University Libraries’ Division of Iberian & Latin American Resources & Services (DILARES), the Latin American & Iberian Institute and the Gorham Foundation. They are free and open to the public.
Media Contact: Carolyn Mountain, (505) 277-0818; e-mail: carolynm@unm.edu
The best & brightest young scientists in the regional area to gather
The 49th Annual Central New Mexico Science & Engineering Research Challenge takes place Friday-Saturday, March 20-21 in Johnson Center at the University of New Mexico. More than 600 middle and high school students will exhibit their science fair projects and compete for over $80,000 in prizes and scholarships.
“This event provides us (UNM) a great opportunity to showcase the University, recruit from a pool of excellent future student candidates, and promote science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in the state of New Mexico,” says Karen Kinsman, director of the Central NM Science & Engineering Research Challenge - one of the outreach programs managed under the STEM Education Outreach Programs office at UNM.
This year, the programs’ institutional sponsor is UNM’s Health Sciences Center.
The public open house takes place Friday, March 20 from 4 – 7 p.m. The Grand Awards Ceremony will take place on Saturday, March 21 from 10:45 a.m. - 12:45 p.m. in Popejoy Hall on UNM’s main campus.
Take this wonderful opportunity to see the positive side of New Mexico’s youth, encourage younger children to participate in science, math, engineering, and/or technology education, and celebrate the awesome efforts the participants have put forth in order to be part of the Central NM Science & Engineering Research Challenge.
For further information, call the UNM STEM Education Outreach Programs office at (505) 277-4916 or e-mail, kkinsman@unm.edu.
Are you interested in meeting other people who share the same challenges as you? Could you benefit from a supportive community, share and learn new tips, and enjoy a diabetic friendly recipe each week? Then you're invited to attend weekly meetings for Type I Diabetes Support Group. Weekly meetings are now forming beginning March 20-21. The meetings will be held from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Friday and 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday at the UNM Medical Campus. For more information contact Kim Lane at klane@salud.unm.edu.
Sponsored by the Diabetes Network, Inc.
In support of National Sleep Awareness and National Nutrition Month, UNM’s Employee Health Promotion Program (EHPP) asked Dr. Madeline Grigg-Damberger of the UNM Sleep Center to present "Sleep: Understanding the Basic Health Benefits." Grigg-Damberger will answers the question “can sleep deprivation and sleep apnea make you fat?" and other sleep related questions on Wednesday, March 18 from 12 to 1 p.m. in rm. 1016 at the UNM Business Center.
All faculty and staff are invited to attend and are asked to register via Learning Central Login, click on Catalog - Health Education (EHPP). Click on “Register” and “Confirm” to enroll in the class. You are welcome to bring your lunch.
For more information, contact Rhonda Miranda at 277-4996 or rmirand1@unm.edu.
Gov. Bill Richardson declared March 15-21 Poison Prevention Week in New Mexico and the New Mexico Poison and Drug Information Center (NMPDIC) is raising awareness of poison prevention to New Mexicans across the state. NMPDIC is available to the public and healthcare professionals 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Those needing “poison help” should call the NMPDIC at (800) 222-1222 toll free to reach New Mexico’s poison experts.
NMPDIC provides help with all types of poisoning situations such as medication errors, product misuses, alcohol misuses and toxic alcohols, animal bites and stings, plants, pet poisonings, pesticides, gases, chemical spills, hazardous materials, and environmental and occupational exposures. The center also offers drug information from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday at (800) 222-1222.
NMPDIC staff members answering poison emergency calls are pharmacists who are specialists in poison information. The center also has a medical toxicologist on call 24 hours. These specialists can often guide home treatment, allowing clients to avoid costly medical or emergency department visits.
NMPDIC is a public service program of the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center and serves as a major teaching site for the UNM College of Pharmacy and the UNM Department of Emergency Medicine.
For more information visit the center’s web site at: New Mexico Poison and Drug Information Center.
Media Contact: Lauren Cruse, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: lcruse@salud.unm.edu
All UNM Graduate Students are invited to an information session on Thursday, March 26, from 3 to 4 p.m. in the West Wing of Zimmerman Library. Graduate students will have a chance to meet their subject specialist in the library, find out about the new electric and theses dissertation submission requirements, and talk to fellow graduate students. Refreshments will be served.
For more information contact Ann Massmann (505) 277-8370 or via e-mail at, massmann@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Interested in a career in accounting, finance or management information systems (MIS)? Any job seekers in those career fields should plan to attend the 2009 Spring Accounting Career Fair on Thursday, March 19 from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. at the UNM Continuing Education Building located at 1634 University Blvd NE.
The Accounting Career Fair is an opportunity to meet with recruiters and professionals in the accounting, finance and MIS fields. The fair is open to all UNM and CNM students currently pursuing degrees, as well as alumni, and the general public. Participants are encouraged to bring a current resume and dress professionally.
This year there will be recruiters from more than 20 employers ready to talk with those looking for a job.
The employers scheduled to be present include:
Accounting & Consulting Group
Anderson Accounting Department
Atkinson & Company
Barraclough & Associates
Becker CPA Review
CNM Accounting Program
Farm Bureau Financial Services
Fidelity Investments
Grant Thornton LLP
Hinkle & Landers, PC
Institute of Internal Auditors
Internal Revenue Service
IRS Criminal Investigation Division
Kardas, Abeyta & Weiner
NM Society of CPAs
NM Taxation & Revenue Dept,
Meyners & Company
Moss Adams
Public Accountancy Board
Pulakos & Alongi
REDW, The Rogoff Firm
Ryan, Inc.
Sandia National Laboratories
UNM Human Resources
USDA Forest Service
For more information contact the Anderson School of Management Career Services Office at 505-277-8441 or via email at careerservices@mgt.unm.edu.
UNM President David J. Schmidly responds
The Office of the Governor today released the following statement from Gov. Bill Richardson regarding UNM and the UNM Board of Regents: Gov. Bill Richardson Issues Statement.
UNM President David J. Schmidly has the following response to the Governor's statement:
"As President of the UNM Regents, Jamie Koch has presided over an unprecedented period of change and growth for the University. I commend his years of leadership and look forward to his continuing presence on the Board. I also look forward to the new role to be undertaken by Regent Raymond Sanchez, who continues to tirelessly serve New Mexico and this university.
"I thank Governor Richardson for demonstrating once again his belief in the University of New Mexico as a ladder of opportunity for our young people and a vital economic engine for the State of New Mexico."
- UNM President David J. Schmidly
Regent Raymond Sanchez also responded to the Governor's statement:
"Jamie Koch has provided a great service to the University of New Mexico. He has been and continues to be an asset to our Board and to the university.
I am honored that the Governor has asked that I seek the position of Regents' President. I look forward to continuing to work with our main constituency, our students, as well as with our faculty and staff. We will come together again as a university and move forward - pulling together around issues that mean a lot us.
"Right now, that is the budget currently being decided upon by the Legislature. We will also be looking at the stimulus money that will soon be available, for it will provide another venue of support for our faculty in fulfilling UNM's primary missions of education, research, patient care and public service."
- Regent Raymond Sanchez
The UNM Alumni Association is hosting it’s annual Senior Conference: “Succeeding Beyond Your Degree” on Friday, March 27, from 11:30 – 4 p.m. at the UNM Alumni Center in Hodgin Hall.
The conference will begin with an etiquette luncheon at 11:30 followed by workshops presented by UNM Career Services, Office of Graduate Studies, New Mexico Educators Federal Credit Union and Kaplan Test Centers. Any student graduating in 2009 is invited to attend at no cost. Doorprizes will be given away.
To RSVP for the luncheon visit: UNM Alumni Association.
Note: $5 registration fee will be returned at the luncheon.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Deputy Provost Richard Holder announced that Susan Tiano, professor of sociology, has been appointed director of the University of New Mexico Latin American & Iberian Institute effective immediately. Tiano has been serving as interim director of LAII since January 2008, and was selected as director through an internal search chaired by Holder, and Brenda Claiborne, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.
Photo: Susan Tiano, director, Latin American & Iberian Institute
“I’m delighted and honored to be selected for this position. I look forward to working with faculty and students to make the LAII become the best it can be,” Tiano said.
Tiano’s areas of interest and expertise include women in Latin America, the maquila industry, and the effects of economic crises on women and households.
Tiano earned all her degrees in sociology, receiving her Ph.D. from Brown University in 1979, and her master’s and bachelor’s from Colorado State.
“Much of Susan’s teaching, research and scholarship are grounded in Latin America. Together with her institutional strengths and experience, she will provide strong leadership for the Latin American and Iberian Institute,” Holder said.
Tiano served as associate director of academic programs at the LAII, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, chair of sociology, and acting director of UNM’s Women Studies Program.
She served as co-chair of Gov. Richardson’s task force on poverty reduction.
Tiano has received the Regents’ Lecturer and President’s Lecturer awards as well as the Alumni Association’s Faculty Teaching Award.
Among her publications, Tiano wrote, “Patriarchy on the Line: Gender, Labor, and Ideology in the Mexican Maquila Industry,” and “Women on the United States-Mexico Border: Responses to Change.”
Tiano has served as a member of the International Committee of Sociologists for Women in Society; and several committees and councils for the American Sociological Association, including committee on international sociology; section on political economy of the world-system; and the section on world conflicts.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act by Congress, recently signed by the President, provides unprecedented opportunities for UNM in the advancement of education and research. The details about funding availability, guidelines, and deadlines are just beginning to be released by the federal agencies receiving funds.
To assist faculty, staff and students eligible for program and research dollars, the Office of the Vice President for Research is providing assistance in pursuing these opportunities.
“The purpose of the Stimulus package is to save and create jobs, and to expand research and educational opportunities,” says Julia Fulghum, Vice President for Research. “We realize the importance of providing the UNM community with up-to-date information as it becomes available and with prompt assistance in taking advantage of the funding opportunities the Stimulus provides.”
To assist with the preparation and submission of proposals and applications, the OVPR office has established several helpful measures:
* UNM-ARRA website with the latest agency and recovery updates, guidelines and proposal requests. It is up and running at Research Stimulus.
* A listserv, stimulus-info-L@unm.edu, to alert faculty and staff to possible grant and other funding opportunities.
* An e-mail account, stimulus@unm.edu, for your questions and information requests
* Assistance with proposal preparation and creation of “boilerplate” language
* Assistance with the required economic impact criteria and data, and
* Assistance with internal coordination and other issues that may arise in specific grant categories
The research office is working closely with the New Mexico Congressional delegation, federal agencies and the Governor’s New Mexico Office of Recovery and Reinvestment.
The ARRA will provide $787 billion nationally to stimulate the economy. Approximately $1.8 billion will be coming to New Mexico.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
The ITS Department will schedule several network upgrades during the latter part of spring break week, while students are off-campus. Infrastructure upgrades for the upcoming Banner Channels project will take place Saturday, Mar. 21 from 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. Also, during this period, all Oracle databases will be down Sunday, March 22 from 6 a.m. - 12 p.m. for a NetApps upgrade.
This upgrade will make the Channels visible on Banner first to Finance and then to other Banner users. The upgrades will assist Student Services’ move to South campus, and increase network security and reliability. The upgrades were scheduled for a time when a minimum of users will be affected.
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
Distinguished Professor of English Gary Scharnhorst recently edited “Mainly the Truth: Interviews with Mark Twain,” published by the University of Alabama Press. The book is featured in the press’s spring/summer catalog. Reviewers say that the book is a collection of the most colorful and vivacious interviews that Mark Twain gave to newspapers and reporters throughout his career.
A master storyteller and raconteur, Twain understood the value of publicity, and these interviews capture Twain at his most lively and in moments of candor and introspection.”
In his interviews, Twain discussed such topical issues as hazing and civil service reform, and more enduring concerns, such as his lecture style, his writings, government corruption, humor, his bankruptcy, racism, suffrage, imperialism, international copyright, and his impressions of other writers (Howells, Gorky, George Bernard Shaw, Tennyson, Longfellow, Kipling, Hawthorne, Dickens, Bret Harte, among others). These interviews are both oral performances in their own right and a new basis for evaluating contemporary responses to Twain’s writings.
Scharnhorst is author or editor of more than 30 books and editor of the journal American Literary Realism.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
March is Women’s History Month, and “New Mexico in Focus” co-host David Alire Garcia will be sitting down with well-known feminist rights advocate Martha Burk. “New Mexico in Focus,” KNME-TV, channel 5’s weekly one-hour news show, will air on Friday, March 13 at 7 p.m.
Burk made headlines when she challenged and led a protest of the male-only membership policies of the world-renowned Augusta National Golf Club, home of The Masters golf championship, the first of the four yearly men’s major golf championships. Burk is continuing her advocacy work in New Mexico as Governor Bill Richardson’s senior advisor on women’s issues. Additional guests for this week’s “New Mexico in Focus” are artist and curator Delilah Montoya, and Suzanne Sbarge, executive director for 516 Arts.
Also on this week’s show, co-host Gene Grant and regular panelists Albuquerque Journal columnist Jim Scarantino, political consultant Whitney Cheshire, and University of New Mexico professor Teresa Cordova are joined by author and writing coach Emily Esterson to talk about the battle over TIDDs heating up, Rush Limbaugh, and President Barack Obama’s stem cell research decision and its impact in New Mexico.
Producers of ‘New Mexico In Focus’ are Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer. Closed captioning has been made possible by a gift from Mrs. Elspeth G. Bobbs.
Media Contact: Evy Todd, (505) 277-1218; e-mail: etodd@knme.org
Redondo Boulevard will be closed from Central Avenue to Martin Luther King Boulevard on Saturday, March 14 from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. This is being done to move a crane into position to install new cooling units for servers located in the Computer Science Department.
UNM students, staff and faculty are advised to use alternate routes if they are in the area during this time.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
The ITS Computer Pods will have condensed hours over Spring Break, March 14 - 22. For more information contact the ITS Support Center at 277-4848.
Lobo Lab (in SUB)
277.8825
* CLOSED -- Saturday, March 14 - Tuesday, March 17
* OPEN -- Wednesday, March 18 - Friday, March 20, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
* CLOSED -- Saturday, March 21 - Sunday, March 22
ITS Building Pod
277.8143
* OPEN -- Saturday, March 14 - Sunday, March 15, 7 a.m. - MIDNIGHT
* CLOSED -- Monday, March 16
* OPEN -- Tuesday, March 17- Sunday, March 22, 7 a.m. - MIDNIGHT
Dane Smith Hall (DSH) Pod
277.0085
* OPEN -- Saturday, March 14, 8 a.m. - 3 p.m.
* CLOSED -- Sunday, March 15 - Wednesday, March 18
* OPEN -- Thursday, March 19 - Friday, March 20, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
* OPEN -- Saturday, March 21, 8 a.m. - 3 p.m.
* CLOSED -- Sunday, March 22
Engineering and Science Center (ESC) Southside Pod
277.0459
* CLOSED duration of Spring Break March 14 - March 22
Engineering and Science Center (ESC) Northside Pod
277.0440
* CLOSED -- Saturday, March 14 - Sunday, March 15
* OPEN -- Monday, March 16, 8 a.m. - 11 p.m.
* OPEN -- Tuesday, March 17 - Thursday, March 19, NOON - 11 p.m.
* OPEN -- Friday, March 20, NOON - 6 p.m.
* OPEN -- Saturday, March 21 - Sunday, March 22, NOON - 8 p.m.
Johnson Center Pod
277.2004
* CLOSED -- Duration of Spring Break, March 14 - March 22
Communications & Journalism (C&J)
277.7263
* CLOSED -- Duration of Spring Break, March 14 - March 22
Economics Building (Econ)
* CLOSED -- Duration of Spring Break, March 14 - March 22
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
Oxford University Press has recently published the work of Dr. Barbara McCrady, Director of UNM's Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, and Addictions (CASAA) and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology, and her co-author, Dr. Elizabeth Epstein of Rutgers University. The two books, ‘Overcoming Alcohol Problems, A Couples-Focused Program Therapist Guide’ and the ‘Workbook for Couples,’ are part of Oxford's "Treatments That Work" series on evidence-based treatments for psychological disorders.
Photo: CASAA Director and Distinguished Professor of Psychology Barbara McCrady
These publications, the result of McCrady's 30 years of research devoted to improving treatment for persons affected by alcohol use disorders, guide therapists in providing treatment for couples in which one member has a drinking problem.
The therapist guide and client workbook can help therapists, counselors, and graduate students in training at UNM to provide more effective treatment for their clients. To access availability visit: Therapist guide and Client workbook.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
UNM College of Pharmacy student Amy Bak has been named vice chair of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Student Forum Executive Committee.
The ASHP Student Forum Executive Committee is comprised of five students appointed by the ASHP president. The committee directs the activities and programs of the forum, and advises ASHP staff on ways to better meet the needs of the ASHP’s 10,000 plus student members.
Each executive committee member chairs one of the five national advisory groups, each comprised of 10 members. The committee meets three times a year, and conducts outreach with colleges of pharmacy throughout the nation.
Baker has been involved with ASHP for the past two years at the local and national level. After graduation, she plans on pursuing a residency. Her interests include critical care and oncology.
“No matter what I do, I will remain an advocate not only for the betterment of the profession of pharmacy, but for the professional development of pharmacists at all levels, from student pharmacists to clinicians and directors of pharmacy,” said Baker. “I feel I have found my professional home in ASHP and I’m excited to play an integral role in the betterment of our profession for many years to come.”
The mission of the ASHP Pharmacy Student Forum is to prepare the next generation of health-system pharmacists to be leaders in their schools and communities to advance the future of the pharmacy profession. For more information visit: ASHP.
Media Contact: Lauren Cruse, (505) 272-3690; e-mail: lcruse@salud.unm.edu
Ward Alan Minge was a professional historian at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque for decades, but while he worked for the government, he researched extensively for local pueblos trying to prove their land and water rights claims before the Indian Claims Commission. The documents, histories and testimony he assembled for several pueblo claims form the basis of this newly opened collection of documents in the Center for Southwest Research at Zimmerman Library.
The bulk of Minge’s work was for the pueblos of Sandia, Zia, Santa Ana, Jemez, Zuni, Laguna and Acoma. Minge literally wrote the book on Acoma.
Titled, “Acoma, Pueblo in the Sky,” the book was commissioned by the pueblo and published in 1976. It is still considered the standard text on Acoma.
Minge compiled documents from the National Archives and translated and transcribed documents from the Spanish and Mexicans periods. Those documents are contained in this collection. The documents offer a look at the foundation of many current land disputes.
For example, a translation of a letter from Friar Juan Miguel Menchero petitions the Spanish crown for land to allow Native Americans who had converted to the Catholic Church to establish a pueblo. The resulting land grant allowed the establishment of Sandia Pueblo and sets up the boundaries. You can read it in the original Spanish or in the English translation.
Graduate student James Dory-Garduno organized and documented the collection as part of his work as a Juan and Virginia Chacon Fellow. He said one of the most interesting parts of the collection includes testimony by Minge in of one of New Mexico’s landmark lawsuits, State v. Aamodt That suit settled the water rights of Nambe, Tesuque, San Ildefonso and Pojoaque Pueblos.
Minge argued that tribal water rights granted as part of the original Spanish Land Grants were meant to expand as pueblo populations grew. He faced off against Jose Fuentes Mares, a Mexican historian who believed the amount of water pueblos were granted in Spanish Land Grants was fixed at a certain amount. Minge’s testimony helped shape the questions settled by the suit.
The collection was donated by Minge donated the collection in 2007 and is now open to researchers. The finding guide for the collection on the Rocky Mountain Online Archive is available at: Rocky Mountain Online Archive.
Media Contacts: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
The University of New Mexico Air Force ROTC and the College Assistance Migrant Program will hold blood drives at the Student Union Building this month. The AFROTC’s blood drive is set for Thursday, March 26 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in SUB Ballroom A. UNM CAMP holds its drive on Tuesday, March 31 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in one of the SUB Ballrooms.
Elizabeth Yslas, administrative assistant II at AFROTC is organizing the drive for her department.
“I had an opportunity to speak to a United Blood Services coordinator who told me that the blood can be used for patients – like cancer patients who need platelets daily. When I attended a thank you luncheon and saw our numbers, I decided we could do better, we can do more. I want us to be able to help our community. It’s a selfless way to do it. It takes so little time and is a wonderful way to help out your neighbor,” she said.
UBS reports that last year UNM collected 697 units saving 2,091 lives. For more information about donating or to make an appointment, visit www.bloodhero.com or contact Elizabeth Yslas at 277-4502 or Ivan Olay at 277-5492.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting presented public television station KNME-TV, Channel 5, with the My Source Community Impact Award for Education for KNME’s Science Central project. The awards ceremony was part of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting/ PBS-hosted Council of Chief State School Officers Legislative Conference, held recently in Washington D.C.
KNME’s Science Central leverages New Mexico science and technology resources while fostering interest in science and math. New Mexico students lag behind the national average in science and math test scores. This project was designed to increase knowledge, improve science and math test scores, and maximize use of PBS and KNME science programming and online resources.
KNME’s partners in Science Central include: Albuquerque Public Schools, The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Explora Children’s Museum, the National Atomic Museum, and The Albuquerque BioPark.
Science Central is funded by New Mexico Tech, Sandia National Laboratories/Lockheed Martin, and Applied Research Associates, Inc. Science Central consists of:
· Science Crawl, a collaborative venture with Albuquerque Public Schools and the Albuquerque Science museums, allows students to explore the depth and richness of science and technology resources in New Mexico and builds interest and enthusiasm in the fields of math and science.
· KNME hosts Science Cafés at various locations throughout New Mexico. The concept is to show clips from an episode of a PBS Science programs, with a local expert on hand to have an open discussion with the audience in a café style atmosphere.
· KNME has also produced twelve "Why I became a scientist spots?" featured on-air and streamed online.
· KNME developed a Science Central web portal that promotes all KNME Science Central events and outreach activities, and developed Science Central Saturday morning pledge drives. For more information visit: Science Central.
“We are greatly honored to be recognized by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for KNME’s Science Central project,” said Polly Anderson, KNME general manager and CEO. “Science Central showcases New Mexico’s vast science and technology resources while also fostering interest in science and
math in the next generation of technology innovators.”
The My Source Community Impact Awards for Education were created by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting recognize public television stations for their commitment to providing educational services to preschoolers, senior citizens, teachers and caregivers; for those with learning disabilities; for those with physical challenges; and for lifelong learners of all races and heritage, with measurable results.
Media Contact: Evy Todd, (505) 277-1218; e-mail: etodd@knme.org
The folks at University of New Mexico-Gallup want local kids to read more – and they’re giving away free books to make sure it happens. The college held two recent successful initiatives which bode well for similar future events.
Photo: Kurt Voss, science instructor at UNM-Gallup's Zuni campus, reads to the children at the recent Book Extravaganza.
Last fall, the Transitional Studies program sponsored a book give-away through the college’s reading classes at the branch and the north campus. UNM-Gallup’s Student Senate lent a hand, hosting holiday dinners at the branch, north campus and Zuni. The cost of admission: a couple of juvenile or children’s books. The books were bundled by reading level, age appropriateness, theme and language, and distributed through the department’s developmental reading classes.
“Despite receiving more books than anticipated, requests for bundles surpassed the supply,” said Jayme McMahon, administrative assistant for Transitional Studies.
Another event, held at the Zuni campus last month, underscored the potential for the program to increase regional literacy. Last month, dozens of locals gathered for the first-ever Book Extravaganza – so named by the Zuni High School College Success class – when more than 700-books for infants, children, juveniles and adults were given for free. The books were donated by Half Price Bookstore in Cincinnati, Ohio, Cindy McFadden of Loveland, Ohio, Baker’s Dozen Day Care and Abigail Backer of Plainfield, Ind., and UNM-Gallup’s Title III.
“Entire families began showing up at 5:30 and picking out books,” said Erica Baker, Title III activities director/visiting lecturer in Transitional Studies. “Some families took home boxes of books, and others sat down on the chairs and began reading to their children right on the spot. By 7 p.m., many of the books were gone and several requests were made to have another similar book fair.”
Both McMahon and Baker said they will host similar events in the future. “This is a project that has the potential for being a successful annual event that not only spotlights the campus’s interest in the education needs within our region, but also increases literacy awareness and reading levels within the UNM Gallup campus community,” McMahon said.
Media Contact: Linda Thornton, (505) 863-7565; e-mail: lthornton@gallup.unm.edu
Ecotone Physical Theatre presents “Falling Apart – An Evening in Three Acts” on Friday, March 13 and Saturday, March 14, 8 p.m. at the UNM ARTS Lab Garage, 131 Pine St. NE, near University Boulevard and Central Avenue.
Each performance is a fully improvised work stemming from an environment created for the performers by UNM students in 3-D design, video and computer animation and dance.
Ecotone Physical Theatre is a New Mexico-based improvisational performance ensemble founded in 2006. The ensemble includes dancers, actors and musicians.
Tickets are $10 at the door. Seating is limited. For more information visit: Ecotone Physical Theatre.
In both the historic record and popular imagination, the story of 19th-century westward expansion in America has been characterized by notions of annexation rather than colonialism, of opening rather than conquering, and of settling unpopulated lands rather than displacing existing populations.
Native New Mexican Laura E. Gómez, University of New Mexico professor of Law and American Studies, will discuss and sign her book Manifest Destinies at the UNM Bookstore on Thursday, March 12 at 4:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.
Using the territory that is now New Mexico as a case study, Manifest Destinies traces the origins of Mexican Americans as a racial group in the United States, paying particular attention to shifting meanings of race and law in the 19th-century.
Author Laura E. Gómez, explores the central paradox of Mexican American racial status as entailing the law’s designation of Mexican Americans as “white” and their simultaneous social position as non-white in American society. She tells a neglected story of conflict, conquest, cooperation, and competition among Mexicans, Indians, and Euro-Americans, the region’s three main populations who were key architects and victims of the laws that dictated what one’s race was and how people would be treated by the law according to race.
Gómez’s path breaking work—spanning the disciplines of law, history, and sociology—reveals how the construction of Mexicans as an American racial group proved central to the larger process of restructuring the American racial order from the Mexican War (1846–48) to the early 20th century. The emphasis on white-over-black relations during this period has obscured the significant role played by the doctrine of Manifest Destiny and the colonization of northern Mexico in the racial subordination of black Americans.
The UNM Bookstore is located at 2301 Central Ave. NE at the intersection of Cornell and Central. Parking will be validated in the parking structure for up to one hour with purchase. Call Lisa Walden at 505-277-7494 for more information.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Marketing class to develop a recruitment advertising campaign
Students in the advertising campaigns course at UNM's Anderson School of Management are getting an extremely rare opportunity to work with the Central Intelligence Agency. UNM is one of only three universities in the nation to be selected by the CIA and EdVenture Partners to participate in the CIA Collegiate Marketing Program. As part of this semester-long program, students formed their own marketing agency, Inspire Anderson Marketing (I AM).
The agency is developing, implementing, and measuring a comprehensive marketing campaign for the CIA. The objective of this campaign is to increase awareness of CIA career opportunities, with a focus on filling the recruitment pipeline for the CIA’s National Clandestine Service.
“Management classes that offer real-world experiences, such as advertising campaigns, are crucial in providing students with the hard and soft skills needed to be successful in a business career,” says John Benavidez, marketing professor. “These transformational experiences give our graduates an advantage in the highly-competitive job market.”
Students who enthusiastically embrace the program have ample opportunity to polish their existing skills while also applying their academic background to the real world. Specifically, the CIA Collegiate Marketing Program gives them the opportunity to develop real experience with market research, marketing strategy and campaign design, advertising, public relations and campaign assessment.
The curriculum also enables students to gain hands-on experience that can translate into many different career paths including organizational leadership, marketing communications, client relations, business writing, project management and more.
For more information visit: Central Intelligence Agency.
Media Contacts: Chris Hodge, (505) 688-3260; e-mail: chodge@unm.edu or Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The RWJF Center for Health Policy Spring Lecture Series presents, “’It’s Like Going through an Earthquake’: Anthropological Perspectives on Mental Illness and Health Among Latino Immigrants,” on Thursday, March 12 from 12:30 – 2 p.m. in the Student Union Building Lobo B. The speaker is Peter Guarnaccia, Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers University.
Guarnaccia is a professor in the Department of Human Ecology, a multi-disciplinary social sciences department focused on the interactions of humans with their environment.
The lecture is an in depth examination of Latinos’ conceptions of mental illness, with a focus on depression, and their attitudes toward and expectations of mental health treatment. This lecture summarizes several qualitative studies exploring a diverse group of Latinos’ cultural understandings of mental health, responses to mental health treatment and barriers to care.
The lecture builds on a series of focus groups with Cuban, Mexican and Puerto Rican participants in New Jersey and New York. The presentation ends with a call for more community-based intervention.
The New Mexico chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals will host its next luncheon on Thursday, March 12, from 11 a.m. to the 1:30 p.m. at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, located at 12th Street and I-40. The discussion titled, ‘Becoming a Resilient Organization: Surviving and Thriving in Tough Economic Times,’ will be led by ethicist Joan McIver Gibson and Rust Professor of Business Ethics at UNM Anderson School of Management Sarah Smith.
The luncheon cost is $25 for member and $30 for non-members with not-for-profit organizations. Reservations can be made by calling (505) 239-9106 or via e-mail at, marjohnson-nm@comcast.net.
Gibson and Smith will explore how values-based decision-making creates and maintains organizational resiliency through good and bad times. The group will listen, participate and contribute to each other through interactive table-top discussions and real life scenarios.
The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) represents more than 30,000 members in 200 chapters throughout the world, working to advance philanthropy through advocacy, research, education and certification programs.
The association fosters development and growth of fundraising professionals and promotes high ethical standards in the fundraising profession. The New Mexico Chapter of AFP has 160 members across the state.
For more information visit: New Mexico Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
Due to the scheduled renovation of University Arena, “The Pit,” The University of New Mexico 2009 Spring Commencement will move to Tingley Coliseum and the scheduled commencement address by former Mexican President Vicente Fox will be delayed.
“Absent the Pit, there is really no venue that could accommodate the anticipated crowds, security and other logistical concerns that would accompany a commencement ceremony that included a former head of state,” said UNM President David J. Schmidly.
The rescheduling of President Fox’s commencement speech will not affect his planned visit to UNM this Fall, said Schmidly. During that visit, the former President will take part in a week-long series of lectures, panel discussions and meetings.
UNM’s Spring Commencement is scheduled for May 16.
Join the Staff Environs Committee and Physical Plant Department Environment Services for a ceremonial tree planting and workshop on Friday, March 13 at noon, outside the west entrance of Johnson Gym. As part of the tree planting Bryan Suhr, certified arborist and Aboriculture supervisor will present a workshop on "How to Properly Plant a Tree." He will demonstrate and discuss the proper methods for tree planting.
The Staff Environs Committee has been collecting change from jars at the cash registers in the Student Union Building food court since last summer and now has purchased four Chanticleer Pear trees to help shade the Cornell Mall.
Special thanks go to Chartwells, the food service supplier for donating money for one of the trees and assisting the Staff Council in raising the money for the others and to Suzanne Mortier, University Landscape Architect assisted with selecting the trees.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
University Libraries Promotion and Publicity Committee sponsors a film contest for UNM students. First, second and third place prizes are offered respectively at $100, $75 and $50 in Lobo cash cards.
Winning videos will be posted on the library website and screened at an award ceremony during National Library Week, April 12-18.
Contest Rules:
· Deadline for submissions - March 31
· All currently enrolled UNM Albuquerque campus students are eligible to enter
· Movie should be 2 minutes or less in length
· Preferred formats include: .avi, .mov, .mp4, or .ogg
· Provide your name, email, phone number, UNM major and year (freshman, sophomore, etc.) with your submission
· Provide the name and contact information for any recognizable person in the movie so we can contact them for a release or provide a release to us with the movie.
· If you want to film inside one of the libraries, please let a staff person know you are a contest participant
· Participants agree to provide the UL Non-exclusive world rights (creative common’s license to come)
· Entries will be judged on the best use of the theme.
· Submit on a DVD or CD to:
Promotion and Publicity Committee
University Libraries
Office of the Dean
MSC05 3020
Media Contact: Patricia Campbell, (505) 277-1010; e-mail: pcamp@unm.edu
The Anderson School of Management, the Vice President for Business and Finance, and the Vice President of Health Sciences sponsor scholarship opportunities for UNM staff employees and faculty interested in attending the Anderson School of Management's Executive MBA (EMBA) Program.
The EMBA program is a 25-month, on-campus weekend program for those with at least three years of significant work experience. The program begins once each year in late June. Classes meet every other weekend on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings. The next class will begin on June 26, 2009. For more information visit: EMBA Program.
To be considered for a scholarship, applicants must first meet the admissions criteria for the EMBA program.
UNM staff are eligible to apply for one of two full scholarships which will pay 100 percent of the EMBA program costs (less tuition remission) for the length of the program.
UNM faculty and staff are eligible to apply for a partial scholarship which will pay all but $1,000 per semester (after tuition remission) for the length of the EMBA program.
These scholarship programs serve as a demonstration of UNM’s and the Anderson School of Management’s commitment to provide career development opportunities for staff and faculty at UNM. The University is fortunate to have such a talented and motivated staff and faculty and is committed to supporting their career development. At the same time, the University needs faculty administrators and managers who are prepared to meet the challenges ahead. These scholarships are designed to connect these two initiatives by supporting those who are interested in pursuing a management career at UNM.
If you want to in develop and improve your business, problem solving and strategic thinking skills, we hope you will consider this exciting scholarship opportunity.
Detailed information about the scholarships, including the application process, can be found at: Human Resources.
The deadline for UNM faculty or staff to submit EMBA application materials, including the UNM scholarship application form and a GMAT or GRE score, is Friday, May 15, 2009. Late applications cannot be considered.
Hawaii is much more than just a tourist hotspot – it’s also a researcher's dream, even if you have to get up at 2 in the morning to gather some of your data. Just ask climate change researchers from the University of New Mexico and The University of Colorado who have taken to the Big Island looking for an ideal low humidity location to help decipher the processes that control the distribution of water vapor of the atmosphere. It’s a unique place to conduct climate change research, but location history also helped to identify the spot.
Photo: Assistant Professor Joe Galewsky and graduate student John Hurley at the Keeling Building at the Mauna Loa Laboratory, site of the CO2 easurements from the famous Keeling Curve and the location of the UNM/CU/JPL water vapor isotope project.
With the aid of National Science Foundation funding, UNM’s Joe Galewsky and Zach Sharp, along with CU’s David Noone, are tracking water vapor that converges on the Big Island's Mauna Loa, the largest volcano on Earth, rising to more than 2 miles above sea level. It is the ideal location to study low humidity air because there are two distinct atmospheric layers in that particular region – one layer, which one might expect in Hawaii, is hot and humid below 3,000 feet; the other is a dry, cool atmospheric layer, above 3,000 feet.
“Driving from the beach at Hilo up to Mauna Loa like driving from Houston to Albuquerque in an hour,” says Galewsky, an assistant professor in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department. “Houston is muggy and Albuquerque is dry and you drive across the boundary between the two layers over the span of just a few minutes.
“The air we are sampling at Mauna Loa has traveled over the entire the entire Pacific Basin. There's no other place you could take these measurements. An instrument here in the middle of the Pacific can tell us information about the whole Northern Hemisphere.”
About 50 years ago, Charles Keeling selected Mauna Loa’s height and isolation for the first continuous carbon dioxide measurements, which showed carbon dioxide on the rise at an ever-quickening pace. Keeling was one of the first American scientists to alert the world to the human contribution to the greenhouse effect and global warming.
Last fall, Galewsky and Noone were in Hawaii to attend a conference on the role of water vapor in the Earth's climate system. They used the opportunity to conduct a field program with the entire team at the Mauna Loa Observatory. The research team also included UNM graduate students Leah Johnson and John Hurley.
The researchers say that understanding the processes that control atmospheric humidity are critical to making accurate projections of future global warming. Similar to carbon dioxide, water vapor traps and radiates heat back towards Earth. They are studying clues created by oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in water vapor.
Water molecules with heavy isotopes condense preferentially, say the researchers, and the amount of heavy isotopes in water vapor can be used to decipher the meteorological history of air motion in the central Pacific Basin.
Photo (l. to r.): UNM graduate student Leah Johnson, Columbia University researcher Jonathon Wright, and UNM graduate student John Hurley collecting water vapor samples at Kolekole Beach in Hawaii.
To gather the information, they use every instrument available to them along with some old-fashioned rigging to measure heavy oxygen and hydrogen. Their instruments included three autonomous, laser-based analyzers, a pair of satellites, a series of hand-held flasks, and home-built, dry ice-cooled water traps rigged from surgical tubing and fish tank parts.
The trap and flask samples have to be manually collected in the middle of the night – at 2 a.m., local time. It’s at this time when the temperatures on Mauna Loa’s dried lava fields dip near freezing and the air is especially dry. For two hours, the traps are fed a continuous dose of dry ice.
“It’s incredibly dry in the middle of the night. It’s not what you’d expect in Hawaii,” said Galewsky. “We are confident the new laser measurements will help us pin down the circulation in that part of the atmosphere.”
Armed with this information, they can identify the paths along which air parcels travel and create maps of water’s journey through the atmosphere.
“We are motivated by the new technologies,” said Galewsky. “We hope to get an instrument setup permanently on Mauna Loa that will help us better understand the large scale distribution of atmpspheric water vapor and how it might change under projected global warming scenarios.
Galewsky and Noone will also collaborate with researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to compare data from the ground-based instruments used by Galewsky and Noone, to measurements made by NASA’s Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer on NASA’s Aura satellite. This will enable them to use the remote observations to track water vapor on a global scale and diagnose large changes in the water cycle as the planet warms.
“We are setting the groundwork to help us understand systematic changes in the large scale circulation of Earth's atmosphere,” said Galewsky. “It’s actually very tricky, but anything we can do to understand climate change is an important contribution.”
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The votes for the University of New Mexico’s faculty vote of no confidence have been counted. But what's next for the UNM faculty after last week's no confidence votes in President David Schmidly, Regent Jamie Koch and Chief Financial Officer David Harris? That and more will be the focus of this week’s “New Mexico in Focus.” “New Mexico in Focus,” KNME-TV, channel 5’s weekly one-hour news show, will air on Friday, March 6 at 7 p.m.
Co-host David Alire Garcia will sit down with Doug Fields, president-elect of the UNM Faculty Senate, Ursula Shepherd, co-chair of the UNM Committee on Governance, and UNM Staff Council president Loyola Chastain to talk about the fallout from last week’s UNM Faculty meeting.
Plus, time is running down on this year's legislative session. Alire Garcia catches up with lawmakers and lobbyists in the Roundhouse to find out if time has run out on big issues like ethics reform and domestic partnership.
Then co-host Gene Grant and regular panelists Whitney Waite Cheshire and Jim Scarantino will be joined by KKOB-AM reporter Peter St. Cyr and David Maass with the Santa Fe Reporter to discuss these topics, in addition to a controversial affordable housing plan in Santa Fe, and a proposal to give non-profits the cold shoulder at Albuquerque City Hall.
Producers of ‘New Mexico In Focus’ are Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer. Closed captioning has been made possible by a gift from Mrs. Elspeth G. Bobbs.
Media Contact: Evy Todd, (505) 277-1218; e-mail: etodd@knme.org
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Suzanne Ortega recently announced the appointment of James Linnell as acting dean of the College of Fine Arts. Prior to this appointment, he served as CFA senior associate dean.
Photo: Jim Linnell, acting dean, College of Fine Arts
Linnell, a writer and director, has taught at UNM since 1975 and previously at Northwestern University. As chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, he helped to establish the Master of Fine Arts in dramatic writing. He has also served as artistic director of the Words Afire Festival, a festival of new plays from the dramatic writing program.
Linnell’s work has been performed in the United States and abroad in Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Israel. He is completing a book on dramatic writing, “Walking on Fire: The Shaping Force of Emotion in Writing Drama,” for Southern Illinois University Press.
He received a master’s degree at Ohio State University and a doctorate in directing at the University of California at Berkeley.
CFA Dean Christopher Mead is taking sabbatical leave this semester and will step down as dean at the end of July.
Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1593; e-mail: michal@unm.edu
The ITS Department has a newly redesigned website which offers easy access to NetID and password information, IT-related news and upcoming events, ITS alerts, upcoming and current network and system upgrades and outages, secure downloads, customer support, FastInfo and contact information.
One of the many features the ITS Department offers is a listserv notifying UNM students, faculty and staff of upcoming and current system upgrades and outages, including status, length of upgrade, and services which are unavailable during the upgrade.
These notifications are useful to have to stay up-to-date on the type of technological upgrades taking place on campus and to plan accordingly if a specific software or application will be unavailable at certain times.
To receive these notifications visit Information Technology Services and click on Subscribe To A List. Next to the List Name field, type the name of the listserv, which is SYSINFO-L@LIST.UNM.EDU, and click Submit. You will be asked to enter your name and e-mail address, and finally click Join List.
You can also visit the ITS web site at http://its.unm.edu to see a complete listing of upgrades and outages. The site is updated constantly so check back frequently for news and events.
Last summer, graduate student Melissa Sterling was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and mastocytosis. The Afghan Student Association hosted a marrow donor drive on main campus this week to find a match for her. The drive continues on Friday, March 6, noon-5 p.m. in the Health Sciences Service Building, room 105.
Photo: Potential bone marrow donors look to help a fellow student.
Narwid Farhad, president of the Afghan Student Association said potential donors had a cheek swab taken for testing and got information, about a 15-minute process. Potential donors were registered with the National Marrow Donor Program, which matches them with potential recipients.
Sterling, a 30-year-old Las Cruces native, is taking her first year in UNM’s physical therapy master’s program. Her illness has changed life for her and her family.
“We got the call on a Friday night, and we thought she had been in an accident,” said Maria Elena Sterling, Melissa’s mother. “But it was a social worker from the hospital telling us ‘We have Melissa here in the hospital and we think she has leukemia,’ so I just went bananas.”
“Melissa has always been just so giving,” said Michelle Sterling-Rodriguez, Melissa’s sister. “But I think that’s maybe one of the things that has changed a little since she’s been sick, because now she thinks a bit more about herself for a change.”
Acute myeloid leukemia is a blood and bone marrow cancer. The bone marrow makes abnormal blood cells that crowd out functioning cells the body needs, according to the National Marrow Donor Program. With abnormal (or leukemia) cells growing, the body cannot fight infections.
According to the Clevland Clinic, in mastocytosis, the body has produced too many mast cells, a kind of cell made by bone marrow. Mostly found in skin, lungs and intestines, mast cells help defend these tissues from disease by attracting other cells to area, releasing chemical “alarms” such as histamine and cytokines.
After she was diagnosed and began receiving treatments at UNM Hospital, Sterling worried about her life and her future at UNM.
“Knowing that she was going to have to reduce her classes and not stay with her peers and friends, I think, aside from knowing that she had cancer, was the most devastating thing for her,” Michelle said.
Melissa continued attending classes at UNM between her chemotherapy treatments with support from her family and friends.
In November, the leukemia went into remission, but it returned a month later. Sterling has been in the hospital since January, undergoing chemotherapy treatments. Her doctors think that a bone marrow transplant would cure both the leukemia and mastocytosis.
“It is really sad because we know her match is out there. The hard thing is trying to find it,” said Aubrie Vargas, National Marrow Donor Program.
Both of Sterling’s sisters, Michelle and Jennifer, were tested as potential donors, but neither matched Melissa’s tissue type.
“We decided to put together a marrow drive the minute we learned she needed a transplant,” Michelle said.
Marrow donations are based on tissue type rather than blood type. “People’s tissue type is very closely linked to their race or ethnicity, so diversity is key,” Michelle said.
“Minorities have a hard time finding matches because there aren’t enough registered,” Vargas said. “African Americans have an 83 percent chance that they will not find a match on the registry. Hispanic Americans have a 55 percent chance that they won’t find somebody.”
Potential donors can register at Join the Donor Registry. The National Marrow Donor Program will send a cheek-swab kit to determine tissue type. If matched with a patient, donors provide either a marrow or peripheral blood stem cell donation. Both procedures are safe and free to the donor.
For more information about the drive at UNM, contact Jessica Castellano at (505) 920-6217 or jcastellano@salud.unm.edu.
Story by Jazmen Bradford
A new “hot button” on the UNM home page titled 'Budget Impact' has been created in order to communicate with UNM students, faculty, employees, and constituents openly and transparently. The site contains information on the current state of the UNM budget, the New Mexico state budget and their impact on UNM.
Sections on the site invite visitors to share suggestions or comments on how to save money or generate revenue, ask questions, address rumors (at the “water cooler”), and share articles relative to what other Universities are doing. Also posted are national trends in the higher education budget picture. An area where individuals or departments can highlight the innovative ways in which they are a part of the solution is also featured.
Suggestions, questions and responses will be posted as quickly as possible and anonymously. If several questions touch on the same issue, they will be combined. The e-mail address for all budget impact web site communication is budgetimpact@unm.edu The site is monitored and maintained by University Communication & Marketing.
To learn more about the current budget situation, please take a moment to visit: Budget Impact.
Media Contacts: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu; Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu; Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu; Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1593; e-mail: michal@unm.edu; and Steve Carr (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Rosalie Little Thunder, an elder with the Lakota Nation and a professor at Black Hills State University, will speak on Native American activism and the slaughter of bison at the Yellowstone National Park when she visits the University of New Mexico School of Law on Thursday, March 12 at 6 p.m.
Prior to Ms. Little Thunder’s speech, the documentary movie “The Buffalo War” will be shown. “The Buffalo War” explains the annual bison slaughter at Yellowstone National Park from the perspective of environmentalists, ranchers, government employees and Native Americans.
Ms. Little Thunder will then speak about the annual event and the spiritual march she led across Montana to object to the slaughter. She will also talk about Lakota culture and Native American political activism.
This event is open to the public and is sponsored by the Tribal Law Journal, the Student Animal Legal Defense fund, the Native American Law Student Association, and the Environmental Law Society. For more information visit: The Buffalo War.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
The University of New Mexico Institute for Medieval Studies hosts the annual meeting of the Medieval Association of the Pacific on Friday and Saturday, March 6-7 at the UNM Student Union Building.
The association has existed since 1966 and this is the first time it has met in New Mexico, said Tim Graham, institute director. They expect 150 attendees to the regional conference, with faculty and graduate students from institutions across the Pacific region – including Canada and Japan – and the Southwest.
“UNM will be well represented. We have 13 students delivering papers – 11 graduate students and two undergraduates, as well as four faculty and two adjuncts,” Graham said.
Some of the topics being addressed are Art and the Byzantine World; Poetics, Sex, and the Single Saint Salvation; Witchcraft, and the Devil in the Libro de Buen Amor; Defining and Redefining Gender; Narratives of Conversion and Salvation; (New) Media and Medievalism; Sexy Floating Hybrid Zombies: The Women of Chaucer, Apollonius, and Emaré; Intersections of the Natural and the Supernatural; and Race, Rape, and Rhetoric in Medieval German Literature.
For more information visit: Medieval Association of the Pacific.
The UNM College of Arts and Sciences, Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, and the Medieval Studies Student Association are all supporters of the conference.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The University of New Mexico Provost Suzanne Ortega announced today that Kevin K. Washburn has been selected to lead the UNM School of Law as its newest dean and full professor of law. Washburn will begin his tenure at UNM on June 30, 2009.
Photo: Kevin K. Washburn was chosen dean at the UNM School of Law.
"Professor Washburn has deep roots in the New Mexico legal community and national experience in legal education. We are fortunate to have him return to the School of Law," said Ortega.
An enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, Washburn is the first American Indian to serve as the dean of UNM’s School of Law. He began his legal education at UNM at the American Indian Law Center’s summer program and later taught Indian law issues here as an adjunct professor.
Washburn currently serves as the Rosenstiel Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law. A widely published scholar, he previously taught law at Harvard and the University of Minnesota.
Prior to entering academia, Washburn was a federal prosecutor in New Mexico and later served as the General Counsel of the National Indian Gaming Commission, an independent federal regulatory agency in Washington, D.C.
Washburn earned his law degree from Yale Law School in 1993, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Journal on Regulation. Following law school, he clerked for Judge William C. Canby Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He began his career in the Honors Program at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. He has been a member of the New Mexico bar since 1994.
"UNM School of Law has a talented and committed faculty, a diverse and dynamic student body, and a deep and devoted alumni base. I will be honored to serve this community," said Washburn.
Dean Brenda Claiborne, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and Professor Laura E. Gómez, Associate Dean at the School of Law, co-chaired the law dean search committee, which selected Washburn as a finalist following a national search.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
Air Force ROTC Cadet Jesus Burciaga recently received the Marshall-Henry “Hap” Arnold award, given to the number one graduate from a detachment based on integrity, leadership, scholarship, physical fitness and overall performance.
Photo: AFROTC Cadet Jesus Burciaga meets Chief of Staff General Jumper, retired, in Washington, D.C.
Along with this recognition, Burciaga was granted the prestigious honor of attending the 2009 Marshall Arnold AFROTC Award Seminar representing Detachment 510 and UNM.
"It is great to send our Top Cadet to represent UNM and the AFROTC program at a national event,” Lt. Col. Raul Garcia said. “It was amazing to hear positive feedback from Cadet Burciaga regarding the ease of access to top DoD [Department of Defense] and Air Force officials and it will greatly benefit him in the years to come."
The seminar recognizes outstanding senior cadets from all college and university campuses that have AFROTC detachments. Cadets were treated to a key note address by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz, who provided insight on the Air Force to these cadets who will begin their careers as second lieutenants in the fall.
The cadets were given the opportunity to choose five of the 10 roundtable discussions offered including discussions of religion and ethnicity, unmanned aerial vehicles, homeland security, Asian Pacific region, Iraq and others.
Each table was headed by subject matter experts including high ranking officials and civilians. Burciaga said he was fortunate to be at a table with former Chief of Staff General Jumper who talked about possible technology for unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as how the cadets as future lieutenants would fit into the Air Force.
“As a cadet in Air Force ROTC, we learn the names and faces of so many important officials, mainly the chain of command, but rarely are we expecting to converse on a personal level with any of these people,” Burciaga said.
He added that the trip to the nation’s capitol is one he won’t ever forget and was fortunate for the opportunity. “I am thankful for the trip and these leaders and I am so proud to have represented UNM as a cadet and student.”
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Resource Manager Linda McCormick has accepted an award for UNM from the Albuquerque -Bernalillo County Water User Authority in recognition of superior pollution prevention efforts. The university won the award for non-industrial users. The award recognized the universities’ extensive recycling and hazardous waste collection and disposal program.
It also mentioned the hosting of recycling events. In addition the award recognizes campus xeriscape areas and the refitting of toilets and showers with low flow devices to save water, as well as the dining facilities’ use of biodegradable utensils and dishes.
The award cites UNM outreach to industry and others in providing advice, contacts, recycling facility tours, and the way the university provides copies of Standard Operating Procedures and education to staff and community members.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Nominations are being sought for this year’s Student Service Awards. The award was established to recognize faculty and staff who have made outstanding contributions to student life at UNM. The criteria and nomination forms can be found at: Division of Student Affairs.
If you know an individual who is deserving of this award, please complete the nomination form and return it by Friday, March 13 to Natalie Brigance, Office of Student Affairs, Scholes Hall, Room 229, MSCO5 3410, Albuquerque, NM 87131.
On Friday, April 10 a reception will be held in the SUB Ballroom A to honor the winner(s) of this award, as well as winners of additional student and staff awards from within the Division of Student Affairs. The reception will honor members of the UNM community who have contributed significantly to the general well being of the University.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
March Madness is here! During the week of March 9–13, join Recreational Services for a fun-filled week of events. Not only is March Nutrition Month, but Recreational Services will be celebrating its fifth year providing UNM with fun seminars, free classes, raffles and much more.
Check out the schedule of events: Recreational Services. Click on "Schedule of Events."
March is more than NCAA basketball! Recreational Services will also be selling half-price "Works", E-Fitness, and W.O.W. passes!! Come in today to get your pass to fitness.
FastInfo, the UNM online information knowledge database, will split into two websites on March 29, 2009. FastInfo.unm.edu will retain the same features, but will focus on information for faculty, staff and retirees. StudentInfo.unm.edu will have information specific to student needs only; however, information of interest to both groups will be available from each website.
FastInfo will be available at http://fastinfo.unm.edu, and StudentInfo will be accessible from http://studentinfo.unm.edu.
For campus departments, units and groups who regularly update information on FastInfo, the process of submitting and editing information will remain the same. As well, each department will have the option of listing its content on either or both FastInfo and StudentInfo.
Departments that maintain links to FastInfo from their own websites should review the linking information posted at FastInfo Linking.
Ziarat Hossain, associate professor of Family Studies in the Department of Individual, Family and Community Education, has been elected President of the Society for Cross-Cultural Research (SCCR).
Photo: Ziarat Hossain
Founded in 1971, the SCCR is a national and multi-disciplinary professional organization whose members are professionals and students from various disciplines in the fields of behavioral and social sciences.
The Society holds its annual conference in February on the weekend following President’s Day. As President-elect, one of Hossain's duties will be to organize the 2010 conference.
For more information on SCCR visit: Society for Cross-Cultural Research.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
UNM’s Greek community hosts Greek Week through Saturday, March 7. “It’s a way for us to come together and make a difference in the community,” said Teresa Goering, print public relations chair for the Greek Week Planning Committee.
Greek Week gives participants the opportunity to donate their time and money to an organization that would benefit from the assistance of more than 300 fraternity and sorority members.
“There are quite a few projects that we will be doing since there are so many of us and not enough work,” Goering said.
Greek Week began this weekend with community service. “On Saturday and Sunday about 350 of us will be split up among four different projects. Some will be volunteering at two different charter schools [Horizon Academy West and Digital Arts Technology Academy], while others will be working at a kid’s camp at the Albuquerque Botanical Gardens. Some of us will also be putting together packets for Camp Rising Sun,” Goering said.
The main Greek Week fundraising efforts benefit Camp Rising Sun, a New Mexican summer camp for children ages 8-13 who have been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
“We try to focus on local organizations because we want to help our community,” Goering said. “We could choose a national program like Ronald McDonald Charities, but this way we know we can watch the changes our donations make.”
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, Autism Spectrum Disorders cause severe and persistent impairment in thinking, feeling, language and the ability to relate to others.
Camp Rising Sun allows its campers to participate in outdoor activities, arts and crafts, music and drama while learning friendship building skills and making life-long friends.
The Greek Week Planning Committee plans to raise $10,000 during the week for scholarships to Camp Rising Sun.
“The majority of the donations will come from individual Greeks themselves,” said Stephanie Heikkinen, Greek Week planning chair. “Each chapter member donates $20 to the philanthropy.”
The committee is also requesting donations from family, friends and companies.
The events are open to the public and donations for Camp Rising Sun are welcome. The schedule of Greek Week events is:
Monday, March 2: Fraternities and sororities present Greek Sing, a talent show promoting philanthropy, in Student Union Building ballrooms A, B and C, 6-10 p.m. Tickets are $5.
Tuesday, March 3: Fraternity and sorority members attend the UNM vs. Utah Men’s Basketball Game, 7 p.m. at the Pit.
Thursday, March 5: Guest speaker Mike Green discusses the dangers of alcohol in SUB ballrooms A, B and C at 8 p.m.
Friday, March 6: Fraternity and sorority members compete in the Greek Games in the Jonson Center, main floor at 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 7: At the Greek Banquet, fraternity and sorority members are recognized for their service over the past year and donations are presented to Camp Rising Sun in SUB ballrooms A, B and C beginning at 5:15 p.m.
To donate, bring checks made out to UNM Greek Week to the Student Activities Office in the SUB. For more information, call (505) 277-4706 or email greeks@unm.edu.
Story by Jazmen Bradford
The UNM Department of Theatre and Dance presents “Greek Row Tragedy,” an adaptation of “The Bacchae of Euripides,” written by award-winning playwright Mars Mráz and directed by Paul Ford, lecturer. In this modern take on a Greek classic, a chorus of sorority members sweeps across a university campus in a Dionysian frenzy.
It’s Greek Week at the University of America, and Amanda and her sisters of the Mu Nu Delta Sorority House are running out of time. The Greek Sing Showcase is tomorrow night and they still don’t have a dance routine.
Desperate to win, they seek the help of legendary dance instructor, Dean Isos. This twisted choreographer, who lost his position as “Dean of Dance” on charges of sexual misconduct, has faded into obscurity and carries with him a disdain for Americans and American popular culture. Seeing this as an opportunity to seek revenge on the university, he agrees to choreograph the routine.
On arriving at the Sorority House, he immediately takes charge and mesmerizes the Sorority Sisters with his dangerous and alluring charm. Can Peter, Amanda’s boyfriend, stop him?
Mráz, completing an M.F.A. in dramatic writing this spring, has composed original music for “Greek Row Tragedy,” blending modern hip-hop/dance beats and vocal styles with elements of ancient overtones of percussion and flutes. Graduate student Ashley Miller joins the production team as choreographer.
The play contains adult language and situations, and is recommended for mature audiences only. Shows times are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, March 5-14 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, March 8 at 2 p.m., at UNM’s Rodey Theatre, Center for the Arts. A special panel discussion will be held after the performance on Friday, March 6.
Tickets are $15 general admission, $10 faculty and seniors, or $8 UNM staff and students and are available at UNM Ticket Offices, 925-5858 or Tickets.com.
Also playing in March are Two One-Acts: “Tibetan Mountain Boat” and “Thou Art Villain,” and “Impulse,” a showcase of student choreographers. For more information, call 277-3660 or visit Theater and Dance.
“A good tool when used strategically”
Recognizing the need for comprehensive policies in the awarding of compensation to its contract employees, The University of New Mexico has begun drafting a policy on deferred compensation. UNM President David J. Schmidly has said publicly that the lack of such a policy is “simply unacceptable” and needs to be strengthened based on best practices.
Deferred compensation is an arrangement in which a portion of an employee’s income is paid out at a date after which it is actually earned and is typically part of retirement planning. The primary benefit of most deferred compensation is the deferral of tax.
Employees planning for retirement often ask to have a portion of their salary paid in the form of deferred compensation, and employers sometimes use deferred compensation as a means of securing an employee’s services for a defined period of time. UNM contracts provide for a total forfeiture of the deferred compensation if the employee’s service terminates prior to a defined date after which the deferred compensation “vests.”
“Deferred compensation is a recognized component of a total package of salary and benefits and it’s a good tool when used strategically,” said Helen Gonzales, UNM Vice President for Human Resources. “Many universities allow senior contract employees to defer a portion of their income to retirement. These plans encourage employees to complete their contracted terms as these payments are subject to forfeiture.”
Currently, 33 UNM employees are contractually scheduled to receive deferred compensation in amounts ranging from $5,000 to $180,000, with the majority at $20,000 or less. These deferred compensation payments, which total approximately $1 million, represent .001% of the University’s total payroll of $554 million. All are subject to forfeiture if the individual employees terminate their employment with the University before expiration of their contracts.
“We’ve significantly reduced the number of deferred compensation contracts over the years, especially in Athletics,” said Gonzales. Of the 33 individuals currently receiving deferred compensation, 11 are employed by Athletics and will receive a combined $400,333 in deferred compensation under their existing contracts. Five individuals are employed by the Health Sciences Center and will receive a combined $163,068. Seventeen are employed on main campus and will receive a combined $476,800. More than half of the deferred compensation is funded from sources other than Instruction and General funds.
The new policy, which will be recommended to the Regents following the standard notice and-comment period open to campus, will establish guidelines for which employees would be eligible to receive deferred compensation and define the circumstances under which the deferred compensation arrangements could be granted. The new policy is being developed following a study by the Division of Human Resources of other Universities'best practices in this area.
Once implemented, the new policy would affect all future awards of deferred compensation, including the renegotiation of existing contracts.
UNM’s Division of Human Resources will present its review of deferred compensation best practices at the Regents’ April meeting, with a campus-wide discussion and review of the proposed new policy to follow.
Media Contact: Susan McKinsey, (505) 277-1807; e-mail: mckinsey@unm.edu
The UNM Mentoring Institute and Title-V Educational Initiatives invite individuals to sign up for MentorNet, the e-mentoring network for diversity in science and engineering. MentorNet seeks mentors who are science and engineering professionals; those in industry, government or academia; and those who are working, on leave or retired. They will be matched with protégés who are pursuing a professional future in engineering and science; undergrads, grads, post-docs or early career faculty members.
Although mentors volunteer their time to benefit the protégé, they can also find a rewarding experience for themselves. “I hope [my student] is getting as much out of it as I am,” is how one MentorNet mentor describes the experience. More than 70 percent of mentors have recommended MentorNet’s e-mentoring program to a friend or colleague.
Mentoring relationships last eight months. Because mentors and students communicate entirely by email, they can communicate wherever and whenever they choose. In fact, 90 percent of our mentors feel that e-mentoring was a convenient way to volunteer.
To be a mentor, go to MentorNet and select Join Us. Since 1998, MentorNet has matched more than 22,500 pairs of protégés and mentors with strong results.
MentorNet’s sponsors include 3M Foundation, Adobe, Alcoa Foundation, Agilent Technologies, AT&T, Bechtel Group Foundation, Cisco Systems, IBM Corporation, Intel Foundation, Land O’Lakes, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Naval Research Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, NVIDIA, S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, Rockwell Collins, Sun Microsystems, Texas Instruments, The MathWorks, The Walt Disney Studios, and Thomson Reuters.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The School of Architecture and Planning hosts a lecture and panel discussion on Innovation in the Face of Scarcity, Wednesday, March 4 at 2:30 p.m. in the George Pearl Hall auditorium. Geraldine Forbes Isais, director, UNM architecture program, is organizing the event to give the architecture, landscape architecture and community and regional planning communities the opportunity to look at how they do business in the face of scarcity: environmental, social and economic.
Photo: Architect and educator Jennifer Siegal.
The studio environment will also be critically assessed, she said.
At 2:30 p.m., architect and educator Jennifer Siegal presents her lecture, “Generation Mobile.” Siegal is founder and principal of the Los Angeles-based firm Office of Mobile Design, known for its design and construction of responsible, sustainable and precision built structures. She redesigns mobile homes, schools and commercial spaces for the 21st century, using materials like bamboo flooring, energy saving insulated plastic windows, and steel frames for stackability.
From 3:30 – 4:30 p.m., panelists will give introductory remarks and then be open for questions. Panelists include Albuquerque City Councilor Isaac Benton; Noreen Richards, intern architect/artist/sustainable designer from SMPC Architects; Nancy Happe, economist and architecture graduate student; Claudia Isaac, community planner/professor and community activist; and Kim Sorvig, landscape architect, environmentalist. Carolyn Gonzales, University Communication and Marketing, will moderate.
“We cannot keep doing business as usual. We must rethink what we do and how we do it,” Forbes Isais said. She said that the discussion will also allow the group to revisit how studios or lectures are delivered.
“We could conflate the traditional high school educational model of course delivery and the Beaux-Arts model of architecture studio to a model, for example, of having the sophomore class sit together and faculty come to them to collaborate and teach,” she said.
“Architects can act on their convictions. Jennifer Siegal has been wildly successful because she is innovative and works incredibly hard,” Forbes Isais said. Siegal’s philosophy of stepping toward, rather than away from a challenge is what is needed at this time, Forbes Isais said.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Applications for fall 2009 rise across the board
The University of New Mexico is a contender in the tight competition for the nation’s best students. As of Feb. 16, UNM received 152 applications from National Merit Scholars, National Achievement Scholars, National Hispanic Scholars and National American Indian Scholars for fall 2009, about triple the number of applicants in 2008.
In addition, applications are up 23 percent overall. That includes a 24 percent increase in freshman applications and 18 percent for transfer students.
Applicants in the national scholars programs come from 13 states and have a combined average score of 31 on the ACT and 1361 on the SAT. “They’re the top students in the country,” said Corine Gonzales, associate director of admissions, adding that they’re probably being courted by many schools.
To woo these highly sought scholars, UNM’s Division of Enrollment, Office of Admissions and Recruitment Services has stepped up recruitment efforts and communications, including campus visits, email blasts and a recruiter assigned to give personal attention and assistance to these students throughout the application and registration process.
Transfer students have also been the target of increased recruitment efforts. UNM has entered into several agreements with two year colleges to smooth the transition to the university and has stepped up recruitment visits to community colleges and branch campuses throughout the state.
UNM also launched the new National American Indian Scholars program, the first national scholarship or recognition program of its kind focused on American Indian students, in partnership with the American College Testing program, or ACT.
Students qualify for the national scholars programs based on ACT or PSAT scores.
Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1593; e-mail: michal@unm.edu