The University of New Mexico Speech & Hearing Center was selected for the 2009 Best of Albuquerque Award in the speech pathologists category by the U.S. Commerce Association.
Each year, the USCA Best of Albuquerque Award Program recognizes local businesses for exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. Winners are determined based on information gathered by USCA or provided by third parties.
“We are just delighted, even thrilled, to have received this honor,” said Philip S. Dale, chair, Speech & Hearing Sciences. “It reflects the high regard our clients – children and adults – and their families have for the services provided by our exceptionally capable graduate students and the careful, thorough mentoring those students receive from their clinical supervisors.”
Artist panel includes Dennis Hopper, Larry Bell, Ron Cooper, Ronald Davis, Ken Price and Robert Dean Stockwell
Acclaimed art and culture critic Dave Hickey will moderate a panel with Dennis Hopper and the artists of the “Hopper at the Harwood” exhibition on Saturday, Aug. 1, 6-7:30 p.m. at the UNM Harwood Museum of Art in Taos. The discussion will explore the artists’ participation in the West Coast art movement that began in the early 1960s at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles and the circumstances that brought these artists to Taos.
Photo (l. to r.): Ronald Davis, Ron Cooper, Robert Dean Stockwell, Dennis Hopper and Larry Bell. Photo Courtesy of Bill Davis.
“Hopper at the Harwood,” showing through Sept. 20, features two exhibits. “Selected Photographs and Paintings” focuses on Dennis Hopper’s work. “Forty Years of Friendship: L.A. to Taos” is a curatorial expression with the work of Larry Bell, Ron Cooper, Ronald Davis, Ken Price and Robert Dean Stockwell.
Hickey wrote the forward for the exhibition catalogue. The 34-page full-color catalogue presents select pieces from the show and commentary by Hickey and Hopper. In his essay for the catalogue, Hickey writes, “In the 20th century, [Taos] has probably produced more serious art and literature than any other non-metropolitan area in the United States… If you want a beautiful place to work that bears with it the perpetual reminder that all you do will be broken, buried, blasted and blown away – a place that makes you brave and serious, Taos is the place for you.”
Tickets are $35 for Harwood Alliance Members or $45 for nonmembers. For ticket information or purchases, call Carolyn at (575) 758-9826 ext. 102.
The UNM Harwood Museum of Art is located at 238 Ledoux Street, Taos. Hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday, 12 p.m.-5 p.m. Call (575) 758-9826 or visit http://www.harwoodmuseum.org.
Media Contact: Andrew Flack, (800) 362-1273
University of New Mexico-Gallup will offer an online Information Technology degree this fall. The program targets high school seniors and employed adult learners in the surrounding service areas of New Mexico and Arizona. The online certificate is designed to prepare students for entry-level employment in computerized environments.
“For students who are just out of high school and are not sure what they want to do, this is a great opportunity to be fully online, to take classes at their leisure and determine what they really want to do,” said Coleen Arviso, training and development consultant, who with instructor Kathy Larason put the program together. “By the time they’re done with the certificate, they’ll know if they like this field of work and if they want to continue on to get a degree.”
The course work is designed to be accessible using UNM’s WebCT and e-textbooks transfer methods.
In addition to the General Education requirements of English and math, students will take: How To Take An Online Course, Human Relations in Business, Computing for Business Students, Computer Programming Fundamentals, Web Page Design I, Microcomputer Operating Systems, Introduction to Hardware Installation and Computer Networking for a total of 31 credits.
Those interested in taking the course should have access to a computer with a Windows XP operating system and access to at least dial-up Internet.
For students without computers, Arviso said the college will offer netbooks in the fall in the bookstore. Netbooks are less expensive computers designed for wireless communication and access to the Internet for the purposes of web browsing and e-mailing. Arviso said they should be available for around $350 in the bookstore, and will have such features as webcams and wireless access capability.
For more information, call the UNM-Gallup Business Technology Department at 505-863-7511.
It’s the complexity of asphalt pavement that fascinates Rafiqul Tarefder, assistant professor of Civil Engineering. It is the variations in load as the flow of traffic cycles from bicycles to cars to pickups to heavy tractor trailers, and the physical changes as the pavement heats, cools, oxidizes, ages and cracks. His interest in pavement is now paying off with a National Science Foundation CAREER grant.
Photo: Rafiqul Tarefder
Over the next three years Tarefder will examine the effects of moisture-induced damage in asphalt pavement. The funding that comes with the award will allow him to hire graduate students to help delve into the problems of asphalt damage at the molecular level.
Tarefder says the damage and cracks caused by moisture in damp pavement have concerned engineers for more than 70 years, but most models that predict pavement problems don’t consider the chemistry involved in damage and cracking. His research will explore the ways moisture interacts with the aggregate and asphalt binders and he hopes it will lead to the eventual creation of asphalt that is more resistant to moisture and more long lived.
“We are going to find out what kind of chemical changes take place, and under what kind of load these cracks show up,” he says.
Tarefder has received another NSF grant in which he plans to look at how asphalt ages and to use molecular dynamics simulation to study how molecules change under pressure and temperature. He and his graduate students will be looking at how carbon and hydrogen molecules are oxidized and how this makes asphalt stiff and vulnerable to cracking.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
New Mexico’s Second Congressional District Congressman Harry Teague visited the UNM campus to announce legislation intended to set aside funds for training and fellowships in accredited biofuels engineering programs. Teague says his bill will allow for a one time grant to study appropriate standards for the accreditation of undergraduate and graduate biofuels engineering programs.
Photo: Congressman Harry Teague visits with Vice President for Research Julia Fulghum.
It will also provide funding for biofuels engineering programs and biofuels engineering training centers. In addition, the bill will provide fellowships to undergrads and graduate students studying biofuels engineering and provide access to scientific research facilities.
UNM is involved in a number of National Science Foundation funded biofuels research efforts including the NSF Engineering Research Center, a partnership with other universities, and the Partnership for International Research which allows students to study at UNM and at universities in Europe.
UNM Professor of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Abaya Datye says, “Chemical engineers are poised to address the problem of biofuels as the U.S. transitions to an economy in which energy sources can be used much more efficiently.”
Professor of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Plamen Atanassov told Teague about UNM's work with companies under the NSF Industry/University Collaborative Research Center program as it relates to Department of Energy funding for the UNM Center for Emerging Energy Technologies.
The central theme is in finding paths to bridge ethanol (the most abundant current biofuel) with a hydrogen economy through direct ethanol fuel cell technology. UNM is also a leading institution on programs on biofuel cells funded by the Department of Defense. Those have a broader impact by providing means to utilize glycerol, a by-product of the biodiesel technology.
Steve Graves, associate director of the Center for Biomedical Engineering, says researchers in the center are beginning to look at the problems inherent in biomass. He believes they will be doing more plant involved work in the future. And Associate Professor of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Plamen Atanassov is working with a group that includes both university and industry researchers who are exploring ways to construct fuel cells that use biofuels to produce energy.
As part of his announcement, Teague toured UNM laboratory facilities and spoke with faculty members about their research activities. Teague’s proposed legislation is the “Biofuel Engineering Training Act.”
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
The Harwood Museum of Art officially breaks ground for a 10,000 sq. ft. expansion on Wednesday, July 1, 10 a.m. at 238 Ledoux Street in Taos. The result of several years of fundraising and planning, the project is expected to increase community and student resources and improve art preservation. The groundbreaking ceremony also introduces new Director Susan Longhenry.
The expansion will provide additional gallery space, a 135 seat auditorium, double the existing art collection storage space, archival and work study research rooms, a loading dock and an art receiving area. The entire project is expected to cost $6.3 million and involves extensive excavation to fit this multi-level expansion into the compact historic site available for construction.
The expansion includes more than 1,000 sq. ft. of state-of-the-art storage for the Harwood’s ever growing collection of more than 3,500 works of art. This is critically needed space for good stewardship and is consistent with the American Association of Museum’s standards. The work study space will provide students and scholars with greater access to the museum archives. A covered receiving area is necessary to protect art in transit as it is loaned to or from the Harwood.
The auditorium, in keeping with the intent of Lucy and Burt Harwood, will provide the community with more educational and performance opportunities within the arts. It is a 95 seat raked auditorium with 40 movable seats that will accommodate the Taos Chamber Music Group concerts, Harwood and UNM lectures, and other community educational events and social functions.
The auditorium will be equipped with infrastructure to eventually allow reception of incoming media broadcasting from UNM main campus in Albuquerque and other venues. The gallery exhibition space will be equipped with audio-visual technology and be named for two Taos Modern artists, Beatrice Mandelman and Louis Ribak.
With 85 percent of the funds raised, July 1 also marks the beginning of the public phase of the capital fundraising campaign. With legislative support of approximately $3 million and private and UNM support totaling $2.4 million, the Harwood’s fundraising goal to complete the project is $950,000.
For more information, contact Juniper Manley, Harwood director of development, at (575) 758-9138 or e-mail at, jmanley@unm.edu
Distinguished Professor of Computer Science Deepak Kapur will be presented the Herbrand Award at the 22nd International Conference on Automated Deduction in August. The award is given to honor individuals for exceptional contributions to the field of automated deduction.
Photo: Distinguished Professor of Computer Science Deepak Kapur
The goal of automated deduction research is to develop computer software systems that use formal logical reasoning to solve problems coming from a wide variety of application domains. Typical applications include proving theorems in mathematics and logic and the design and verification of hardware and software systems.
The award recognizes Kapur’s seminal contributions to several areas of automated deduction including inductive theorem proving, geometry theorem proving, term rewriting, unification theory, integration and combination of decision procedures, lemma and loop invariant generation, and his work in computer algebra, which helped to bridge the gap between the two areas. Deduction systems developed by Kapur include GeoMeter, for algebraic and geometric reasoning and Rewrite Rule Laboratory (RRL) for equational and inductive reasoning.
“Professor Kapur joins the ranks of the most distinguished names in computer science in receiving this award,” said Stephanie Forrest, chair, computer sciences. “We are delighted that his many accomplishments in the field of automated reasoning have been recognized with this prestigious award. We are fortunate to have such a distinguished scientist here at UNM.”
Kapur came to UNM in 1999 as chair of the department. He served as editor-in-chief for the Journal of Automated Reasoning, the premier journal in the area of automated deduction from 1993-2007. Kapur received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Dawn of Nations Today appears online for the first time this year. Through a course in UNM’s Department of Native American Studies, students working on Dawn of Nations Today learn the business of news, from writing and editing to production and distribution.
In addition to working with experienced journalist and UNM Lecturer Mary Bowannie, students are mentored by alumni and professionals from the community.
Dawn of Nations Today covers Native American affairs from the campus to the national level. Current topics include the Native American Journalists Association’s 25th anniversary, Diné and Puerto Rican ballet dancer Jock Soto, and the effect of poverty on Native American teenagers.
To read the first online edition, visit: Dawn of Nations Today.
UNM-Taos hosts Energy Independence Day in celebration of construction of their three and one half acre solar array, the largest solar generation plant in the state of New Mexico, Wednesday, July 1 from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Senator Jeff Bingaman, Congressman Ben R. Lujan and a representative of Senator Tom Udall’s office will help inaugurate the solar array. UNM-Taos Executive Director Kate O’Neill will read a Declaration of Energy Independence, followed by tours of the campus and solar array. The official ceremony begins at noon, segments of which will be broadcast live on KTAO FM.
Additionally, Congressman Lujan will have a Clean Energy Town Hall on Wednesday evening from 5 to 6 p.m. at Taos Convention Center.
When completed in July, the 500 kilowatt facility will provide 100 percent of the power needs of the Klauer campus, making UNM-Taos, the smallest and newest branch of UNM, the first community college of its kind in nationally to be powered completely by solar energy. The event includes demonstrations and tours of the solar array and the Klauer campus.
The Solar Generation Station
Since the talking phase, it has taken more than two years to get to this point in the solar array project.
With support from LANL, Kit Carson Electric Cooperative CEO Luis Reyes applied for a zero percent federal grant to install several solar generation plants throughout northern New Mexico. Under stewardship from Senator Jeff Bingaman, the $5 million bond was passed by Congress.
When completed next month, the three and one half acre solar array, containing more than 2,700 photovoltaic panels, will generate 500 KW of power, more than enough to serve power needs of the UNM-Taos campus. Any additional power will go into the grid. The electric bill for UNM-Taos will not change; however the branch campus will become one of the first community colleges in the nation to be 100 percent powered by renewable solar energy.
“This is tremendously important because it will support both the UNM-Taos green jobs initiative and academic courses in sustainability,” O’Neill said.
The business relationship between the electric coop and the college is that UNM-Taos supplies the acreage for the solar array, and Kit Carson supplies all construction, hardware and maintenance.
“What makes this particularly compelling is the fact that it takes place in a small, isolated, rural, multi-cultural community with no heavy industry to support it. In other words, Taos at its best,” O’Neill said.
The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology is presenting internationally acclaimed balafon player Balla Kouyaté in a free performance on Saturday, July 11 at 2:30 p.m. at the museum. Kouyaté's instrument, the balafon, is a West African ancestor of the marimba and the first instrument of the Mande Empire. The public is invited.
Photo: Balla Kouyaté
The balafon, also ancestor of the xylophone, was given to Kouyaté's ancestors by nobles in the 13th century and has remained in his family ever since.
Kouyaté is considered to be among the greatest balafon players from the Djeli or Griot tradition in Mali. In the African tradition, the Djeli is an historian, musician, dancer and performer who embodies the culture of his people.
The Kouyaté clan is recognized as the first Djeli family. Through the traditions of classical art, music, and dance, the great achievements of the ancestors are recounted. Through contemporary music and dance, the Djelis honor the contributions of those now with us. They effectively use the performing arts to teach values and history.
Kouyaté seemed destined to play this instrument, beginning his formal learning at the age of six. He performed for the first time in Bamako, Mali at Palais de la Culture with Malian singer Sanignai Kouyaté. In 1994, he was a member of the renowned Ensemble Nationale du Mali. By 1997 he was granted the opportunity to play with singer Ami Koïta at the OIA conference, which brought together 27 African presidents.
Kouyaté has been called on to play with many African artists touring in the United States and his superior musicianship has been featured on at least 45 albums. He has worked extensively with kora master Mamadou Diabaté playing Lincoln Center Outdoor Festival, Symphony Space and festivals around the country. In 2004, Kouyaté played with Sidiki Condé at Carnegie Hall for a month-long residency for children. Kouyaté also worked with Sidiki doing residencies in Florida and Minnesota in 2004, 2006 and 2008 with the VSA Arts organizations for people with various disabilities.
It is both melodic and percussive, both sweet and powerful in its ability to move you. Experience the joy of life expressed in this instrument!
This is one of just two performances given in New Mexico, the only performance in Albuquerque. The event is part of the museum’s “Life and Art Series.” It is sponsored by the City of Albuquerque Urban Enhancement Trust Fund and the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology.
For more information about the performance, please contact: Mary Beth Hermans at (505) 277-1400.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
The Anderson School of Management has announced Professor Joni Young's appointment as UNM’s new KPMG Professor. The designation makes Young one of only 38 professors in the United States to hold this prestigious title. She succeeds James Hamill, who held the KPMG Professorship at UNM from August 2000 to June 2009.
Photo: Joni Young
Young, who is chair of ASM's Accounting Department, was selected for her excellence in teaching and research, and her many valuable contributions to the accounting profession and to the Anderson school. She will be recognized at the annual KPMG Professors Dinner on August 3 along with the other recipients.
Interim Dean Amy Wohlert says the appointment is an important recognition of Professor Young’s contributions, as well as a testament to KPMG’s on-going support of exemplary education in accounting.
Wohlert notes that, “both locally and nationally, KMPG has been a champion of the partnership between academics and professional practice. This professorship allows us to highlight that connection and promote the quality of our entire Accounting program, with Professor Young’s leadership.”
Young’s long relationship with KPMG makes this a gratifying recognition.
"This honor from KPMG is especially meaningful to me,” said Young. “During my doctoral studies, the KPMG Foundation sponsored a fellowship that helped me to become a professor in first place."
The KPMG Foundation established the professorship program at nationally recognized business schools in 1974. It is funded mainly through the Matching Gift Program, where the Foundation matches donations from KPMG LLP’s active and retired partners and active employees to their alma maters and other colleges or universities with strong business programs. The funds help support faculty research, attendance at academic conferences, and many other needs of faculty, business schools, and universities at large.
Media Contact: Leslie Venzuela, (505) 277-7117; e-mail: venzuela@mgt.unm.edu
Creative, efficient transportation options for UNM students will be explored during the free Parent Connection Workshop Wednesday, July 1, from 6 to 7 p.m., main campus Student Services Building, rm. 260. Danielle Gilliam of UNM Transportation and Parking Services and Nick Manole of the City of Albuquerque Transit Department will share information about parking and alternative transportation options for students living on and off campus.
From renting Zip cars to hopping on the state’s Railrunner, there are ways to get around the city and state on a student budget. Learn how students can buy a parking permit, bike to campus or take advantage of student bus passes and other public transportation.
Check-in begins at 5:30 p.m. Parent Association members are on hand to visit with you about their campus experiences.
The series is sponsored by UNM’s Dean of Students’ Family Connection Program, Parent Relations Office, Parent Association and Extended University.
Workshops are taped and archived for online viewing at UNM live and Parent Association Workshops.
UNM parent workshops are held the first Wednesday of each month. From the Cornell Parking Structure (parking is $1.75 per hour), walk north on Cornell Mall. When you reach the north end of the Student Union Building go east to the Student Services Center, located behind Mesa Vista Hall.
Biology Professor Rob Miller was recently named a Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellows at the University of Melbourne. Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellows are international scholars that spend up to two months in residence at the University of Melbourne each year. Miller was nominated for being an internationally well known expert in the immune systems of marsupials. His current research is focused on Marsupial Immunobiology, funded by the National Science Foundation.
Photo: Rob Miller
The current selection is for those Fellows who will be there sometime during 2010. The program is intended to provide the general public with an opportunity to hear outstanding scholars speak within their particular areas of expertise. The fellows are expected to give at least one public lecture during their tenure there, which is an important part of the visit. Fellows are also expected to contribute to the academic, intellectual and cultural life of the University during their stay.
The Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellowship Program was established in 1993. Awards are open to academics outside Australia, of international distinction in a field of interest to the University of Melbourne. The word ‘Miegunyah’ is an Aboriginal word meaning "my house,” and is the name of the estate owned by Sir Andrew and Lady Marsha Grimwade, that provides the endowment that funds the fellowships.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
It’s the summer, and the thought of school is far from the minds of many. But a summit that was held in May to address Albuquerque’s high drop-out rate was just the start of the discussion for area education professionals. Host David Alire Garcia sits down with some of them to do a follow-up on the “Drop-Out Summit.” “New Mexico in Focus,” KNME-TV channel 5’s weekly hour-long public affairs show, will air on Friday, June 26 at 7 p.m. on KNME-TV channel 5.1 and repeat on Sunday, June 28 at 6:30 a.m.
Joining Alire Garcia this week are Paul Broome, education coordinator with the Office of the Mayor and Franklin Schargel, an educator, author and president of Schargel Consulting.
Also on this week’s episode:
· Co-host Gene Grant and “The Line” panelists continue the discussion about Albuquerque’s school system
· A look at the vote to ban the release of torture photos
· “The Line” panelists discuss the crackdown on crime
· Manny Ramirez’s return to baseball after an extended suspension for violating Major League Baseball’s Performance Enhancing Drug policy. His first stop? The Albuquerque Isotopes.
Grant and regular “The Line” panelists Whitney Waite Cheshire and Jim Scarantino will be joined by guest panelists Margaret Montoya with the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center and CUNY School of Law, and Teresa Cordova, a former Bernalillo County commissioner and professor with the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning.
“New Mexico in Focus” is produced by Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer and 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
Grant to study mechanisms of behavior change in addiction treatment using magnetoencephalography
Researchers at UNM’s Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, and Addictions (CASAA) have been awarded a $400,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study mechanisms of behavior change in addiction treatment using a state-of-the-art neuroimaging technique known as magnetoencephalography (MEG).
The study is focused on an empirically-supported treatment, motivational interviewing, that was developed by Dr. William Miller, an emeritus professor at UNM. Over the next two years the project will explore the neural underpinnings of client motivation and speech from treatment sessions.
“To our knowledge, this is the first federally-funded study of its kind,” said co-investigator Jon Houck of UNM CASAA.
The research team also includes the expertise of Dr. Theresa Moyers of UNM CASAA and the Department of Psychology, who has an extensive publication record exploring therapeutic processes in motivational interviewing, and Dr. Claudia Tesche of UNM’s Departments of Psychology and Neurosciences, who contributed to the development of the first whole-head MEG array and has nearly two decades of experience using MEG to measure human cognition.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The ITS Department is in the process of deploying the Network Access Control (NAC) project across campus. The NAC system is a security measure designed to authenticate and confirm identities for network users at UNM, and will require all students, faculty and staff to authenticate by signing in with their NetID and password each time they access the network.
NAC implementation will change the face of wired and wireless access for all users across UNM, since all users will need to enter their NetID and password to access any network or network-based applications, such as Lobo WiFi, the Internet, Banner, Groupwise, Communigate, and the myUNM Portal, as well as for iPhones and SmartPhones. Currently, such across-the-board authentication doesn’t exist on campus.
Campus-wide deployment in the dormitories, the SUB, the ITS Computer Pods LoboWiFi, limited deployment in library is planned for the last week of July and through the second week of August. More details and information will be disseminated over the next few months as the project continues. Visit: ITS Network Access Control for more information on the NAC and its progress throughout the summer.
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
The ITS Department will complete a network upgrade on Tuesday, June 30 from 5 a.m. - 7:30 a.m. The upgrade will strengthen and enhance existing network infrastructure within this campus network zone hub. Network services, including all e-mail, Internet access, Internet Native Banner (INB), WebCT, and telephone and voice services at the Centennial Engineering Building will not be available during this time.
The upgrade will affect the following locations:
Albuquerque High Performance Computing; Engineering Computer Pod; EDA; Farris Engineering Building; Computer and Science Library; Bandelier-East; Anthropology Building; Regener Hall; Anthropology Annex; Hodgin Hall; Computer Science; Mechanical Engineering; Ford Utility Building; Nuclear Engineering Lab; Logan Hall; Parking Services Building; and Centennial Engineering.
Contact the ITS Support Center at 277-4848 or refer to the ITS Alerts page at ITS Alerts for additional information. ITS apologizes for any inconvenience this upgrade may cause.
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
The New Mexico State Board of Finance has approved construction of a new 850-space parking structure to be located on the southeast corner of Lomas and Yale Boulevards. Work at the site will begin shortly.
“Parking continues to be a major issue for UNM students, employees and visitors, so we're pleased to get Board of Finance approval for the 850-space structure on Lomas and Yale,” said Steve Beffort, UNM Vice President for Institutional Support Services. “As we conclude our master planning process and continue to get input from the UNM community and our neighbors, we will formulate a final recommendation on parking to present to the Regents.”
A motion to approve a second parking structure in the “C” Lot near Redondo and Las Lomas did not get a second, and so received no action from the Board of Finance. Local neighborhood associations had concerns with the building and the location.
Construction will begin on the BBER location while the university will continue to gather input from the local neighborhood associations and develop new parking recommendations to present to the UNM Board of Regents in August.
The University of New Mexico-Gallup awarded more associate degrees to American Indian students than any other college in New Mexico during the 2007-2008 college year, according to U.S. Department of Education data printed in the June 15 issue of the Community College Week newspaper.
UNM-Gallup graduated a total of 119 American Indian students with associate degrees for that year, down 4 percent from the previous year. San Juan College was second in the state with 93 associate degrees awarded to American Indians, and Central New Mexico Community College followed with 87. Among the 119 graduates for 2007-08 were 86 women and 33 men.
UNM-Gallup was listed as third among all colleges in the country graduating American Indian students with associate degrees. First was Diné College in Arizona with 229, followed by Tulsa Community College in Oklahoma with 150.
The ITS Support Center has received reports of UNM sent e-mails being delayed or undeliverable to e-mail addresses associated with MSN Hotmail and Qwest. ITS has been in constant contact with technicians for all three e-mail servers and has been working internally to address these e-mail issues.
It is expected that e-mail delays may continue throughout the afternoon and through tomorrow. Contact the ITS Support Center at 277-4848 with any questions you may have.
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
Professor of Mechanical Engineering Ron Lumia is always looking for new ways of seeing and thinking. That’s what led him to become a Fulbright Scholar at the Indian Institute of Science in (IISc) Bengaluru, India, in quest of a new microgripper packaging technique using Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems or (MEMS).
Photo: Ron Lumia
“Primarily the goal was to be a researcher, and when we had our Fulbright orientation last summer, they said we know you all applied and had this very specific thing to do but don’t be too rigid,” Lumia says, “And I’m thinking what? Don’t do what we applied for? The goal was actually to be flexible enough to change as conditions came about because there might be different opportunities that might be better than the original proposal was…and you should be prepared to take them.”
Research Challenges
So Lumia set out to work on his research project, and to learn. His first surprise came immediately when he learned that the new MEMS facility he had hoped to work in hadn’t been completed. His second surprise came when he learned he could not actually walk into the current facilities to work. He had to collaborate with a technical staff member who actually did the processing. But it was interesting, and he and his collaborator started to work.
At UNM he had been working with an artificial muscle material called ionic polymer metal composite, but the problem was to package the tiny microgrippers so they had mechanical stability. There were some problems in getting good electrical contact in the microgripper fingers so they were able to perform reliably without crushing delicate biological samples.
Lumia and his collaborator at IISc began to come up with alternatives. They now have three possible ways to solve the problem and are working on a paper describing one of those approaches, and planning another paper on a different technique.
Learning How Engineering Students Think About Education
While Lumia was waiting for some of the technical processing to be complete in the laboratory, he began talking with students and learning about other universities in India. He found that the system for undergraduates who want to study engineering is very straightforward.
Lumia says, “The way you get into these universities is yo take a test. You are ranked from 1 to n. There are 450,000 students who take the engineering exam. The top 4,500 go to the Indian Institutes of Technology…all seven ITTs. That’s it. The top 1 percent fill up all the ITTs. Now what about 4,501?”
Lumia says there are a number of excellent schools in India for students who are not part of that top 1 percent, but he thinks UNM might also be able to attract top graduate and undergraduate students with a little effort and some scholarship money.
During his time in Bengaluru, Lumia taught a class in design for manufacturability for IISc, and he also judged an all India robotics competition. That opened his eyes to the way Indian students think about the U.S. There were 80 teams in the competition from 56 different universities. Each team built robots that could pick up objects and move them to different spots. There were a number of criteria for measuring each group’s performance and Lumia talked with each group about their designs as a part of the judging. He also asked them how they chose an engineering graduate school.
As students complete their undergraduate work and start to look for international experience in the U.S., they told him the first place they look are the school rankings for the top 50 engineering graduate schools listed in U.S. News & World Report.
UNM’s School of Engineering is 77 in the current rankings. Lumia said he found UNM isn’t on the students’ radar screen. That’s what worries him. He knows many of the Indian engineering students would have a great study and research experience at UNM, and the School of Engineering would certainly benefit from having more students who are looking for careers in research. But how do you reach the right students with the right incentives?
Lumia is already looking for a way to set up some kind of joint Master’s degree with an Institute in India. He says students could do one year at UNM or in India then complete the second year of the degree at the other institution.
Lumia says there are good schools in India that UNM could partner with. He says, “I think it could really help us do the research, when leads to high quality publications which starts the virtuous circle toward the top 50.” Lumia’s Fulbright Fellowship was a grant to help solve a specific research problem, but the experience gave him more than research answers, it lit a fire for ways he can help to improve the university.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
KUNM’s news department took home seven first place Associated Press awards for 2008, winning the top spot in all but two categories in the radio awards. The radio broadcast awards this year were consolidated to include all radio stations across the state, from Taos to Las Cruces. Competition was stronger, and KUNM continued to excel. This year’s awards were judged by Tennessee broadcasters.
Here are the winners:
Breaking News:
1st Place: KUNM, for "Richardson Drops Presidential Bid" (Jim Williams)
General News:
1st Place: KUNM, for "Solar Fiesta" (Sidsel Overgaard)
Feature News:
1st Place: KUNM, for "Katrina Survivors in Albuquerque 3 Years Later" (Jim Williams)
Honorable Mention: KRWG, for "Mariachi Music Captivates World Audience"
Newscast:
1st Place: KRWG and KYVA (tie)
Honorable Mention: KYVA
Sports Story:
1st Place: KUNM, for "UNM-Laguna Partnership" (Devon Armijo)
Documentary:
1st Place: KUNM, for "NM Veteran Has Answer for PTSD" (Jim Williams)
Public Service:
1st Place: KUNM, for "Race and Gender Series" (Elaine Baumgartel)
Honorable Mention: KUNM, for "Election Primary Preview" (Elaine Baumgartel, John West, Jim Williams)
Continuing Coverage:
1st Place: KUNM, for 2008 State Legislature (Jim Williams)
Web Site:
1st Place: KRWG-FM
KUNM News Director Jim Williams said, “KUNM’s commitment to local news combined with our listeners’ commitment to KUNM made these awards possible. We’re grateful for the recognition, and for the support of each listener who recognizes the value in maintaining a strong and independent local news presence on New Mexico’s Community-Powered Public Radio, KUNM.”
Sharon Nepstad, director, Religious Studies and professor of sociology, published “Religion and War Resistance in the Plowshares Movement,” with Cambridge University Press in 2008. The book just won the Outstanding Book Award for the American Sociological Association section on Peace, War, and Social Conflict.
As the nuclear arms race exploded in the 1980s, a group of U.S. religious pacifists used radical nonviolence to intervene. Armed with hammers, they broke into military facilities to pound on missiles and pour blood on bombers, enacting the prophet Isaiah's vision: "Nations shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks." Calling themselves the Plowshares movement, these controversial activists received long prison sentences; nonetheless, their movement grew and expanded to Europe and Australia.
In this book, Nepstad documents the emergence and international diffusion of this form of high-risk collective action. Drawing on in-depth interviews, original survey research, and archival data, Nepstad explains why some Plowshares groups have persisted over time while others have struggled or collapsed. Comparing the U.S. movement with less successful Plowshares groups overseas, Nepstad reveals how decisions about leadership, organization, retention, and cultural adaptations influence movements' long-term trajectories.
“Starting in the United States, small groups of religious people attacked weapons of mass destruction with small hammers and their own blood. Sharon Nepstad tells the compelling story of how this movement spread around the world, adapting different forms depending upon the religious and political setting.
"She gives voice to these activists, but rather than simply turning then into heroes or cranks, she explains the roots of their sustained activism. She convincingly shows how a sort of religious faith, even the faith of atheists, allows people to continue their efforts despite significant shifts in political opportunity. This is a fascinating book, essential for anyone who wants to make sense of long term political commitment in hard times.”
-David S. Meyer, University of California at Irvine
Today, in UNM’s Zimmerman Library, representatives of the University of New Mexico, the City of Albuquerque and Sandia Corporation, operator of Sandia National Laboratories, signed a memorandum of understanding to participate in a Community Research Collaborative.
Photo (l. to r.): Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez, UNM President David Schmidly, SNL President Tom Hunter
The MOU says that each party is engaged in broad and complex areas of research that may result in economic development opportunities. Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez said, “The City of Albuquerque’s role will be to be the laboratory where some of the research can be applied.”
The parties have identified possible common areas of research that may provide immediate collaborative opportunities including energy infrastructure, alternative energy, energy efficiency, cyber security, digital film media and digital film media storage, and computer modeling and simulation.
UNM President David Schmidly said, “Our researchers received almost $300 million in research funding last year and we have a lot of cutting edge expertise on this campus that we can bring to bear on the community of Albuquerque.”
Schmidly noted that UNM is a member of the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities and that one of the missions of that organization is to improve the quality of life in their local communities.
Sandia National Laboratories President Tom Hunter said, “In partnerships we will bring together in whatever way we can, the opportunity to work with industrial entities, with governmental entities and with American universities. So what can be better than doing that? Doing that right here at home as a model for how it should be done.”
Each of the parties has appointed a senior staff member to begin work on the collaborative. Connie Beimer, the special assistant for strategic initiatives in the Office of the Vice President of Research will represent UNM. Michael DeWitt, deputy director and group manager for communications will represent Sandia National Laboratories, and Ted Shogry, performance improvement manager, will represent the City of Albuquerque.
The group will work to identify possible projects over the next few months. The agreement allows the Collaborative to seek funding for projects through federal agencies, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, state government, foundation and private partnerships.
Media contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627; kwent2@unm.edu
Republican Steve Schiff – congressman, district attorney and U.S. Air Force Reserve colonel, died in 1998. His papers are now open for researchers at the Center for Southwest Research at UNM. They reflect a serious and conscientious public servant who took on a number of tough projects along with one of New Mexico’s biggest mysteries.
Photo: Steve Schiff
In 1993 Schiff wrote a letter to Secretary of Defense Les Aspin asking for his help in explaining events in central New Mexico in early July 1947. Schiff’s letter outlines the public furor over debris found on a ranch near Corona, N.M. followed by a public announcement, then retraction of a press release on the crash and recovery of a “flying disc.”
The brief dismissive letter he got back led him on a multiyear quest to find an adequate answer from the U.S. government. His papers document efforts to determine what happened and what federal agencies might have information about the Roswell incident. Schiff wrote the original letter at constituents’ urging and was skeptical that the incident was anything other than a weather balloon, as the Air Force eventually claimed. But after years of trying to get satisfactory answers from the federal government, Schiff was eventually forced to conclude that the Air Force was hiding something about the incident.
Arrangement and description of the collection was done by graduate student Max Fitzpatrick, the Dennis Chavez Fellow funded by the Center for Regional Studies. Fitzpatrick said he was interested in how Schiff handled conflicts of conscience. He said, “Schiff didn’t support the war in Bosnia and voted against it, but he also volunteered to go to Iraq and Bosnia as a JAG attorney.”
He says the collection documents how the political position of parties shifts when they are not in power, but throughout his public service Schiff was always a strong protector of civil liberties.
In addition to correspondence on the Roswell incident, the collection contains information about the effort to save Kirtland Air Force Base from the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission’s recommendation, and correspondence about creation of the Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque.
The collection itself is divided into sections. Biographical information about Schiff and his staff is included in his personal papers. Material about Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs, and the letters concerning the Roswell incident are included in the issues section. The legislation section has drafts of bills, newspaper articles and reports about the legislation. This section includes information about work Schiff did on health care fraud.
The committee work section holds material from hearings, correspondence, reports and news clippings concerning work on specific issues. Congressman Schiff served on the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, known as the House Ethics Committee, and portions of the collection deal with a case involving former Speaker of the House of Representative Newt Gingrich.
The communications section of the collection includes information about his reelection campaigns, media relations strategies, news releases and information about issues of interest to his constituents.
University Libraries provides online detailed descriptions of the Schiff collection, along with hundreds of other collections that document the history of New Mexico at: Rocky Mountain Online Archive.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Former Astronaut John Bennett Herrington worked with students attending the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp at UNM today as they competed to design rafts from straws and aluminum foil that could carry a cargo of pennies. The experience is part of a summer science camp in the School of Engineering at the UNM campus.
The American Indian Science and Engineering Society hosted the camp for middle school students from New Mexico and Arizona. The students are mostly from rural communities. Harrington is a member of the Chickasaw Tribe of Oklahoma and one of the first American Indians in space.
The students are spending two weeks at UNM. The camp gives the student first-hand experience with experiments, working in groups and exposure to role models like Herrington and another former astronaut Bernard Harris. The two astronauts talked about their own experiences and struggle to overcome problems and become astronauts.
Herrington told the students about flunking out of college initially because he didn’t want to have a job that would keep him indoors and behind a desk, but he also talked about the rewards of going back to college, becoming a fighter pilot in the Navy and moving into a position with NASA and the space program.
Harris is a physician and former astronaut who put together a foundation to support education, health and wealth. The Harris Foundation, along with the ExxonMobil Foundation are joining together to cover the costs for the summer science camp. This is the first time the Harris Summer Science Camp has been held at UNM.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Barry Cooney, interim executive director of the University of New Mexico-Gallup, concludes his service to the branch on June 30, the last day of his contract. Paul Kraft, Student Services director, will assume administrative duties until Sylvia Rodriguez Andrew, the newly appointed executive director, arrives in mid-August.
Photo: Barry Cooney
Cooney has been appointed special assistant to Deputy Provost Richard Holder, starting July 1, for an as yet undetermined period of time. He was named interim executive director in April 2008, following former Executive Director Beth Miller’s assignment as special assistant to UNM’s outgoing Vice President of Rio Rancho Operations and Branch Academic Affairs Marc Nigliazzo.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Steve McKee, president of Albuquerque’s McKee Wallwork Cleveland Advertising and author of “When Growth Stalls: How it Happens, Why You’re Stuck, and What to Do About It,” talks about his five-year examination of more than 700 corporations and the book that resulted from that research with this week’s guest host Sophie Martin. “New Mexico in Focus,” KNME-TV channel 5’s weekly hour-long public affairs show, will air on Friday, June 19 at 7 p.m. on KNME-TV channel 5/5.1 and repeat on Sunday, June 21 at 6:30 a.m.
Also on this week’s episode:
· Co-host Gene Grant and “The Line” panelists explore health care reform’s New Mexico connections, and the proliferation of politicians on Facebook.
· Co-host David Alire Garcia takes us on a special tour of the Rio Grande Zoo.
Grant and regular “The Line” panelists Whitney Waite Cheshire and Jim Scarantino will be joined by guest panelists Gwyneth Doland, a reporter for the New Mexico Independent, and Teresa Cordova, a former Bernalillo County commissioner and professor with the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning.
“New Mexico in Focus” is produced by Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer and 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
Competing with some of the best writers, designers, podcasters and editors in the country, the University of New Mexico garnered six awards in the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest.
For the second time in three years, UNM Today won a first place award in the four-color magapaper/tabloid category. The award was accepted by Editor Sari Krosinsky, Senior Communication Representative Carolyn Gonzales and Senior Graphic Designer Jana Fothergill, University Communication and Marketing Department.
Law Professor Sherri Burr received a first place award in instructional nonfiction books for her audio book, “Sum & Substance on Entertainment Law,” and an honorable mention in informational columns for “Minding Finances for Writers,” her monthly column in Southwest Sage.
Gonzales and Journalism Professor Richard Schaefer took second place in the prepared radio report category for “Perspectives on Mexican Immigration” on KUNM. Gonzales also received an honorable mention in news podcasts for a UNM Live interview with History Professor Ferenc Szasz on Abraham Lincoln and Robert Burns.
UCAM Public Relations Specialist Benson Hendrix and Senior Communication Representative Karen Wentworth took second place in Web site development for UNM’s Political Experts page, created to facilitate media requests during the 2008 elections.
The National Federation of Press Women, founded in 1937, is a nationwide organization of professional women and men across the communications spectrum.
The ITS Department is upgrading the campus e-mail system (Webmail and Communigate) now and throughout the summer. These hardware and software improvements include an upgrade to CommuniGate 5.2 in early August and a more streamlined interface on Webmail.
Students, faculty and staff will not be required to make any changes or do anything differently once the implementations and upgrades are in place, and e-mail functions and applications will be substantially improved.
For additional information contact the ITS Support Center at 277-4848 or visit: ITS.
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
Parents of high school students have an opportunity to immerse themselves in a college experience through a new, free program offered at the University of New Mexico. Parents or guardians of students entering 9th through 11th grade are invited to live and dine on campus and attend casual, informative sessions during the second annual “Parent Experience Program” Friday and Saturday, July 24-25. The registration deadline is Friday, June 26.
Participants are provided with information needed to support a students’ goal of attending a college or university. Information sessions cover college entrance requirements, applications, financial aid, scholarships, college course work and support services.
Parents will also have an opportunity to meet faculty, staff, current students and other parents to create a resource network.
The program is supported by the UNM Division of Student Affairs, New Mexico GEAR UP and Engaging Latino Communities for Education (ENLACE).
For more information, contact the UNM Parent Relations Office, (505) 277-5915.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Colorado Plateau uplift related to warming of the North American plate since 40 million years ago
It’s been the subject of a long-standing geological debate. Some of the biggest names in American geology, Clarence Dutton, Charles Hunt, and John Wesley Powell, all wondered what forces were/are responsible for the uplift of the Colorado Plateau, a broad region of average elevation of 2 km centered in the Four Corners area of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
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Diagrams illustrate Cenozoic magmatic patterns in the western United States, showing magmatic encroachment onto the Colorado Plateau. |
Shallow-marine and coastal rocks of that are 65 million years old drape the Colorado Plateau (for example, the Mancos Shale in New Mexico) so we know that the region was near sea level at that time. Today, these same rocks are uplifted by an average of 2.2 km above sea level.
Researchers at the University of New Mexico, University of Southern California and Utah State University, feel they have deciphered the mystery. Their work appears in a paper titled, “Colorado Plateau magmatism and uplift by warming of heterogeneous lithosphere,” published in the June 18 2009 issue of Nature magazine.
Researchers Mousumi Roy, UNM Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, Thomas Jordan, USC Department of Earth Sciences and Joel Pederson, USU Department of Geology, say the primary mechanism driving rock uplift of the plateau is the warming of the thicker, more iron-depleted Colorado Plateau lithosphere over a 35-40 million year period following the mid-Cenozoic removal of the Farallon plate from beneath North America.
“Basically, there are three main processes that could have uplifted the rocks of the Colorado Plateau,” said Roy. “Sixty-five million years ago during the Laramide event the plate was being shortened or squished together by compression, which can lead to uplift of rocks. But there’s not a lot of evidence that the Colorado Plateau underwent a great deal of shortening in this time. It could be that denser parts of the North American plate were removed just as dense blobs sink in a lava lamp. However, xenoliths, which are fragments of mantle rock found in volcanoes, show evidence the plate in the Colorado Plateau was intact at least three million years ago.
“Our mechanism for driving the uplift is the heating of rock, which causes expansion and a decrease in density. Because the North American plate floats on the flowing mantle below it, when the plate expands it floats higher and rises relative to its initial position.”
Roy and her colleagues’ propose that a thermal perturbation or disturbance associated with the removal of a subducting plate, the Farallon plate, from beneath North America about 40 million years ago caused warming and a subsequent re-equilibration which drove rock uplift in within the western U.S. The uplift of the Colorado Plateau region is enhanced by the fact that the plate is thicker in this region and so it protrudes into the flowing mantle below. As a result, the protruding region is heated laterally from the sides and from below.
“There’s pretty good evidence for this lateral warming of the Colorado Plateau region because Cenozoic magmatism (volcanic activity) encroaches onto the plateau, moving inward at rates of 4-6 km per million years, consistent with a process of slow warming” Roy explained.
“This suggests that the removal of the Farallon plate from beneath North America around 40 million years ago, is responsible for the uplift of the rocks of the Colorado Plateau. The removal of the plate is also accompanied by a huge pulse of volcanism, the “ignimbrite flare-up” that includes the Mogollon-Datil and the San Juan volcanic fields,” said Roy.
The research, funded by the National Science Foundation, is of particularly high interest. It helps to explain why rocks of the Colorado Plateau are above sea-level, which has been a longstanding problem among geologists.
“This conundrum has stirred the imagination of geologists for a long time,” said Roy. “Whatever raised the rock uplift didn’t cause the crust to get severely disrupted in the process. The dramatic landscape of the Colorado Plateau is a combination of this regional thermally-driven uplift that we propose began about 40 million years ago and continued to the present, and erosion of the mostly flat-lying strata.”
To view the paper visit: Nature. For more information on Roy’s research and her lab visit: Mousumi Roy.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
As the human population continues to grow and resource demands soar, biodiversity conservation has never been more critical said University of New Mexico Biology Department postdoctoral researchers Ana Davidson and Marcus Hamilton in a paper released today in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The paper, titled “Multiple Ecological Pathways to Extinction in Mammals,” represents an important advance in understanding the causes of extinction risk in mammals. The research goes beyond previous analyses on extinction risk by identifying specific combinations of ecological traits that cause some species to be at greater risk than others.
“One-quarter of all mammals are in danger of extinction and over half of all mammal populations are in decline, making it critically important for scientists to identify the characteristics of species that make certain ones at greatest risk,” said Davidson.
Using a new database of nearly 4,500 mammal species, Davidson and colleagues are using a novel methodological approach, decision-trees, to determine different pathways to extinction in mammals and provide simple rules of thumb that can be used for guiding conservation practice. They are discovering that extinction risk varies widely across mammals and that all kinds of mammals, across all body sizes, can be at risk depending on their specific ecologies.
They also discovered that although large mammals are well-known to be at risk, 40 percent of all smaller mammals below 5.5 kg also are at risk of extinction. This was a particularly significant finding as 75 percent of all mammals are smaller than this size, and conservation efforts worldwide tend to focus primarily on large, charismatic species, such as jaguars, pandas, elephants, and polar bears.
Mammals with certain ecological traits such as small geographic range, low population density, slow life history, and large body size are known to be at risk of extinction. Davidson and colleagues have taken this knowledge to the next step by identifying how these kinds of traits interact to create different pathways to extinction.
For example, species with small geographic ranges are known to have a proportionally greater risk than those with larger geographic ranges. Because it is not enough to estimate risk from a single variable, this study identifies how traits like the size of the geographic range interact with combinations of other traits such as reproductive rate, population density, and social group size to cause variation in risk.
Davidson and colleagues also have identified other traits not commonly thought to be important predictors of extinction risk, such as living in trees versus living belowground. These kinds of insights highlight the urgent need for more information on the basic natural history of most species, which is still poorly known even for the most well studied groups like mammals, yet, essential to achieving conservation goals.
Unlike previous studies, Davidson and colleagues also identify exactly what is “small,” “large,” “fast” and “slow” by providing a map of extinction pathways that include the ranges of trait values where species are at greatest risk. This map outlining the pathways to extinction in mammals provides tangible results and basic rules of thumb for conservation practice. Their model also provides lists of species predicted to be inherently at risk based on their ecologies, many of which are have not yet been identified as at risk.
“Since there is extremely limited funding for conservation, it is critical to provide tangible results that help conservationists prioritize their efforts on the ground, and that is a key goal of our research,” said Davidson.
"This newer statistical approach is much better at extracting data than traditional techniques,” added Hamilton. “Many researchers are seeing the usefulness of this tool. It is less restrictive and more flexible, and allows ecologists to work with large, complex data sets.”
Davidson and Hamilton began working on this project at the Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) while Davidson was a National Science Foundation International Research Fellow living in Mexico City. They have worked under the mentorship of Distinguished Professor of Biology Dr. James H. Brown at UNM and Dr. Gerardo Ceballos from the Instituto de Ecología, UNAM, one of the most prominent conservation scientists in Latin America. Other researchers closely involved in the project include Dr. Alison G. Boyer, who recently received her doctorate in biology from UNM, and is now at the University of California San Diego.
To view the PNAS article visit: PNAS.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Polly Schaafsma, author of "New Perspectives on Pottery Mound Pueblo," will present a talk Saturday, July 11, at 7 p.m. at Petroglyph National Monument Visitors Center, 4735 Western Trails NW. Ancestral Puebloan peoples inhabited the Pottery Mound site on New Mexico’s Rio Puerco River from the late 14th to the late 15th centuries, when Archaeologist Frank C. Hibben began excavating Pottery Mound 50 years ago, archaeologists were paying relatively little attention to Ancestral Pueblo sites.
Hibben found that Pottery Mound was home to diverse Puebloan characteristics evident in both Rio Grande Pueblos and the Western Pueblos. Hibben also discovered an abundance of pottery styles and layers of murals in eleven kivas that are a magnificent archive of religious iconography of the period.
Despite its importance to the study of Southwestern archaeology, Pottery Mound remains poorly studied, under published, and largely neglected.
In New Perspectives on the Pottery Mound Pueblo, renowned Southwestern archaeologist Polly Schaafsma presents essays by contemporary scholars on the site’s murals, rock art, pottery, textiles, and archaeofaunal remains.
Contributors revisit Pottery Mound for new insights into inhabitants' regional interactions, migrations, and trade during the Pueblo IV period—a time of dynamic change in Puebloan culture.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Tournament tees off June 19
Have you ever wondered what its like to drive your tee shot some 300 yards to put yourself in a position for a birdie or maybe even an eagle on one of the toughest holes at the University of New Mexico Championship Golf Course? If so, the University of New Mexico Presidential Scholarship Golf Tournament just might be your ticket.
Presented by Bank of America, the UNM Presidential Scholarship Golf Tournament tees off on Friday, June 19. The tournament features a pair of shotgun starts beginning at 7:45 a.m. and 1 p.m. and there's still time to register.
Registration fee for the 18-hole tournament is $125 per player, which includes green fees, cart, range balls, drinks, snacks and a post-tournament awards dinner. Mulligans are also available at $5 each (limit 2 per player). All proceeds benefit the UNM Presidential Scholarship Program (PSP).
To help get you closer to the green with one of your tee shots, UNM senior Alex Zannes, a Presidential Scholar and member of the UNM Golf team, will volunteer to drive your tee shot on Hole No. 10, a 520-yard, par 5 monster. Zannes comes out each year to the UNM Presidential Scholarship Golf Tournament, presented by Bank of America, and volunteers to tee-off for the players. The players appreciate the opportunity to meet a Presidential Scholar. This particular scholar just happens to have a great drive.
The tournament format consists of a 4-person Red-White-Blue scramble, limited to one “A” player (handicap of nine or less), and a combined handicap of each team of at least 43. Interested participants may form their own team, play as an individual or pair and be assigned to a team.
Team prizes for men’s teams 1st through 4th place (both a.m. and p.m. flights), and women’s teams 1st through 3rd place prizes (all day), will be awarded. Additionally, many skill prizes will be available. A raffle prize drawing includes prizes from Inn at the Mountain Gods,
Sponsorship opportunities are also available at various levels including: prize or product sponsorships; Birdie Level sponsor ($1,500); Eagle Level sponsor ($2,500); and Leaderboard Level sponsor ($4,000).
Established in 1976, the Presidential Scholarship Program was based on an idea proposed by then-Dean of Admissions Robert M. Weaver, who found that many top-notch students were going out of state to school. With the support of President William E. "Bud" Davis and a kick-off dinner with the state's business leaders, Director of Development Robert Lalicker raised $60,000 in a mere 30 days to start the program.
Presidential Scholarships are offered exclusively to New Mexico's most outstanding high school graduates, based on their academic merit and leadership skills. These scholarships go above and beyond the cost of tuition - paying for textbooks and other fees.
There are approximately 400 scholars on campus this year representing a wealth of ethnic backgrounds from all across the state. This number puts UNM, and New Mexico, among the national leaders in merit scholarships. The tournament funds more than 35 scholars every year.
For more information on sponsorships and benefits or to register, call (505) 277-5688. Interested participants may also register online at: PSP Golf.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The $1.2 billion arts and cultural industries in New Mexico continue to play a critical role during the current economic downturn. Tamarind Institute at the University of New Mexico takes its part in bolstering the economy while advancing the university’s green initiatives through construction of its new home at 2500 Central Ave. SE. The groundbreaking takes place on Friday, June 26 at 4 p.m.
For nearly 40 years Tamarind has occupied an unobtrusive, 9,000 square foot space at 108-110 Cornell SE, south of Gyros and the Frontier. Tamarind’s new location, previously UNM’s Architecture & Planning Annex, will increase Tamarind’s visibility to the community, provide more space for educational programming, and improve health and safety standards. The new 14,000 square foot building is expected to be completed in spring 2010, in time for Tamarind’s 50th anniversary events.
The new building, designed by architect Devendra Contractor, will be LEED certified Silver and consists of both renovation and new construction. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, provides a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction. The new structure includes a number of energy efficient design features, usage of recycled materials, and a storm water collection system. New construction consists of an elevator shaft, third story artist's residence and courtyard. Also included in the project are a new ventilation system, and temperature and humidity control which will provide a safer environment and protect Tamarind’s significant print collection.
Tamarind’s capital campaign was kicked off in 2006 with a significant commitment from First Community Bank. Other support followed from the New Mexico legislature, and local businesses and organizations such as Charter Bank, Thaw Charitable Trust and the McCune Foundation.
Tamarind Institute, a division of the College of Fine Arts at UNM, is a nonprofit center for fine art lithography that trains master printers and houses a professional collaborative studio for artists. Founded in 1960 in Los Angeles, Tamarind played a significant role in reviving the art of lithography in the United States and continues to provide professional training and publishing opportunities worldwide. Tamarind Institute is recognized internationally for its contributions to the growth of contemporary printmaking around the world.
Following the groundbreaking ceremony on Friday, June 26, 4 p.m. at 2500 Central Ave. SE., a reception will be held in the Tamarind gallery at the current location, 110 Cornell Drive SE. The public is invited to attend. For more information, call (505) 277-3901, e-mail tamarind@unm.edu or visit: Tamarind Institute.
Media Contact: Shelly Smith, (505) 277-3792; e-mail: sjsmith@unm.edu
The University of New Mexico announced today it will be one of 30 locations for an ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp this summer. This is the first year that UNM, the School of Engineering’s Engineering Student Services and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) have hosted the camp.
The camp will be held June 14- 26 and will include 50 middle schoolers from New Mexico and Arizona, mainly recruited from rural communities. The camp’s theme is Traditional Knowledge, Modern Challenges. The residential camp gives students a first-hand experience with experiments, role models and innovative programs to encourage their continued participation in math and science courses in school.
Additionally, their leadership potential and citizenship skills are fostered along with their abilities to work in teams and think creatively, while spending two weeks in a college campus environment. The ultimate goal is to raise their awareness of career possibilities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
“UNM, the School of Engineering’s Engineering Student Services and AISES are excited to be part of this wonderful camp experience for our local students,” said Shirley LaCourse, AISES Deputy CEO. “We’re not only providing these students with an amazing two weeks on our campus, we are also doing our part to develop the next generation of creative thinkers and inventors.”
Unlike most summer camps, there is no fee required to attend the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp. Young people who are academically qualified, recommended by their teachers and genuinely interested in math and science can be rewarded with the opportunity to attend these educational camps at no cost.
One of the highlights of the camp will be on June 18 when two former astronauts address the group. Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr., a physician and the head of the Harris Foundation, logged more than 438 hours in space. He was a mission specialist on STS-55 in 1993 and the Payload Commander on STS-63 in 1995.
John Bennett Herrington, a member of the Chickasaw Tribe of Oklahoma and one of the first American Indians in space, flew on STS-113 and logged more than 330 hours in space, including three “spacewalks” outside the shuttle as the mission delivered cargo from the Space Shuttle to the International Space Station. These distinguished men will discuss their NASA experiences with the students.
Students will attend daily classes in natural science, engineering, mathematics and technology, which will be taught by faculty from the University of New Mexico. Activities include classroom study, experiments, individual/team/group projects, weekly field excursions and guest speakers who motivate the students into fulfilling their dreams.
Repeated studies have shown that the United States faces a critical shortage of engineers, scientists and other mathematics- and science-literate workers, with a significant number of practicing engineers nearing retirement and not enough students are pursuing related degrees.
Through numerous efforts, ExxonMobil is supporting programs and organizations that focus on improving mathematics and science education at all levels.
For a complete list of campus locations, please visit the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp website at www.theharrisfoundation.org.
About UNM, School of Engineering’s Engineering Student Services
Engineering Student Services (ESS) in the School of Engineering at The University of New Mexico provides support services such as advisement for all first-year general engineering students and transfer students, STEM summer programs for K-12 and incoming freshmen students, outreach including recruitment, career fairs and classroom presentations, tutoring, scholarships, and multicultural programs. These activities are designed to build a pipeline for students to major in STEM fields and provide the support to retain these students to successfully complete their degree and either continue in advanced academic programs or pursue a career with a technologically advanced company.
About the American Indian Science & Engineering Society (AISES)
AISES is a national, nonprofit organization headquartered in Albuquerque which nurtures building of community by bridging science and technology with traditional Native values. Through its educational programs, AISES has provided opportunities for American Indians and Alaska Natives to pursue studies in science, engineering, and technology arenas. Currently AISES’ extensive membership network includes over 2,500 members, 160 college chapters, and 200 K-12 Affiliated schools, representative of over 200 American Indian tribes.
About ExxonMibil Foundation
ExxonMobil Foundation is the primary philanthropic arm of the Exxon Mobil Corporation in the United States. The Foundation and the Corporation engage in a range of philanthropic activities that advance education, health and science in the communities where ExxonMobil has significant operations. In the United States, ExxonMobil supports initiatives to improve math and science education at the K-12 and higher education levels.
Globally, ExxonMobil provides funding to improve basic education and combat malaria and other infectious diseases in developing countries. In 2008, together with its employees and retirees, Exxon Mobil Corporation, its divisions and affiliates, and ExxonMobil Foundation provided $225 million in contributions worldwide, of which more than $89 million was dedicated to education. Additional information on ExxonMobil’s community partnerships and contributions programs is available at Exxonmobile.
The Harris Foundation
Founded in 1998, The Harris Foundation is a 501 (c) (3), non-profit organization based in Houston, Texas, whose overall mission is to invest in community-based initiatives to support education, health and wealth. The foundation supports programs that empower individuals, in particular minorities and economically and/or socially disadvantaged, to recognize their potential and pursue their dreams.
The Education Mission of the Harris Foundation is to enable youth to develop and achieve their full potential through the support of social, recreational, and educational programs for grades K-12. Through three primary initiatives— The DREAM Tour, the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp and Dare to Dream—the foundation encourages math and science education, motivates youth to stay in school, fosters youth leadership and citizenship, as well as instills the values of responsibility, fairness and respect.
The Harris Foundation believes that students can be prepared now for the careers of the future through a structured education program and the use of positive role models. To date, more than 10,000 K-12 students have participated and benefited from THF programs.
Harris Foundation
Media contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627;e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Matthew McDuffie, professional screenwriter and instructor in UNM’s Dramatic Writing Program, will lead two intensive, intimate workshops for filmmakers who are determined to create stronger stories and characters. The first class, Saturday June 20-Sunday, June 21, is for mature writers who wish to develop their work into dynamic and powerful screenplays. The second class, Saturday, June 27-Sunday, June 28, is for young people interested in the foundations and practice of film writing.
McDuffie has written for HBO, Showtime, Warner Brothers and the producers of “ER,” “Capote” and “Six Feet Under.”
“Matthew is a passionate storyteller. He lives for it,” said Bonnie Curtis, producer of “Saving Private Ryan” and “Minority Report.” “He understands that the problem solving and puzzle-making of good story is to serve emotion and character, and ultimately the audience. In this age of reality TV and Internet immersion, Matthew has not forgotten that entertainment is an art form.”
The workshops will be held at UNM 10 a.m.-4 p.m. The cost of $200 includes lunch. A $25 deposit is required. Contact McDuffie at (505) 385-1323 or buzzblanco@comcast.net for more information and reservations.
Abstract Classicist painter Frederick Hammersley died Sunday, May 31, in Albuquerque at the age of 90. After teaching in UNM’s Department of Art and Art History 1968-71, Hammersley retired to devote himself to painting. The memorial is on Saturday, June 20, 1 p.m. at the UNM Alumni Chapel.
Hammersley earned fame through a 1959 exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The exhibit also travelled internationally.
“Hammersley’s place in the history of art was anchored by the exhibition, ‘Four Abstract Classicists,’” said Elen Feinberg, UNM art and art history professor. “Double-entendres, whimsy and elegant geometry were all part of this highly gifted and complex painter.”
Hammersley was born Jan. 5, 1919, in Salt Lake City. He served in the army during World War II, and while stationed in Paris he visited Picasso’s studio and studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He was an art professor in Southern California for about 20 years before joining UNM.
Hammersley is survived by his sister, who lives in Santa Fe.
The Fairness Doctrine and its potential impact on the future of talk radio is the main topic on this week’s episode of “New Mexico in Focus.” “New Mexico in Focus,” KNME-TV channel 5’s weekly hour-long public affairs show, will air on Friday, June 12 at 7 p.m. on KNME-TV channel 5/5.1 and repeat on Sunday, June 14 at 6:30 a.m.
Co-host David Alire Garcia will discuss the Fairness Doctrine with Brian Jennings, the former Vice President of Talk Programming for Citadel Broadcasting and the author of “Censorship: The Threat to Silence Talk Radio – The “New” Fairness Doctrine Exposed.”
Then Garcia will be joined in the studio by Tracy Dingmann and Suzanne Prescott to discuss Jennings’ claim that “the principles of the Fairness Doctrine threaten to be reinstated – if not directly, then through back-door tactics.”
Also on this week’s episode:
· Co-host Gene Grant and “The Line” panelists look at the Homeland Security team’s visit to New Mexico.
· The perils of the MDC jail release policies.
· A look at what might really be meant by “shovel ready” projects.
Grant and regular “The Line” panelists Whitney Waite Cheshire and Jim Scarantino will be joined by guests Teresa Cordova from the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning and Margaret Montoya from the UNM School of Law, UNM Health Sciences Center and visiting professor with the City University of New York Law School.
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
The University of New Mexico’s Queer Straight Alliance will march in the Pride Parade on Saturday, June 13, beginning at 10:30 a.m. at UNM and ending at Expo New Mexico. QSA members will also perform in a skit during Pridefest.
At a meeting, members discussed the importance of the Pride Parade.
“It’s great that we have a place where it’s safe, marching in such huge numbers, because it can be dangerous to protest in small groups,” said Ross Brockman, social chair.
“We need to know our history, know why we’re still fighting for our rights,” said Sean Kennedy, volunteer officer.
Others participating in the discussion talked about the importance of coming together, sharing resources and showing youth they can be accepted. A few said it would be their first time participating in Albuquerque’s Pride Parade.
Capping the meeting, the group circled up on the floor to stuff safer sex packets with information, condoms, lubricant and dental dams to hand out at the parade.
Brandy Rodke, chair, said the group, created a year ago, is a departure from previous groups like Del Lado Otro in idea as well as in name. The group first moved to be easier to recognize and more inclusive with the expansive new name: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning Alliance. The move to Queer Straight Alliance was meant not only to use queer as an all-encompassing – and less cumbersome – umbrella term, but to explicitly include straight allies.
Among other pride events, the New Mexico Gay Men’s Chorus performs “As Gay As It Gets” on Thursday, June 11, 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 14, 3 p.m. at Keller Hall, UNM Center for the Arts. More events are listed at: Albuquerque Pride.
Parade participants meet beginning at 9 a.m. on Johnson Field. To join the QSA group, email qsa@unm.edu. For more information visit: Queer Straight Alliance.
Paul Romo graduated from the UNM School of Medicine and has secured a future in research and medicine. Medicine probably wouldn’t have been his career if he hadn’t participated in the Ron McNair Scholars program. Romo, the recipient of the 2009 “American Federation for Medical Research Award” for his research on lung cancer, now and fully appreciates the value of his education.
Photo: Paul Romo and his son Isaac.
Named for Dr. Ronald E. McNair, one of the first African-American astronauts, the program is committed to increasing the number of students in doctoral degree programs who come from low-income and first generation backgrounds, or who are members of traditionally underrepresented groups in academia, specifically African American, Hispanic/Latino, and American Indian/Alaska Natives.
Life wasn’t always so simple or certain for this Ronald E. McNair Program scholar.
Romo grew up a child of divorce, with mom as primary provider. He said both his parents were involved in his life and supportive of him, but never felt he had the guidance to be a successful student. His early encounters with education were so bad that he describes them as “toxic.” “I had trouble relating to the school system,” Romo said.
Because of his inability to connect scholastically and because he watched his mom struggle financially at times, Romo developed a drive to make money that ultimately could’ve steered his life in a different direction.
“When I was eight years old, I used to go to the golf courses and collect golf balls, wash them and re-sell them,” he said. By the time he entered high school, he was preoccupied with ways to generate income. “School always slid to the back burner,” he said. “That drive for money could have destroyed my life.”
In high school he hung out with people who were as disinterested in education as he was. “Several of the people I was hanging out with have since destroyed their lives with drugs and violence and some of them have or are currently are serving jail time,” he said.
In 10th grade when he met chemist Keith Emry who recognized Romo’s potential and inspired his interest in research and medicine. “I am very thankful for people like Keith who re-routed me and helped me,” Romo said.
Romo finished high school and started climbing the higher education ladder. In 2001, at 20 years old, Romo’s college career began as he entered the UNM McNair program. “Education was my salvation. It helped me pull me away from negative influences and discover a new way to make money through academia,” he said.
And, about that same time, he welcomed a son into his life. “I had just started my research when my son, Isaac, was born,” Romo said. “People thought that it would sidetrack my education, but really it did just the opposite and inspired me to do better.”
Determined to make it as a student and dad, Romo stuck with the McNair program, which allowed him to immerse himself in curriculum and a UNM transcript full of A+’s, all while sharpening his career plan.
After completing the McNair program, Romo got a job as an academic mentor for high school students at risk of dropping out. He then became an organic chemistry teaching assistant at UNM, got a research coordinator position at the Center on Alcohol, Substance Abuse and Addictions (CASAA), continued on with his research, and subsequently graduated from medical school.
Now, he plans to follow in his dad’s footsteps—and graduation was the first step in that process. “My dad was a social worker for substance abuse patients at the VA,” he says. “Wanting to emulate him and watching my childhood friends’ lives destroyed by different addictions made me want to help.”
Although his dad wasn’t able to witness Romo’s graduation firsthand, he saw his son pass his medical boards. “My dad passed away right before my graduation from medical school, so I thought about him as I was going through the ceremony,” he said.
Romo quickly compares what his life is as well as what it could’ve been. “Right before I walked on to the stage at the graduation it was like an adrenaline rush. I saw where the paths of my life bifurcated,” he said.
Romo’s plans now include a residency in psychiatry and a fellowship in addiction medicine. “My goal is to gain an appointment at UNM and work in the private sector to apply my big ideas to people from the reservations to people in the urban cities in New Mexico,” he said. His idea is to network with other disciplines in medicine to make a more efficient referral system to treat patients suffering from addictions.
Although he’s earned bragging rights, Romo is grounded, modest. “Things have a tendency of getting very dark and when I succeed, I take a step back and look at the situation and know that it’s not only because of me, but because of God, and that’s what keeps me humble and from being egotistical.”
Story by Dorene Dinaro
Lille Norstad, a Ph.D. candidate from the University of Arizona will give a presentation of her archival research and discourse analysis concerning “W.W.H. Davis’s El Gringo: New Mexico and Her People” on Wednesday, June 17, at 12 p.m. in the Willard Reading Room of Zimmerman Library. The lecture is sponsored by the Center for Southwest Research and the Office of the State Historian.
Norstad says “El Gringo: New Mexico and Her People” has been used by scholars as an example as a prototype of the racist, anti-Mexicano discourse prevalent in the mid-nineteenth century. This discussion looks at ways that archival material can enhance our historical understanding of the text as discourse, providing important insights into how such a text becomes a means of artificial eloquence.
The lecture is free and the public is welcome.
Kelley R. Ridings, an independent scholar from Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, will present a lecture on “Mining Towns of Sierra County, New Mexico at the Turn of the 19th/20th Centuries” on Friday, June 12 at noon in the Willard Reading Room of Zimmerman Library. The lecture is sponsored by the Center for Southwest Research and the Office of the State Historian.
Ridings lecture will explore the communities that flourished in Sierra County from the mid 1880s to the early 1900s. The communities flourished as the mining activities grew, and faded as the mining ores were depleted. He says what were once bright hopeful communities are now either very sparsely populated ghost towns or are completely extinct.
Ridings is an accomplished educator with more than 20 years of experience in school administration and teaching.
The lecture is free and the public is welcome.
Ellingboe and Perez-Gomez take UNM singers, musicians to Italy
Listen. Can you hear them? Brad Ellingboe and Jorge Pérez-Gómez and their group of singers, musicians raise a joyful noise when they travel to Italy this summer. Ellingboe is professor of music and director of UNM choral activities; while Pérez-Gómez, is professor of conducting and director of orchestral activities.
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Jorge Pérez-Gómez |
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Brad Ellingboe |
Ellingboe’s University Chorus and Concert Choir and Pérez-Gómez will travel to Abruzzo, an area some 50 miles east of Rome. The area was in the news recently because of the L’Aquila 6.3 magnitude earthquake that hit on April 6.
“The quake hit on the coast. We’re scheduled to be in the mountains,” Pérez-Gómez said. They will be staying in the town of Lanciano, and traveling regionally to present concerts. “The orchestra accompanying the chorus is from Brasov, Romania. They are touring Italy,” Pérez-Gómez said. He will conduct the group, whose members speak English and Italian.
“We travel to large towns and perform in the piazza. We offer say, Beethoven’s 9th for the citizens. The orchestra gets some payment, but the UNM people don’t get paid because it is a subsidized venture,” Ellingboe said.
“We are joined by an Italian choir and professional singers from the Conservatory of Santa Cecelia,” Ellingboe said. Cecelia is the patron saint of music, he added. “Since musical terms come from Italian, I can work with the singers,” Ellingboe said.
Ellingboe said, “Creating these exciting programs draws better and better students who improve over the summer months.”
They hope to do more than take UNM students to Italy. “We want to open up the program – offer it to students from Michigan and Stanford, for example. When they see what we offer, perhaps they will want to attend UNM for graduate school. In part, because we can offer low cost, high quality travel to other places,” Ellingboe said.
He added that an added benefit is raising the visibility of UNM’s music programs. “It could translate to improving our rankings,” Ellingboe said.
The musical duo plans to do more than perform beautiful music in memorable places. “We hope this program will yield international students for the University of New Mexico. Our hope is to use our personal U.S. and Italian connections to make UNM a center of international study abroad,” Ellingboe said.
“We provide a musical experience that would be impossible otherwise,” Pérez-Gómez added.
University Chorus has something akin to a booster club and the UNM Foundation recognizes community interest in it. Cultivation of additional support is feasible because, Ellingboe said, “We win all our concerts!”
Story by Carolyn Gonzales
Economics Professor Christine Sauer currently serves as director of the International Studies Institute in the College of Arts & Sciences. Sauer and Melissa Bokovoy, associate professor of history, are co-organizing an ISI program at Schloss Dyck, a castle near Düsseldorf, Germany this summer.
Photo: Christine Sauer
Sauer is also continuing work that Bokovoy began as ISI director to establish a major degree program in international studies through the College of Arts & Sciences.
2009 Summer in Germany
“The 2009 Summer in Germany program is intended for students who don’t know, or aren’t required to know German. It also opens possibilities for students to have a study abroad experience without worrying about credits transferring,” Sauer said.
Sauer and Bokovoy are teaching Revolutions of 1989 and the “New Europe.” The program commemorates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and other changes that occurred in 1989 that illustrate the transformation of Central European society, culture and the economy over the past two decades. The program will also focus on the European Union and its institutions.
Participants will visit the European Common Bank in Frankfurt and the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Bokovoy will teach Studies in History – 1989: The Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe; and Sauer will teach Seminar in International Studies – 1989 and its Consequences for German and the European Union.
Courses for the program are cross listed across disciplines. “They are established with an eye toward degree completion for undergraduates. They need to be able to participate without getting off track for graduation,” she said.
The Summer in Germany program allows students to “transform their educational experience by traveling and studying in a foreign country,” Sauer said, adding that the students will gain German language, culture and society experiences.
International Studies Degree Program
Sauer and Bokovoy want to see international studies grow, not just through study abroad programs, but through course of study. To that end, the international studies degree program has been created. It has been approved up the UNM chain and only waits for approval from the New Mexico Higher Education Department.
The international studies degree program is modeled on the area studies programs. “We have Russian, European and Asian Studies programs. The international studies degree program, like those, includes a language focus above the university’s requirement,” Sauer said. Additionally, students will take 9 credits in a region – Latin America or Africa, for example.
Students will also take a thematic concentration – women and gender in the contemporary world; culture and arts in global perspective; environment and sustainability; global markets, international institutions, and global governance are some areas.
“In a thematic concentration in rituals and belief systems, for example, students would draw upon courses in religious studies and anthropology,” Sauer said. Students can take one introductory level area studies course and draw the remaining six hours at the 300 and 400 levels.
Students will also take part in an international or intercultural capstone experience. “If they cannot travel, they can join the World Affairs Organization, participate in an international student organization or perhaps get involved in the City of Albuquerque’s international visitors organization,” Sauer said.
She said that she wants to see students participate in university sponsored study abroad programs rather than those promoted by for-profit organizations. “Some charge $6,000 to $8,000 for a program. We can offer a broader-based experience than language only for $4,500 in Europe,” she said.
Institutional support is critical for UNM programs to succeed. Tuition capture – or infusing tuition money into the program, is one way to support it, she said. Changing policies that restrict state money from being used for study abroad is another.
Sauer said that many students have expressed interest in the degree program. “We live in a globalized world. This will be relevant for generations of students,” Sauer said.
Story by Carolyn Gonzales
Since 1977, Peter White has served UNM as professor of English and American Studies, vice provost for Undergraduate Education, and dean of University College. White now takes his experience to Santa Fe where he serves as Secretary of the New Mexico Higher Education Department.
Photo: Peter White
Working 12 hour days since taking the role mid-May, White met with the Legislative Finance Committee his second day on the job. Reporting on programmatic issues is part of the job, White said, adding that he is anxious to make substantive improvements in higher education in New Mexico.
General education reform is at the top of his list. “We need to change the core curriculum across the state – streamline it, modernize it,” he said, calling the core a “35 hour hurdle.” He’s setting up a committee of faculty members from across higher education in the state to redesign it.
“We need skills oriented classes,” he said. Needed skill sets include writing in the major discipline, problem based learning or research methodology, critical and innovative thinking, and math. He notes that the current core requires Algebra 123. “But, if we allowed students to take courses that offer the same computational skills and data analysis through say, math for teachers, a computer science course or a statistical course for sociology or psychology, it might fit the interests of the students and keep them motivated,” he said.
He said that the core requirements keep faculty from being able to teach certain courses. “Faculty don’t want to force feed, they want to offer and teach what students want,” he said.
White knows what he’s talking about. He helped raise freshman enrollment to its highest in UNM history and the university set a freshman retention record. He established and expanded programs that fostered recruitment and retention, including Freshman Learning Communities, and was instrumental in securing funds to support these efforts.
White also casts a critical eye at the funding formula. Currently, it is “input driven.” Institutions are funded by credit hours generated. “It entices colleges and universities to go after students regardless of their qualifications. It creates a vicious cycle of funding institutions that graduate roughly four in ten students in six years,” he said. New Mexico is 11th in the nation in sending high school graduates to college, and 87 percent of the national average in third semester retention, but 45th nationally in college graduation rates, with UNM and NMSU graduating 83 percent of the bachelor degrees in the state.
White said he would like to see the formula become performance based. “It would reduce the incentive to take inappropriate students,” he said.
Taking unprepared students is negative statistically, and too many students never make it to the level where research universities receive adequate funding, White said.
White points out one solution would be for New Mexico to establish a three-tier educational system, like those seen in California, New York or Texas. Currently, New Mexico students can attend a university or a community college.
“What we need are four-year state colleges. Many students aren’t prepared for or interested in attending a large research university,” White said. He proposes that the UNM campus under development in Rio Rancho and the Dona Ana campus of NMSU be recast in that model. “They would be smaller, more intimate, more flexible and innovative and yet still provide students with a four-year degree without all the rigor and expense of a research institution,” he said.
“What keeps students in school is their classroom experiences, the quality of their educational experience and their ability to pass classes,” he said.
Included in his decision to take the helm of higher ed was the opportunity for White to continue to teach his UNM violin making course, the creative outlet he pursues as director of the New Mexico Musical Heritage Project.
He’s playing our song.
Story by Carolyn Gonzales
When UNM-Gallup opened its Zuni campus in 2002, things got off to a slow start. During those first years, college officials worried about how to put the $3.8 million, 36,000-square-foot facility to better use. But over the last year, the picture has changed for the better. The parking lot is full of cars, the classes are brimming with students, and as Fred Wey, interim program manager said, “We’re running out of room here.”
Wey credits this turn of events to an improved relationship with the Pueblo of Zuni. He has concentrated on keeping conversation open with the Zuni Tribal Council and the schools, businesses and organizations that serve Zuni and the surrounding communities.
“They felt that UNM-G was never fully supportive,” Wey said. Although such terminology as the “twig” – meaning that Zuni campus is a “twig” off the UNM-Gallup branch – was probably meant humorously rather than as a put-down, it rankled some locals, who also heard the campus referred to as the “stepchild” or “white elephant.”
Slowly, the image seems to be changing. One by one, obstacles have been overcome, such as getting reimbursement for UNM-Gallup instructors who drive from Gallup to teach classes, finding local instructors with the proper credentials, and transforming Zuni – through the services of administrative assistant Laura Leekela – into a one-stop shop for financial aid and advisement that is sensitive to the unique cultural needs of the community.
Recruitment and retention of students have advanced through a revitalized student senate and outreach by the Construction Club. “Students are rapidly spreading the word that the time for the Zuni campus has come,” Wey said.
One of the most important ways of getting students onto the campus has been advocating for the courses that Zuni needs.
“If our motto is ‘Stay close, go far,’ shouldn’t that apply down here as well?” Wey said.
The campus also has a renewed relation with Zuni High School, and offers many courses for dual enrollment or for the Center for Career and Technical Education vocational track. Wey said he plans to expand dual enrollment with Ramah High School and is increasing outreach with the Ramah and Pine Hill communities.
With classrooms now steadily full to capacity, plans for expansion are in discussion. Zuni students would like to see upgraded computers and a multi-use auditorium with projection equipment and a stage. The auditorium, Wey said, might be rented out to the local community – an idea that appeals to the Pueblo.
Wey said some discussion of housing for full-time faculty has been held, and that this might be achieved by partnerships with other entities in the area – perhaps with the school district, which already provides housing for its teachers.
Story by Linda Thornton
If constant stress has you feeling down, helpless and worn out, you need to take steps to manage stress. With increasing demands at home and work, many may be approaching burnout. Burnout is when a person experiences psychological, physical and spiritual fatigue and cannot cope.
This can happen when there are too many demands over a prolonged period, high expectations for work and too few actions or activities to help replenish energy. If this sounds like you, here are a few strategies to incorporate into daily life.
Strategies are listed in three categories: immediate, short-term and long-term. All three are important in coping with the burnout phenomenon.
· Immediate strategies include deep breathing exercises and positive self-talk. They also include taking a walk or talking with supportive friends and family.
· Short-term strategies include discussing workload with supervisors, setting priorities, taking care of yourself and your body and continuing to accentuate the positives.
· Long-term strategies include clarifying your values, renewing commitments at work and home and making lifestyle changes. These strategies are important in preventing future bouts of burnout, which can lead to chronic illness.
Lifestyle changes recommended for preventing or alleviating stress include starting an exercise program, making positive changes to diet, losing weight if you are overweight, quitting smoking and finding outlets for relieving stress during the day.
The Employee Health Promotion Program provides programs for each of these recommendations to help deal with stress and burnout. Whether it is a stress management course like Art for Health, meeting with our registered dietician, participating in one of our many wellness programs, completing a psychological assessment or getting support to stop smoking, EHPP is here to help. Visit Human Resources and click “Wellness.”
Story by Rhonda Miranda, Employee Health Promotion Program
To be an effective leader in today’s environment requires unique skills and competencies that are not always developed in a traditional career path. Leaders must be adept at managing resources, engaging employees, fostering teamwork, innovating ideas and making tough decisions in uncertain economic times.
As part of the Division of Human Resources’ commitment to providing excellent leadership development opportunities to the UNM community, Employee and Organizational Development created the Passport to Leadership Certification program. The Passport to Leadership Certification aims to develop, retain and inspire leaders at all levels at UNM. Whether you are a newly promoted leader or a current manager looking to hone your skills, this program can provide a core set of knowledge and tools to assist in your journey.
The Passport to Leadership offers the opportunity to build your own curriculum from a customized list of leadership learning sessions. Certification requirements include completion of one prerequisite course, four core courses, two electives and a capstone leadership case study, all within one year of beginning the program.
Core courses include:
· Essentials of Leadership (prerequisite)
· Creating a Great Place to Work
· Decisions, Results and Accountability
· Somebody’s Watching You
· Straight Talk: Coaching Employees for Success
· Performance Management at UNM
· Hiring and Keeping the Best
· Setting the Direction
· Leadership Case Study (capstone)
Be one of the first leaders to complete Passport to Leadership Certification. For registration and a comprehensive list of courses and descriptions visit: Learning Central. Contact EOD at (505) 277-1555 or EOD@unm.edu. All courses are four hours or less.
Story by Helen Gonzales, vice president, Human Resources
Science fiction is a way to envision and thereby shape the future, bestselling author Marge Piercy said during an intimate reading and Q&A at the UNM Health Sciences Center. “You have to have a way of imagining a society you want you or your children to be able to live in.” Dystopian science fiction, on the other hand, poses the question: “If this goes on, what is going to happen?”
Photo (r.): Marge Piercy
The idea of imagination as a path to social change imbues much of her work. Piercy is a master of many genres, including historical novels, novels of social comment, nonfiction and poetry, as well as science fiction. She is the author of 17 novels including New York Times Bestseller “Gone To Soldiers,” 17 volumes of poetry and a critically acclaimed memoir.
Piercy is also a long-time advocate for civil rights and anti-war movements. An audience member asked her how far she thinks women’s rights have come.
“Until a woman can walk down the street at night without worrying about what might be lurking, we haven’t come far enough,” she said. Other barriers she said still face women are poverty, lack of access to health insurance, body image problems and abortion rights. “Only slaves do not control their bodies,” she said.
The reading, sponsored by the Lannan Foundation, was part of the UNM School of Medicine Speakers and Writers Series. The series is meant to bring health care providers, faculty and students into contact with the humanities.
Piercy said doctors, health care workers and others who spend much of their time helping others also need something for themselves, and creative arts are a good way to fill that need.
Despite the stereotype of the suffering artist, “I’m actually a writer who likes to write,” Piercy said. “Believe me, I had a lot of jobs before I was a writer, and being a writer is much better.”
New writers might be encouraged by her early experience – she said she had written six novels before the seventh was finally published.
She urged writers to focus on getting poems, short stories or novel excerpts published in small magazines, where she said editors often go in search of talent. She added that agents are a prerequisite to publishing in New York – and getting one requires having a strong enough publication record to interest them.
She said niche magazines and anthologies are one of the best ways to get published. “They’re looking for what you’re doing.”
Piercy said it doesn’t matter whether writing comes through inspiration or painstaking work. “Some poems come as if they were dictated, and some of them are good and some come out crappy,” she said. “There are some poems you can’t write for 15 years because you don’t know enough yet or society hasn’t changed enough yet.”
Much of Piercy’s writing is influenced by her Jewish identity. Asked whether she thinks it’s possible to overcome patriarchy in Judaism, she said she’s hopeful because so many people are working for it.
She compared the issue to a Kafka story where a person is waiting for someone to open a door. “You open it,” she said. “Judaism is a religion in which you’re pretty free to remake it for yourself.”
The Lannan Foundation also sponsored a reading by Piercy available as a podcast at: Piercy at the Lensic.
Eliza Ferguson, assistant professor of history, is the winner of the Stanley Hoffmann Best Article Award of the French Politics Group of the American Political Science Meeting. Ferguson’s article, "Domestic Violence by Another Name: Crimes of Passion in Fin-de-Siècle Paris," was the lead article published in the Winter 2007 issue of the prestigious Journal of Women’s History.
Photo: Eliza Ferguson
The award, given out every two years, is sponsored by Sciences Science Po-Paris and is administered by the French Politics Group, in collaboration with the Association Française de Science Politique. This is the second prize that has been awarded for the best English-language article on French politics. Under award consideration were 181 articles published in 2007 and 2008 in 99 journals.
Prize money of $2,000 will be given at the FPG’s reception at the American Political Science Meeting in September in Toronto.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The Center for Southwest Research and the Office of the State Historian are sponsoring a lecture titled, “The Greeks of Albuquerque, 1900-1952.” Presented by Katherine Pomonis, an independent scholar from Albuquerque, the lecture will be held Wednesday, June 10, at noon in the Willard Reading Room at Zimmerman Library.
Photo: Katherine Pomonis
Her lecture will discuss the Greeks who arrived and settled in Albuquerque in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This lecture explores why they came to Albuquerque and what their role was in the economy.
There were no known Greeks in Albuquerque until 1896. By that time Greek names can be found in the city directory. Some worked for the railroad. Others had tuberculosis and came for the cure. They bought homes and by 1917 were opening businesses in the downtown area. The Greeks in Albuquerque sometimes brought wives from Greece or intermarried with other Greeks, and by 1906 were petitioning for naturalization status.
In 1937, the Greeks in Albuquerque opened a national sanatorium for indigent Greeks, and in 1944 the Hellenic community established an Orthodox church.
Pomonis has degrees in anthropology and history from the University of Rhode Island and has done post graduate studies at the University of New Mexico. For 20 years, she worked at UNM’s Maxwell Museum of Anthropology.
Her lecture is free and the public is welcome.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
The District Governing Board of Arizona Western College has appointed Marc A. Nigliazzo, UNM’s Vice President for Rio Rancho Operations and Branch Academic Affairs, as its president. Nigliazzo’s resignation from UNM will be effective June 30, 2009. His appointment at Arizona Western College begins August 3, 2009.
Photo: Marc A. Nigliazzo
UNM President David J. Schmidly credits Nigliazzo with solidifying relationships in Rio Rancho and getting that campus off the ground – literally. “In the past 13 months, Marc has taken the Rio Rancho campus from concept to the reality of its first building going up at City Center. His energy will be missed.” Schmidly also commends Nigliazzo for strengthening branch campus ties with the UNM main campus.
Schmidly has appointed Beth Miller to serve as acting executive director for UNM West and Rio Rancho. She has been serving as Special Assistant to the Vice President and is a former executive director of UNM-Gallup.
In his new job, Nigliazzo will lead a nationally recognized community college with an approximate enrollment of 13,000 students on its main campus in Yuma, AZ, and at several other instructional sites throughout Yuma and La Paz counties.
Nigliazzo said AWC enjoys exceptional relationships with Northern Arizona University-Yuma and the University of Arizona. AWC’s connection with NAU-Yuma is especially notable, he said, as it is considered a national model of cooperation between two and four year institutions.
In his letter of resignation, Nigliazzo said it has been an honor to be part of the University of New Mexico for the past year, and “it is only my career-long passion for the community college that is drawing me away from it.”
Media Contact: Susan McKinsey, (505) 277-1807; e-mail: mckinsey@unm.edu
PPD welcomes Recycling Division July 1
In an effort to create a more sustainable environment by improving the effectiveness of recycling efforts on campus, the Recycling Division will be moving from the Safety and Risk Services department to the Physical Plant Department effective July 1, 2009.
“Safety and Risk Services has been the home of the Recycling Division for many years,” said Donna Smith, Director of Safety and Risk Services. “Now we want to ensure the future effectiveness of the program. This is the next logical step in an evolving program. The Physical Plant Department has the resources, staff and facilities available that can ensure the future growth of recycling. We are sorry to lose the program, but happy to see the potential for UNM’s recycling efforts to grow and flourish.”
Over the years, the UNM campus community has made great progress by increasing the amount of materials recycled, thereby reducing landfill waste. Recycling stations have been placed all over campus and students have been getting more involved with recycling. As a result, many more items are recyclable such as phone books, CDs, printer cartridges and Styrofoam. Recycling events, such as the e-waste event during UNM's Family Weekend, really show the community how UNM is giving back.
Also excited about the change, the Physical Plant Department welcomes the opportunity for new ideas and new ways to recycle. For more information on recycling contact Recycling Manager Linda McCormick at 269-6131.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
Annie Proulx will present “Coming Out of the Mountains” a lecture about life and writing on June 20 at 6 p.m. in the West Wing of Zimmerman Library. The lecture is hosted by University Libraries as one of two Summer Sunset lectures being held.
Photo: Annie Proulx
Annie Proulx's “The Shipping News” won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Award for Fiction, and the Irish Times International Fiction Prize. She is the author of two other novels: “Postcards,” winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award, and “Accordion Crimes.”
She has also written three collections of short stories, "Heart Songs and Other Stories,” “Close Range” and “Fine Just the Way it Is.” “The Shipping News” and her short story “Brokeback Mountain” have both been made into major motion pictures.
The lecture, which is made possible by funding from the UNM Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, is free and open to all. For parking information visit UNM Parking.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
The American Diabetes Association is holding its Albuquerque Century bicycle race this Saturday, June 6, and is looking for volunteers to help with various aspects of the race. UNM Air Force ROTC has answered the call for volunteers and is asking other UNM departments to do the same.
The race begins at 7 a.m. at the Embassy Suites, 1000 Woodward Pl. NE in Albuquerque; and features four different routes to choose from ranging from 25 to 100 miles in length.
Entry fees are $45 for adults and $25 for children 14 years and younger.
Those interested in volunteering can contact Cheryl Atkins at the American Diabetes Association at 505-266-5716 ext. 7133 or catkins@diabetes.org. For more information on the event visit: Albuquerque Century Bicycle Race.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
The University of New Mexico is hoping to break ground on two needed parking structures soon. Construction on these parking structures, planned for the current “C” and “J” parking lots, was expected to begin in late May.
The university presented the plans for the parking structures to the New Mexico Board of Finance in mid-May. The Board of Finance asked for another month to consider the proposal while the university addressed how these structures were incorporated in UNM’s overall Master Plan for development.
“Long term, UNM strongly supports a sustainable approach that reduces cars coming to campus, thereby reducing the demand for parking spaces. This goal will be achieved when student housing is increased, student employment opportunities are augmented, and a stronger transportation infrastructure in the metro area is in place,” said Mary Kenney, UNM’s Chief Planning Officer.
“Parking garages create that time of transition, where continued growth at UNM and in the community requires access to classes, jobs and services. When surface lots disappear as new academic buildings like the Science and Math Learning Center are constructed, carefully placed parking structures will enhance UNM’s ability to make the best use of its land during this time of evolution.”
Also slowing the project, UNM’s local neighborhood associations have complained that university representatives have not engaged in enough discussions with the groups about their concerns for the new parking structure. As a result of these concerns, the Albuquerque City Council passed a resolution asking the city to not make any infrastructure changes – necessary to adding acceleration and deceleration lanes and new curb cuts for those entering these structures – for the time being.
While construction of the project has been temporarily delayed, design work by Dekker/Parich/Sabatini – the architecture firm selected for the project – is continuing. Utility, water and telecom services have been cancelled for the two buildings to be removed as part of the construction plan. These buildings include the old Arts of the Americas building, and the former Real Estate office.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
The Center for Biomedical Engineering is hosting the 32nd Annual Course in Flow Cytometry at the UNM Centennial Engineering Center this week. There are 64 students attending from throughout the U.S. and Canada and as far away as Australia, as well as 12 local students and Post Doctoral Research Associates taking the course as laboratory hosts.
Photo: Professor James Jacobber from Case Western Reserve University teaches students about advanced cell cycle analysis approaches in the Centennial Engineering Auditorium.
Participants are learning about flow cytometry, a technique for rapid analysis of individual biological cells and particles that is used in almost every clinical diagnostic and research laboratory in the world.
The course format includes 34 distinguished members of the flow cytometry research and clinical diagnostics communities that are giving 24 lectures and 14 laboratories. The material covers a wide range of topics, from the engineering, physics and operation of a variety of flow cytometers through applications to basic and clinical research and diagnostics.
Students can apply what they learn in 14 laboratory sessions, using cutting-edge instrumentation provided by many leading flow cytometry companies that have also provided over 20 support personnel for the course.
Sponsors for the course are the National Flow Cytometry Resource at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Verity Software House in Topsham, Maine.
Dr. William Telford of the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute, and long-time instructor in this course feels that, “The facilities for this course at the CBME are simply exquisite and have made for an outstanding experience for the students and the instructors.”
The keynote speaker, Dr. Garry Nolan of Stanford University, will be speaking on “Multiparameter phosphoprotein analysis in single cells by flow cytometry.”
Media Contact: Karen Wentowrth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
The University of New Mexico will host a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Science and Mathematics Learning Center on Friday, June 5 at 10:30 a.m. at the current “B” parking lot located west of Clark Hall and south of Bandelier Hall. A reception will be held after the event, which is open to members of the UNM community.
After an introduction by Arts and Sciences Dean Brenda Claiborne, the event will include brief presentations by President David Schmidly, Raymond Sanchez, president, UNM Board of Regents, Vera Norwood, professor of American Studies and former Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Alejandro Aceves, professor, Mathematics and Statistics.
The $23 million building will contain individual study areas, a meeting lobby, classrooms and a 200-seat auditorium. The Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, and Earth and Planetary Sciences departments will share the building. Construction is expected to last until early fall of 2010.
The Learning Center will be designed to meet the sustainability requirements for the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design’s (LEED) Silver rating, per Governor Bill Richardson’s 2006 executive order for new state buildings.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
The University of New Mexico Board of Regents continues to be pleased with the leadership of President David J. Schmidly. The President’s evaluation was discussed at today’s special board meeting.
In the evaluation letter sent to Schmidly, Regent President Raymond Sanchez said “despite many ups and downs over the past year, your diligent leadership has, in the end, kept UNM on a steady course.”
UNM Regents conducted Schmidly’s second year evaluation on May 26, 2009. During the review, they discussed the President’s overview of the past year as well as his proposed goals – “Adelante Objectives” – for FY 10.
Schmidly was commended for his “demonstrated commitment to this university” and for “continuous efforts to help UNM reach its full potential.” The evaluation letter said that despite an economically challenging year, 80 percent of the President’s major milestones were either completed or showed good progress. Regents pointed specifically to the early success of enrollment management strategies, ground being broken for UNM’s Rio Rancho campus and the successful accreditation visit from the Higher Learning Commission.
UNM Regents also recognized that the faculty unrest leading to a “no confidence” vote revealed issues that will take time and effort to resolve. They are pleased that some of the President’s proposed FY 10 goals focus on improving engagement with the faculty.
The Regents and President Schmidly will be finalizing those goals in the coming weeks.
Media Contact: Susan McKinsey, (505) 277-1807; e-mail: mckinsey@unm.edu
Steven Adelsheim is one of 41 doctors nationwide recently honored as “Exemplary Psychiatrists” by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) at the 2009 annual conference of the American Psychiatric Association.
Adelsheim, a professor of Psychiatry with UNM’s School of Medicine, was honored for his commitment to excellent care, his efforts at reducing stigma surrounding mental illness and his consistent close work with NAMI members in the community. More specifically, Adelsheim was recognized for his work related to the EARLY (Early Assessment and Resource Linkage for Youth) Program – a partnership between UNM’s Center for Rural and Community Behavioral Health and the Mind Research Network (MRN).
Introduced in Bernalillo County last fall, EARLY is a treatment research program that focuses on mental health outreach, screening, and early intervention for young people showing early warning signs of mental illness and their families. Recent research indicates that half of all mental health conditions have their onset before the age of 14 and that early treatment may greatly improve recovery and long term outcomes for mental health problems.
“The EARLY Program is an important model to support prevention and early intervention for mental health issues, while also decreasing the stigma surrounding these conditions,” Adelsheim says. “NAMI has been incredibly supportive of this and other mental health programs that truly reach out to our communities. Being declared an Exemplary Psychiatrist by NAMI is a great honor, particularly because of the critical support the organization provides for individuals and families directly affected by mental illness.”
For more information about the EARLY Program, call 888-NM-EARLY or visit EARLY Program. For more information visit: University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center.
Media Contact: Luke Frank, (505) 272-3679; e-mail: lfrank@salud.unm.edu
University of New Mexico Cancer Center researchers have identified a genetic mutation underlying one of the most common childhood cancers, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The discovery could lead to more effective treatments for a subset of ALL patients who experience minimal benefit with current therapies by using drugs that are already in clinical trials for similar blood diseases in adults.
The research team from the UNM Cancer Center worked in collaboration with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Children’s Oncology Group/CureSearch to publish the find, which appears online in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia occurs when white blood cells, which normally help fight off viruses and bacteria, don’t mature properly. As more of these underdeveloped cells build up, healthy, infection-fighting cells are crowded out. The disease accounts for about three out of four childhood leukemia cases, and affects about 1 in 29,000 children nationwide every year; New Mexico has an average of 37 ALL cases diagnosed annually.
With the most advanced treatment options available today, cure rates are now upwards of 85 percent. The challenge lies in treating the remaining high-risk cases, which have proven especially difficult to overcome because they arise from different, unidentified genetic mutations. Scientists haven’t been able to accurately identify those high-risk cases, and effective treatment for those patients remains elusive.
“Our studies of these leukemia subtypes indicate that leukemia is not necessarily a single-cause disease,” says Cheryl Willman, director and CEO of the UNM Cancer Center and senior co-author of the study. “A patient may have multiple different genetic lesions that target different cellular pathways to induce leukemia. Therefore, it is very important to develop new therapies that target these specific mutations.”
UNM Cancer Center researchers joined collaborators to look at different patients’ gene-expression patterns and their outcomes to identify a panel of genes to sequence. They found that some high-risk ALL cases are caused by mutations in genes that produce kinases, which are enzymes that function as biological on-off switches in cells. The mutations keep the kinases continually “on”, triggering the characteristic uncontrolled production of abnormal white blood cells in leukemia.
By analyzing the genetic sequences of kinases known to have a role in white blood cell proliferation in 187 patients with high-risk ALL, the researchers found mutations in about 10 percent of the cases in a type of kinase known as JAK. JAK is known to have mutations in other types of leukemia and other similar diseases.
“What’s really exciting about this particular study is that we found that drugs that blocked the activity of the mutant JAK kinases prevented uncontrolled cell proliferation,” Willman explains. “Our discovery of JAK as a target now allows us to develop clinical trials with JAK inhibitors for children and adults with this form of disease.”
“These mutations and this signature identify a subset of the high-risk ALL patients who might be candidates for a targeted therapy, similar to what the highly effective drug Gleevac has done for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) patients,” adds Richard Harvey, scientific director of the UNM-CMCD and co-author of the study.
“Pathways associated with these mutant genes are currently being targeted by several pharmaceutical companies, and our hope is that these drugs will quickly find their way into clinical trials. Children across the country with ALL will benefit from these findings, but there have been indications that certain ethnicities, in particular Hispanics, are more frequently found with these high-risk cases. If this holds true, this research will certainly benefit children in New Mexico.”
The research team will continue to explore other kinase gene mutations and other enzymes that are common to high-risk ALL cases. The group is applying the same research techniques to adult leukemias in hope of finding similar patterns, which could lead to more effective treatments for other cancers.
This research was conducted as part of the NCI Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatments (TARGET) initiative, which seeks to utilize the study of genomics to identify therapeutic targets in order to develop more effective treatments for childhood cancers.
Media Contacts: James Korenchen, (505) 797-6671; e-mail: james@jameskorenchen.com or Stephanie Cartier, (505) 272-2265; e-mail: scartier@salud.unm.edu
The University of New Mexico’s College Assistance Migrant Program earned a top 10 ranking among its 38 peer programs via the Office of Migrant Education at the National Association of State Directors of Migrant Education meeting last month. The OME, the federal funding agency, uses two Government Performance and Results ACT measures to evaluate CAMP programs.
One measure assesses program effectiveness by the percentage of CAMP program participants completing their first year in college. Likewise, the other measure rates the percentage of CAMP program first year completers who begin their second year in college. Both measures also assess efficiency by cost per student—the less the institution spends on a student the better.
UNM CAMP program was ranked in the top 10 on both measures— a strong rating for a program established in 2001 that competes with programs such as St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas, a program established in 1972.
“Being ranked as a top 10 program in the nation exemplifies that the College Assistance Migrant Program at UNM is headed in the right direction and meeting and exceeding all of its objectives,” said Ivan Olay, UNM CAMP program specialist.
CAMP works to identify, recruit, admit and enroll migrant and seasonal farm worker students and provide them the academic, social and financial support to enable them to complete their first year of college.
For more information contact Dorene DiNaro, 277-5299.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Phil Gallegos and a group of students from the spring semester Design Planning Assistance Center studio course are headed to Grants on Thursday, June 4, to begin the build phase of their design/build project – a pavilion for the Fire and Ice Bike Rally, the town’s annual summer event set for July 17-19.
The course is offered through the UNM School of Architecture and Planning and includes students from all disciplines offered in the school: architecture, landscape architecture, and community and regional planning.
“Concrete work has already been done. We are waiting for approvals for equipment and material purchases. The trusses are scheduled for delivery on Wednesday. We’ll be prepping them on site on Thursday,” said Gallegos, trading in his drawing pencil for a hardhat.
One group will be on site in Grants putting a light stain on the heavy timber. “When finished, the wood will resemble that at the bus stop on Yale and Central,” Gallegos said. The other group of five students is working on the roof panels here in Albuquerque. “They will be swung into place next Monday,” he said, adding that the structure includes four separate pavilions totaling some 6,000 square feet.
The original request for the project came from Grants MainStreet to the state. Grants received a $100,000 special appropriations grant from the governor’s office.
“This is DPAC’s first design/build project. The state and Rich Williams, from New Mexico MainStreet are very interested and supportive of this kind of project,” Gallegos said.
For more information, contact Gallegos at pbg@unm.edu or 277-6470.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
A group of graduate architecture students and one landscape architecture student postponed summer vacation by a couple weeks to work with Associate Professor of Architecture Stephen Dent, UNM School of Architecture and Planning, to develop plans for an outdoor classroom in an area of the bosque at Santo Domingo Pueblo.
Photo: Ron Nelson, graduate architecture student, presents plans for his group's outdoor classroom space for Santo Domingo Pueblo.
“Santo Domingo’s cleared out an area in a 33 acre site that will include the classroom, nature trails and more,” Dent said. His students formed two teams that each presented a design with the understanding that cost of materials won’t exceed $20,000.
Both groups developed designs that feature an eastern entrance, in keeping with native tradition. Both include circular design elements reminiscent of Pueblo Bonito and a circular gallery space. Each included elements under a structure and others that are out in the open.
One group proposed using old jetty jacks that were no longer needed at the river’s edge to construct the supports for the roof of their building.
The second group creatively included an horno with a wall behind it that served as a support for the circular roof that rotated around and featured lattice work over the entrance. The wall could be used to project images or post information during class sessions, they said.
Geraldine Forbes Isais, director, architecture program, was brought in to assess the students’ work. She liked the proposed use of the angle iron, but questioned whether or not the high school students who will be doing the building of the project this summer would be skilled enough to work with it.
“I am glad that the client will make the decision about which design to use. I like elements of each that makes it hard to pick one over the other,” Forbes Isais said. She added that she appreciated all the effort the students put into the project.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Mindfulness meditation is one way to help reduce the stresses of activities of daily living, including work, family, moods and eating habits. The UNM Center for Life is offering, Mindful Eating and Living (MEAL), a useful program for gaining a new perspective on eating, weight loss and improving other aspects of mood and life. The next MEAL class begins Tuesday, June 9, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The six-week course begins June 9 and continues through July 21, 2009.
The research-based course, developed at UNM, uses brief guided meditations in class and at home. This class is not about diet or nutrition. Alternative methods including meditation and other mindfulness, practices to teach and practice awareness around eating. Participants receive written materials and audio CDs for home practice, and each class includes a mindful eating exercise.
The cost of the course is $235, plus an additional $15 fee for supplies. UNM discounts include a 10 percent UNMH employee and your tuition remission may be used to cover the costs of the course if you are a UNM employee. Additionally, scholarships are also available but ask you to pay a portion which will be arrange with you.
To register call (505) 925-4332 and leave your name and telephone number to be contacted. Once contacted, you will be asked some questions and will be provided more information about the class, including the location (near Montgomery and Jefferson) and payment options. Enrollment is open to anyone who is "overweight." This means a Body Mass Index higher than 25. If you are unsure about your BMI, visit Body Mass Index and use the adult BMI calculator.
For more information visit: UNM Center for Life.
Dr. Jozi De Leon, vice president for Equity & Inclusion, will host a luncheon for UNM staff on Tuesday, June 9 at 12 p.m. in the SUB Cherry/Silver Room. The luncheon is designed to be an intimate setting for a conversation dedicated to the needs of our diverse communities, the progress of the Office of the VP for Equity and Inclusion, the trajectory of our efforts and questions from staff.
As this luncheon is exclusively open to UNM staff, we will have the opportunity to address the issues that impact the staff community and the students to which you are dedicated.
RSVP is required; space is limited to twenty participants. UNM staff members who are interested in contributing their voice and perspective to this important discussion should RSVP to the Office of Equity & Inclusion at 277-1238 or diverse@unm.edu as soon as possible.
Vice President for Research Julia Fulghum has appointed Professor Susan R. Atlas to serve as the director of the new Center for Advanced Research Computing. Formerly the Center for High Performance Computing, the new CARC will focus on a broader range of research computing and faculty support with the goal of increasing and improving research activity on campus.
Photo: Susan Atlas
Atlas replaces Professor Thomas P. Caudell, who will be spearheading new initiatives and collaborations with the UNM ARTS Lab.
“I’m excited to work with Susan and her staff on initiatives to expand the scope of research computing on campus,” said Fulghum. “The restructuring of the Center will provide increased and improved services to a wide array of faculty that will enhance the research portfolio of the university.
"I would also like to extend my thanks to Professor Caudell. During his tenure, the Center began the process of expanding the base of non-traditional users and increasing collaborations with units across campus. His work has provided a solid foundation from which the new CARC can build upon.”
"I am honored to have the opportunity to lead the Center during this exciting and transformational time,” Atlas says. “I hope to make the Center a home for the most novel and creative computationally-driven research and education, the vibrant exchange of ideas, and most importantly, enable its continued growth as a distinguished center for advanced research computing at UNM.”
Atlas plans to increase the interdisciplinary nature of the Center, working with faculty members in the sciences, engineering, biomedicine, the humanities, and the arts. In addition, she will work to increase extramural funding to the Center and strengthen partnerships with the Health Sciences Center, The New Mexico Computing Applications Center, and the national labs.
Atlas is a member of the UNM Department of Physics and Astronomy, with a secondary appointment in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Her research is focused on the study of strongly-correlated electronic and atomic systems and pattern recognition in molecular genomics. She currently serves as director of the UNM Cancer Center Shared Resource for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology.
She has served as associate director for Science and Engineering Research at the UNM High Performance Computing Education and Research Center (HPCERC) from 1999-2003. Atlas holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from Harvard University, and has been a member of the UNM Department of Physics and Astronomy since 1994.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
The next Parent Connection Workshop, ‘From Facebook to Checkbook: What Every Parent Needs to Know about Information Security in a Digital Age,’ will be held Wednesday, June 3, from 6-7 p.m. in the Dean of Students Conference Room, second floor of the Student Services Center, main campus. Check-in begins at 5:30 p.m. – come early to meet and mingle with other members of the Parent Association.
The discussion will feature UNM Information Assurance Director Michael Carr. He will discuss dangers and pitfalls students face when sharing information online. Topics to be covered include identity theft, problems with networking online and what can parents do to help students stay safe and informed.
For directions to the service center, parking information and to view past workshops, visit: Parent Workshops.