Albuquerque Reads, a partnership between the Albuquerque Public Schools and the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, is seeking volunteers for its 2009-10 reading program. In its seventh year, the program pairs students with volunteers to practice reading in a one-on-one setting that addresses their specific needs. The tutors come from throughout the community. Training sessions begin Wednesday, Sept. 2 and continue through Wednesday, Sept. 30.
One three-hour training session is required in September for new tutors. Tutoring runs from the first week of October through the last week of April. Volunteers can commit to a regular time slot one time per week, or work in teams of up to four people to lessen the time commitment.
The three schools participating in the 2009-10 program include Bel-Air Elementary, Atrisco Elementary and Wherry Elementary. Combined more than 280 kindergarten students are enrolled. Approximately 400 volunteers are needed for full program coverage.
For more information call, (505) 843-7323, e-mail, abqreads@abqchamber.com or to register online visit: Albuquerque Reads.
Comprehensive job market assistance runs Sept. 8 – 14
The UNM Anderson School of Management is offering assistance to its current students and graduates by helping them get ahead in the job market during these tough economic times. Anderson Career Week begins on Tuesday, Sept. 8 featuring workshops on job search, resume building, interviewing, and networking with employers.
Mock interviews and the Employer Panel dinner reception will be held on Thursday, Sept. 10. Reservations are required. Visit: Reservations for a list of available mock interview times or to rsvp for the dinner. Reservations will be made on a first-come, first served basis and professional attire is mandatory.
All career week events will take place at the Anderson School on the UNM Campus. There is no charge to participate but you must be a current student or alum of the Anderson School of Management.
Career Week Schedule of Events...
Tuesday, September 8
Resume Express 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Location: Jackson Student Center
Employers will spend 5-10 minutes reviewing your resume and will provide tips on how to improve it.
Rock the Interview 3:15 - 4:15 p.m.
Location: ASM Room 2141
Thinking of signing up for a Mock Interview, or have an actual interview coming up? Come to Rock the Interview to hear tips and advice about how to do your best.
Wednesday, September 9
Resume Express 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Location: Jackson Student Center
Employers will spend 5-10 minutes reviewing your resume and will provide tips on how to improve it.
How to Work a Career Fair 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Location: ASM Room 1004
Discover the most efficient ways of getting the most out of a career fair just in time for the Anderson Business Career Fair on Sept. 16 and the Accounting Career Fair on Sept. 17.
Thursday, September 10
Mock Interviews* 9 a,m. - 4 p.m.
Location: ASM Interview Rooms, Ford Advisement Center
Sign up for a mock interview with real employers and get useful feedback on your skills. Be prepared and come dressed to impress.
* Those interested MUST register at jobs.mgt.unm.edu.
Backpacks to Briefcases: Developing Professional Skills* 6 -8 p.m.
Location: Jackson Student Center
Learn from business professionals about how to be successful in today’s workplace.
* Those interested MUST register at jobs.mgt.unm.edu.
Monday, September 14
Writing a Resume & Cover Letter 2 - 3 p.m.
Location: ASM Room 2082
Does your resume need some pruning? Unsure of how to display your work experience? Come to the Resume & Cover Letter workshop to learn how to stand out among other applicants.
Job Search Strategies 3 - 4 p.m.,
Location: ASM Room 2082
Applying for jobs can be frustrating. Come to Job Search Strategies and discover the secrets of finding your dream job and how to apply for it.
Media Contact: Leslie Venzuela, (505) 277-7117; e-mail: venzuela@mgt.unm.edu
The landscape architecture program in the School of Architecture and Planning has been re-accredited by the national Landscape Architecture Accrediting Board for a full six-year term. The program fully met all nine standards set out by the accreditation board.
In the introduction to the report, the accreditation team states:
“Since its inception in 2000, the master’s in landscape architecture program has exhibited a remarkable level of achievement…The student body is comprised of individuals from many geographic locations with varied academic and professional backgrounds. Students and faculty regularly receive recognition for their work through a range of national and international design awards - a solid testimony to the overall quality of the program.”
Alf Simon, director, landscape architecture program, said, “Accreditation is a rigorous process designed to maintain the highest educational standards for our discipline. I am very proud of the faculty, staff and students in the UNM landscape architecture program for their dedication, passion and enormous talent. The very positive and constructive comments the accreditation team made in their report and throughout the visit helped us set the direction for the next phase of our growth.”
The Student Veterans of the University of New Mexico, in coordination
with the State of New Mexico Department, will host the “Veterans’ Benefits Summit” on Wednesday, Sept. 2 from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at the UNM Sub Ballroom. The “Veterans’ Benefit Summit” is free and open to veterans and other interested parties.
Representatives from various agencies will be at the event to discuss the full range of benefits available to veterans and help them with any problems they are running into when trying to obtain those benefits.
The summit will feature in-depth discussion about the G.I. Education Bill--especially the new Post-9/11 G.I. Bill which became available on Aug. 1. The Post-9/11 G.I. Bill pays for four full years at any state university or college.
It also offers a housing stipend, up to $1,000 for books or supplies, can
be used up to 15 years from the end of service, and may be transferable
to a spouse or children. Other presentations will be given about other federal
and state benefits available to veterans and their families.
Students and faculty returned to significant visible changes to IT systems and services in several areas across campus. More than 10 projects in the areas of Student and Instructional Services, Network and Security, and Application Services, all designed to improve and enhance usability, were completed throughout the summer.
The following is complete list of IT projects that have improved and enhanced usability:
Computer Pod Upgrades
Approximately 200 new Windows machines were installed in the IT computer pods and upgraded over the summer semester. The upgrades enabled all IT Pod machines to move to the Vista operating system, and the latest version of Microsoft Office Suite was installed on both Macintosh and Windows environments.
Wireless Enhancements
IT improved and increased campus wireless coverage at the Duck Pond, in some student housing, in most centrally-scheduled classrooms including Dane Smith, Ortega, Education, and Sara Reynolds Halls, to meet the growing demand for increased network access from iPhones, Smartphones, Blackberries and laptops. Wireless expansion will continue as budgets allow.
Network Sign-In
Students are now required to log into the wireless network with their UNM NetID and password. This authentication is part of a campus-wide network security initiative, which includes wired access within Student Housing.
Symantec Antivirus Software Available for UNM Users
IT purchased licensing for Symantec Antivirus for the benefit of all employees and students. Students, faculty and staff can download the antivirus software free of charge at http://it.unm.edu/download. Departments can purchase antivirus installation discs from Software Distribution with a departmental Purchase Request for $5.
Web Mail Performance
UNM WebMail servers and software were upgraded and fine-tuned to accommodate the increasing number of users and devices, resulting in improved response time and availability by all users.
Software Licensing Services
Microsoft Operating Systems Vista and XP, and MS Office Suite for employees and for UNM departments, staff and faculty, can now be purchased at the UNM Bookstore for an extremely low price under the new MS Campus Agreement. Personal-use OS and Office purchases can be made at the UNM Bookstore for $10 per copy, and departments can purchase the operating system and Office software through IT Software Distribution for $5 per copy.
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
Graduate students Nina Lanza and Ann Ollila, in the Institute of Meteoritics, are being honored as recipients of the 2009 Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship award at an Earth & Planetary Sciences department colloquium on Friday, Sept. 4.
Photo: Amelia Earhart. UNM students Nina Lanza and Ann Ollila awarded Zonta Amelia Earhart Fellowships.
Each student, who will receive a $10,000 fellowship, will give a 15-20 minute talk about her project at the colloquium. After the talks, Zonta representative Danita Ultsman will give a brief history of Zonta and the Amelia Earhart fellowships and make a presentation to Lanza and Ollila.
Lanza received her fellowships (she was also a 2008 Amelia Earhart fellowship recipient) for projects investigating calibrating the ChemCam LIBS for carbonates and examining Martian gullies as debris flow deposits.
Ollila's project is the study organic materials using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) under Martian atmospheric conditions in preparation for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover mission.
Founded in 1919, Zonta International is a global organization of executives and professionals working together to advance the status of women worldwide through service and advocacy. Zonta members volunteer their time, talents and money to local and international service projects, as well as scholarship and award programs aimed at furthering women's education, leadership and youth development.
The Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowships were established in 1938 in honor of Amelia Earhart, famed pilot and member of the Zonta Clubs of Boston and New York. The Fellowships are made annually to women pursuing graduate PhD/doctoral degrees in aerospace-related sciences and engineering.
Each year Zonta awards 35 Fellowships in the amount of $10,000 each year to young women who are seeking advanced degrees in the study of aerospace engineering and related studies. Earhart was a member of Zonta International and her life was dedicated to advancing new horizons.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Landscape architecture Yekaterina “Katya” Yushmanova is the recipient of a 2009 JSR Student Award for her project, Changing Perspective: Farming Habitat, that she designed for the Pat Hurley neighborhood in Albuquerque’s West side. The award comes with a $2,000 scholarship. The concept was to design a project that could act as a catalyst for quality of life improvement for residents.
Photo: Katya Yushmanova
Yushmanova’s design came out of a studio assignment for graduate students in UNM Landscape Architecture Studio 3 last fall. Taught by Adjunct Professor and Landscape Architect John Barney, the students worked on visioning projects for the Pat Hurley Neighborhood.
Barney said that the area was selected because of its interesting geography and history. “Pat Hurley, for whom the park is named, is the son of the famous Western artist Wilson Hurley,” he said. The students researched the area and discovered the remnants of agricultural patterns along the ditches and evidence that Atrisco Plaza was an actual plaza at one time.
Yushmanova’s winning design looked at the abandoned canal in the bosque. “It was poorly engineered. It still floods and has created an unintentional habitat, or wildlife corridor,” she said.
Yushmanova wrote, “The Pat Hurley neighborhood is a historically agricultural community on the west bank of the Rio Grande, but in recent years, most agricultural land was sold to developers despite the neighborhood’s proximity to the river – a definite amenity in the desert southwest. The quality of the new developments is low and there is a lack of parks and recreational facilities. The riverside trail along the levee is under-used and poorly maintained. The residents prefer to use well-maintained trails and recreational facilities on the east bank of the river instead.
The land use analysis showed that the under-used area along the northeastern edge of the neighborhood had the greatest potential for overlapping recreational uses and habitat restoration. The context analysis revealed the lack of connectivity and destinations along the riverside trail. The site at the northeastern corner of the neighborhood where the riverside trail and riverside drain and an irrigationa canal dead end was identified as a good location for the intervention, which will become a destination and an activitating element for the trails.
The goal for the design is to create a multi-functional space, which will incorporate a public recreational facility, habitat restoration, and which will help promote environmental awareness among Albuquerque residents.”
Each student in the studio participated in an installation that conveyed an area or aspect of Pat Hurley neighborhood and the processes that shaped it over time. The installation addressed larger issues of landscape architecture and contemporary art so that was mirrored in the site. Her design for the installation featured an earthen wall embedded with seeds. An artificial irrigation system allows her creation to erode over time.
Yushmanova earned her bachelor’s in art history from the University of Culture and Art in St. Petersburg, Russia. “Living in the American Southwest has given her an appreciation for the “stark and fragile beauty of the desert – so different from my native Siberia.”
The JSR Foundation awards scholarships to students who demonstrate a passion for preserving, improving and enhancing public spaces through responsible and innovative land use and design. To be eligible, students must be currently enrolled in an accredited landscape architecture program that will result in a bachelors or masters of landscape architecture. A monetary scholarship is awarded each year to one deserving student. Students are required to submit a design brief for review by the JSR board.
The foundation and scholarship are named in honor of Jane Silverstein Ries, FASLA; the first woman to pursue a career in landscape architecture in Colorado. She graduated from the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture in Groton, Massachusetts in 1932, and by 1934 had already opened her own landscape architecture office in Denver. Ries held the third landscape architecture license in the State of Colorado.
For more information about Yushmanova’s winning design, visit: JSR Foundation.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Registration is now open for a Star-Hoppers weekend workshop in astronomy for grandparents and grandkids, to be held Sept. 18-20. Star-Hoppers is a not-for-profit program operating in partnership with the UNM Sevilleta Field Station. The field station is located on the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in Socorro County.
"Grands" will learn astronomy together in a beginner-friendly, hands-on environment. The workshop features binocular and telescope observing, a biologist-led tour of the refuge, and a guided tour of the Very Large Array radio telescope facility.
The Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge and Field Station are home to the UNM Long-Term Ecological Research Program and administered by the Department of Biology and funded by the National Science Foundation. For more information visit: Sevilleta/LTER.
On Sept. 4, registration will expand to include adult/child teams other than "grands," space permitting. For workshop information and registration, visit Astronomy Workshops or call (505) 261-0040.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The stories fall from Levi Romero’s lips before I get out of the car and take in the sweet air, niblet-sized corn plants and the long porch inviting visitors in to the house whispering welcome and echoing the sound of children’s running feet through the slamming screen door. A breeze rustles the leaves of a crabapple tree, creating a canopy inviting us to sit down, relax, crunch into some fresh pea pods and share some stories.
Photo: Levi Romero. Photo and story by Carolyn Gonzales.
This is Dixon, N.M. – Levi’s home. It was his home as a small child living with abuelos y tíos. It was his home as a lowriding teenager, even when he lived in Albuquerque attending Menaul School. It was still his home when he studied at UNM, or now, when he teaches there. You can go home again, he’ll say, but it can be a hard road.
Levi earned architecture degrees at UNM – a bachelor’s in 1994 and master’s in 2000. Funded by UNM Center for Regional Studies, he is now a visiting research scholar in the UNM School of Architecture and Planning. Designing buildings isn’t much a part of his life any more. He’s more interested in the structure of stories, the building blocks of memory and preserving the cultural landscape through people in New Mexico.
Levi’s family has been in the Embudo River Valley since the 1600s. “My grandparents never had to wonder about identity. They never asked, ‘Are we Hispanos? Chicanos? Mexicanos?’ Nobody asked them if they were from here. Everyone was from here until the 1960s,” Levi said.
The longstanding families who raised corn, chile, radishes, onions, carrots and peas, soon found a crop of newcomers – trust fund babies who had their eyes on the land.
The etiquette on the narrow road has always been for one car or the other to pull to the side to let the other pass, depending upon which had a better place to pull off. “Now the young people are in a hurry. They aren’t polite. They don’t acknowledge when someone pulls over to let them pass,” he said. They don’t want just to get by. They want to get away.
Young people have moved away and fields abandoned. “I always came back to work the land except when I was in grad school. Then the Chinese elms took over the fields. There were never weeds when my grandfather Don Silviares lived here,” he said. Don Silviares was legendary for his trade route and his produce – everything from apples to chile – that he hauled along his route from Embudo to Ratón and Cimarron to Dawson. Levi wrote a story about his grandfather, El Verdolero, the vegetable vendor.
There’s No Place like Home
Levi talks about the two-room adobe and plaster home his grandfather built. “They brought the vigas in from the sierras. In the ‘40s he pitched the roof with corrugated metal. It’s the last, continuously inhabited house in the area without plumbing,” Levi said.
The kitchen features a wood burning stove. “It’s not the original, but it’s similar to the one my grandmother had,” Levi said. The room also sports a more modern 1950’s stove and refrigerator. The kitchen cabinets are old trasteros; one features a flour bin from which many a tortilla had its start. On the wall is a mirror with the silvering wearing off. “Imagine the many souls reflected in that mirror,” Levi said, asking me to look into it, afterwards adding that mine is now among them.
The walls were crude, Levi said, and the kitchen was pink, and the other room green. “I wondered about a pink kitchen, but then my aunt told me that at one time she had the stove moved from one room to the other, completely changing the function of each room. That’s interesting to me architecturally – how the spaces were used and how their function could be changed so efficiently,” he said.
Levi points to windows that offer up potted geraniums to the sun. “From the windowsills you can see that the walls are 23 inches thick and that the windows have tapered openings to maximize the sunlight streaming in,” he said. “My grandmother always had geraniums in coffee cans in the window. I have memories of them. It’s where the story starts. I reach back and recall family, community and place,” he said.
One room blooms with floral wallpaper. He thought about taking it off and restoring the walls. “If I take it down, my memories go with it. So many memories – names of people and things that happened – are triggered by looking at those walls,” he said. Writing in Spanish, he said, helps preserve the memories, too.
He debated with his wife about whether or not to install electricity or plumbing. Ultimately, they decided to install electricity, but they incurred a much greater cost by running the wiring underground so that electrical lines wouldn’t be visible.
Levi the Poet
Levi’s first collection of poetry, “In the Gathering of Silence,” West End Press, published in 1996 features, “Woodstove of My Childhood,” an epic poem based on personal and communal histories. His latest collection, “A Poetry of Remembrance: New and Rejected Works,” with UNM Press in Dec. 2008, sold out within a month of its official publication, which is unheard of in regional Chicano poetry.
Levi drinks from the memory well the house in Dixon serves. He recalls his grandmother playing harmonica while hummingbirds poked their beaks into hollyhocks.
Although he was always at home in Dixon, he didn’t always live there. As was common in Northern New Mexico, many families sent their children to Menaul School in Albuquerque. “The Presbyterians were a big influence in places like Dixon, Mora, Holman. It was a tradition for many families to send their children to school there, until the school no longer offered a sliding scale for tuition,” Levi said.
Levi was a successful student at Menaul and he was offered a scholarship to any New Mexico college. “I hated school and told them to give it to someone who wants to go,” he recalled.
“No one modeled college for me. My cousins hadn’t gone to college – they’d worked trades or in the mines,” he said. Also, his father died when he was 14 and his mother bedridden with rheumatoid arthritis. “I felt like I had to stay close to home. I wanted to come back to Dixon,” he said.
He’d seen the trust funders living as artists, sculptors and musicians while raising some crops. He thought he’d like to become an artist and then live off the land as his grandfather did. He learned that designer Bryan Waldrip needed some drafting help. Levi had no experience, but Waldrip took him on.
“It took more time to train me than he had time for so he suggested I enroll in the community college drafting program in Española. At the end of the first term I went back to work for him. He was also a painter, an artist. We drew and drafted all day and all night,” Levi said.
Levi’s job was to go into the studio early and fire up the wood stove. “He invited me with him to Taos each week where he attended figure drawing courses, which mostly means drawing naked women. My lowrider friends thought that was pretty cool, but it really was all about drawing the forms, the same as if I were drawing this bottle,” he said.
He also realized that he had grown through the world of art and architecture, being surrounded by Waldrip’s labor and library. He told Waldrip he was leaving for San Diego, but since he’d threatened to move many times, Waldrip didn’t believe him. He learned that Waldrip told others that Levi would be fine because “he could get a job as a draftsman anywhere.”
Building a Future
In 1983, Levi’s plan was to go to Albuquerque and save enough money to go to San Diego. He laughs. “It’s 2009 and I’m still not there. Nobody goes to Albuquerque to save money. You make just enough to get by,” he said.
The architectural firms in Albuquerque didn’t have shelves lined with art books, cats in the window and the work wasn’t in beautiful passive solar design as it had been with Waldrip. A few years later he decided, if he wanted to get back to that, he had to go to college.
The UNM architecture program was difficult and demanding. Poetry writing, an outlet in his youth, continued to be a passion. “I’d been writing poetry, but there was no poetry scene yet. Until Jimmy Santiago Baca came along, poetry by young Chicanos had no audience,” he said.
Poetry and writing, activities that had always been a sideline to architecture, began to grow in prominence in his life. Soon, following undergraduate school, and a couple of classes short of a minor in Creative Writing, he wasn’t just writing, but teaching workshops for literary organizations, detention centers and youth mentoring programs.”
He’s also taught in the UNM creative writing program in the English Department. As part of his class, Writers in the Community/Schools, his students have also taken their teaching on the road facilitating semester long workshops at detention centers, charter schools, homeless shelters, senior nursing homes and in the Albuquerque Public Schools. “I am able to get past the veils and obstacles put up by students who don’t feel comfortable in an academic setting because I used to feel like them,” he said. He also developed a spoken word class where the students delved into Native American storytelling, cuentos, dichos and slam poetry.
Following his time in the English Department he came home again – to the School of Architecture and Planning – where he is a visiting research scholar.
He also assists in the Design Planning Assistance Center studio and has worked on various New Mexico community studio design projects, including a design for a field studio and community center based in the old Sala Filantropica dancehall in Dixon/Embudo. This spring, Levi worked with students on a MainStreet project in Deming, N.M. His role was to elicit the dreams and ideas from the town’s Hispanic community since they were unlikely to attend the charrettes to share their thoughts and memories. Those stories were then shared with the students who incorporated those ideas in the designs for everything from streetscapes, youth community centers, to skate parks in the town of the legendary Duck Races.
He is currently exploring the histories and stories of the people in northern New Mexico along the high road to Taos and beyond. He looks at acequias, salas, molinos and gardens, nuestra gente and all that represents the life and people of the region. “I’m doing some cultural cruisin’. It’s not about kicking back, but about the important work that needs to be done. If we don’t gather these stories now, they will be gone forever. “Places, stories and history will be recognized as invaluable informants to architecture study in the future. It will, ultimately, become part of the curriculum,” he said.
He’s laying some new groundwork on well-travelled roads.
Story by Carolyn Gonzales
UNM alumnus E. Gerald Meyer bequeathed art valued at approximately $6.2 million to the UNM Art Museum. The gift includes more than 100 Taos School paintings, European and Modern American paintings, drawings and prints, and the contemporary Western genre, including canvases by Thomas Moran, Nicholai Fechin, George Inness and Charles M. Russell.
Photo: E. Gerald Meyer and E. Luanne McKinnon, director, UNM Art Museum
Meyer, from Laramie, Wyo., earned a doctorate at UNM in 1951. In choosing the UNM Art Museum as the best museum to give his art collection to, Meyer said, “The collection would be viewed by lots of people. Much [of the collection] is New Mexico art, and I was born in Albuquerque.”
After inheriting works of art from his grandparents, Meyer became serious about expanding the group on his own, developing an eye for paintings and sculpture that grew over 40 years of collecting. Meyer’s affection for the American Southwest – the land, lore and cultures – is exemplified in the clear focus of his collection, which includes Native American portraits and early 20th century Indian life, realistic scenes of cowboy work in all of its manifestations from daybreak to sundown, and sweeping vistas of the west. Walter Ufer’s “Taos Landscape,” ca. 1920, recalls northern New Mexico before it became an art colony.
“We are very grateful for Dr. Meyer’s wonderful contribution to the permanent collection, which broadens the museum’s holdings in American and European art, and especially Southwestern painting,” said E. Luanne McKinnon, director of the University Art Museum. “These fine works of art will be rewarding for years to come for viewers within the university community, school children and the general public.”
For more information visit: University Art Museum.
For information on giving to UNM, call (505) 277-4503 or visit the UNM Foundation.
Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1593; e-mail: michal@unm.edu
The Cross-Border Issues Group, in its third year of summer immigration studies inside Mexico, gave UNM and Mexican media students an opportunity to meet a few of the many waves of migrants who travel north each year to find work. This year, the bi-national group focused on the difficulties and dangers young migrants from Central America face when they attempt to enter and travel through Mexico and eventually cross its northern frontier without documents.
Photo: CBIG student Paola López Meneses listens to a Honduran migrant's story as they walk the tracks in Ixtepec, Oaxaca. Photo and story by Carolyn Gonzales.
The CBIG family this summer included the project’s director, Richard Schaefer, UNM associate professor, Communication & Journalism; Carolyn Gonzales; Arturo López Durán, Schaefer’s counterpart at Fray Luca Paccioli University; López Durán’s students Paola López Meneses and Josué “Owen” Sarabia Tapia; Tec de Monterrey student Carlos “Rodrigo” Guzman Serrano – who did an exchange at UNM this past spring; and UNM students Jennifer Vieth, a second time member of CBIG; Leah Valencia and Amanda Skotchdopole.
The group spent its first week in its “home base” of Cuernavaca, Morelos, where Schaefer, gave workshops in the use of video and audio equipment. Equipment included a large video camera that has an attached microphone, but can also take an external mike. Schaefer had all the necessary tapes and the batteries for the care and feeding of the camera, too.
He also brought down two Flip cameras – they are about the size of a cell phone and can take up to an hour’s worth of high definition video. What they can’t do very well, we soon learned, is zoom effectively or capture high quality sound. And they don’t take an external mike. We also had good audio recorders and still cameras.
“Backpack journalists take what they need with them to capture the story,” Schaefer said. He also brought down two Mac computers with editing software and extensive memory space on FireWire drives so that we could reuse tapes and save the interviews in more than one place. Needless to say, Schaefer’s luggage surpassed the 50-pound limit imposed by Continental Airlines.
The students took their video lessons to the streets of Cuernavaca as they practiced what they learned on street vendors and performers while keeping an ear open for possible migrant tales.
Prior to the start of the program, Schaefer spent about a week and a half in Oaxaca studying Spanish and getting a sense of where CBIG should focus its efforts once it arrived on scene. He met with Randy and Susan Hinthorn, Maryknoll Lay Missioners, who were instrumental in forming the Centro de Orientación del Migrante de Oaxaca., A.C. COMI was organized to address the lack of services for Mexican and Central American migrants. The Hinthorns worked with Fr. Fernando Cruz Montes to create a safe place for migrants to rest and receive vital information regarding their rights and the risks they face on their journeys. It was fortuitous for CBIG that Schaefer went down early because the Hinthorns were visiting their family in the US by the time we made it to Oaxaca. They put us in the very capable hands of Nancy Garcia.
Garcia’s official title is COMI “secretary,” but she is much, much more and was our guide in Oaxaca. Fr. Fernando was the first person she arranged to speak with us. He was great because he spoke slowly and deliberately, giving our ears and minds a chance to pick up and understand what he had to say.
Migration moves poor people off the land and to large cities and motivates them north to the United States. What happens to the pueblos from which the migrants leave? Both community and the family breakdown. Agricultural communities are abandoned to become ghost towns inhabited only by old people, he said.
The stories of those who leave to take the journey to a new life are fraught with exploitation. They are robbed, beaten and kidnapped, and the women often raped. The stories include those who are taken off trains and forced to strip to make sure they can’t hide any money from the thieves. Other stories tell of coyotes abandoning people on the road, an unfamiliar path in an unknown country.
“Migrants suffer in transit. They die on the trains, in the rivers and roads. They die in the desert. And their dreams die with them,” Padre Fernando said.
We conducted several interviews with migrants at Casa Buen Samaritano after Fr. Fernando left. It was our first time in a safe house. We trod carefully – asking migrants if they would be willing to talk to us, knowing we’re probably exactly the kind of people they’ve been advised to avoid. Schaefer pulled out his computer to show them prior interviews and demonstrate how we could distort their faces to protect their identities. Surprisingly, many agreed to be interviewed and only two men asked to have their images distorted.
Nancy Garcia also took us to Ixtepec, a small town in Oaxaca. There, Padre Alejandro Solalinde runs an “albergue,” or mission for migrants who ride atop freight trains the migrants call “La Bestia,” “The Beast,” because of the many limbs and lives lost by those riding or attempting to board the moving train. Within minutes after entering the camp, the students, who were roughly the same age or a few years older than many of the migrants, had scattered throughout the public areas of the camp, and begun to share experiences and stories. Few of the migrants had any experience with desert environments, although most of young men planned to traverse the Sonoran Desert on foot later in the summer.
The second day we visited the camp, we saw fewer migrants than the day before. Schaefer wrote to his family, “The night before, most of the men in the camp had caught the early morning freight train bound for Mexico City. I had tried to stay awake, charging old worn out batteries that would hardly take charges in the heat and furiously digitizing video because we were burning through tapes at a rate I had not anticipated. Once digitized we could re-use the tapes. I had fallen asleep about 4 a.m. and the train came a half-hour later. Some of the ‘alumnas’ had heard it and ran out to catch cover video. I was distraught when I heard that I had missed the train, but delighted to hear that Paola had gotten about three minutes of ‘cover video’ of it and the men as they slowly passed from our view.”
Padre Alejandro took us for a two-hour walk along the tracks. He openly pointed out homes kidnappers use to hold people while awaiting payment. He talked about the officials who are as corrupt as any kidnapper or drug dealer. He pointed to restaurants and bars that preyed on the naive migrants – making them serve as mules for drug dealers. We fear for his safety because of his openness in describing the wrongdoers and his persistent call for migrants to file “denuncios” when they are victimized.
In the ensuing weeks, the group traveled twice to Mexico City – once to meet with officials in the office charged with helping Mexicans in the United States, and once to visit a much smaller albergue near the Lecheria freight yards on the northern outskirts of the city. Most of the few migrants there were recuperating from common injuries suffered on the journey. One man had been electrocuted by a high voltage wire when riding atop the train, another had been kidnapped and beaten regularly before escaping, while another had slipped and gashed his face when trying to catch a moving train.
Now back, we are working to transcribe and translate video, identify good sound bites and pull together scripts for broadcast reports. Schaefer and I entered the program this summer thinking it would end this year. Because of our partner institutions, and the persistent need to help our “hermanos migrantes,” the program will continue.
For more CBIG stories, visit cgonzal.wordpress.com.
Story by Carolyn Gonzales
Cadets receive scholarships
New and returning Air Force ROTC cadets got a quick history lesson from Lt. Col. Raul Garcia when he asked them if they knew how long UNM has had its Air Force ROTC Detachment 510. Students hazarded guesses between 20 and 40 years, but no one knew that UNM AFROTC celebrates its 60th anniversary this year.
“Air Force ROTC detachments are expected to produce 15 officers each year,” he said. He called upon a math major in the crowd to determine how many that would mean over 60 years. A cadet responded, “That would be 900, sir!” Garcia said that UNM has graduated more than that – nearly 1,000 officers have earned the rank of 2nd Lt. through the program, and many have gone on to provide exemplary service to the Air Force and the United States.
“Being in the cadet wing makes you part of something bigger than yourself,” he said.
Garcia also gathered the group to honor three cadets who earned merit-based scholarships from the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. Heather Miller received a $1,000 scholarship, while Jason Radtke and Ophelia Sifuentes each received $250 scholarships. The scholarships are available nationally to ROTC students from all branches of the military.
ROTC cadets will participate in a flag football game against their counterparts from New Mexico State University on Saturday, Sept. 26, prior to the start of the Rio Grande Rivalry game.
Once again, the University of New Mexico Foundation (UNMF) has set a new record. Despite the economy, during fiscal year 2008-2009, UNMF brought $90,045,942.01 in total giving. Every penny received represents a celebrated achievement and a step forward in funding the growing needs of the University and its many ongoing initiatives. In addition, UNMF expects to pay out to UNM approximately $15.2 million from the endowment benefiting the University.
These numbers represent a 5.3 percent increase in giving from $85.5 million in 2007-2008, and a 7.8 percent increase from the 2007-2008 endowment payout of $14.1 million. The UNMF has increased its fund raising annually since fiscal year 2003-04.
“The alumni and friends of the University of New Mexico certainly stepped up to the plate this fiscal year, showing that the community indeed values the education and service that UNM provides,” said UNM Foundation Board of Trustee Chair Anne Yegge. “Nearly 17,000 donors helped us create this record-setting year, and we are truly grateful to them.”
UNM President David J. Schmidly noted, “Many people don’t realize that while UNM is a state university, it receives only about 18.5 percent of its funding from the state. Receiving private funds from the UNM Foundation is crucial in maintaining and growing the quality education, research and health care we provide for New Mexico citizens.”
“This momentous achievement of a new record is especially commendable given the tough economy,” said John Stropp, UNM Foundation President. “I congratulate our team of development officers and our University colleagues who stayed diligently on-task until the last possible moment.”
The generosity of donors to UNM affects all aspects of the University including: student scholarships, the recruitment and retention of exceptional faculty and the funding of vital research and development of technological advances in healthcare.
For example, fund raising is ongoing for the UNM Presidential Scholarship Program. This exceptional program, founded in 1976, provides full, four-year scholarships for approximately 450 of New Mexico’s brightest each year. These scholarships, which require a $2,000 annual sponsorship make it possible for students from around the state to engage in degree programs ranging from journalism to nuclear engineering.
One current Presidential Scholar, Heather Radosevich, says, “The Presidential Scholarship has allowed me to focus entirely on my education without the burden of wondering how I will afford my schooling.” Mike Emerson, who serves as the UNM Foundation’s development committee chair, with his wife Kathy Naassan, created an endowment to the program and believes, “The Presidential Scholarship Program allows us to provide the support that students need to be successful.”
For more information on how you can give to UNM, please contact the UNM Foundation, Inc. by calling (505) 277-4503 or by visiting www.unmfund.org.
The UNM Foundation located in Albuquerque, NM promotes excellence at the University of New Mexico by raising, investing and managing private gifts through the cultivation of long-term partnerships with donors and matching their interests to the University's priorities. As an IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, the Foundation provides donors the opportunity and appropriate tax advantage for supporting University projects and programs. All fundraising and investment activities of the Foundation are limited to benefiting the University of New Mexico. The Foundation assets and earnings are distributed to colleges, departments and programs of the University per donor directions or, if funds are unrestricted, per the direction of the Foundation's volunteer Board of Trustees in response to UNM's priorities.
No regrets. If you had to squeeze the Lobo men’s soccer team’s goal for the 2009 season into two words, that short phrase would get the message across. A season of no regrets doesn’t come easy. It requires an intense work ethic, intense focus and a player-driven push for excellence. It also requires a handful of committed leaders.
“Looking back at the end of this season, I want to be able to honestly say I did everything I could to help the team in leadership on the field and off the field,” senior Simon Ejdemyr said. “Our seniors realize we have one chance left, one shot, one season, and we want to do everything right.”
Lobo Coach Jeremy Fishbein said, “We have nine guys who are entering their fourth year of college competition. We have great leadership. I don’t think we’ve had this type of leadership the past three years. There is a stronger commitment to results, but also a commitment to doing things right. We believe if you do things right, good things happen.”
The Lobos weren’t happy with their 11-6-2 record in 2008. They weren’t happy with a second-place finish in the Mountain Pacific Soccer Federation. They weren’t happy with not making the NCAA playoffs.
“We were extremely disappointed with last season, but it provided a great learning experience for the program,” Ejdemyr said. “It highlighted how important leadership is. Nothing like that will ever happen again.”
Leadership always is important, but the Lobos’ rugged 2009 schedule amplifies that importance. Soccer also requires a strong player-driven element because the nature of the free-flowing game limits a coach’s control and management. Fishbein said he expects player-driven leadership from the get-go.
“We talk to them about the importance of leadership and the upperclassmen have bought into that need and have accepted that responsibility,” he said.
Story by Richard Stevens, GoLobos.com
Leaving them at a doorstep is not a nice way to dispose of unwanted chemicals. Last month, the UNM Chemical and Research Laboratory Supplier found 68 containers of abandoned chemicals on the sidewalk outside of Clark Hall. An attached note said “donation.” Several of the chemicals were dangerous and needed to be handled with care.
CRLS moved the chemicals inside to avoid any possible health threats to the UNM campus. They contacted UNM Safety and Risk Services to assist in proper removal of the materials. The New Mexico Environment Department was contacted for additional assistance.
After further review, it was determined that a contractor needed to be hired to dispose of the chemicals. Eberline Services and subcontractor Advanced Environmental Services of New Mexico took immediate action, and worked closely with UNM staff to safely dispose of the chemicals. Costs were paid by the State of New Mexico Hazardous Waste Emergency Fund.
The coordinated efforts of UNM, NMED and the private contractors ensured a safe resolution to a potentially dangerous situation.
Story by Serena Pearson, Safety & Risk Services
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
This summer, the Department of Communication and Journalism and the Native American Journalists Association hosted Project Phoenix, a week-long multimedia convergence conference bringing 16 high school students from around the country to experience journalism first hand.
Students learned basic journalism skills such as story development and field research and got hands-on experience with other aspects of journalism like design, photography, broadcasting and journalism for the Web.
“This is the first time the department has put together a multimedia convergence program that incorporated video, print and Web components,” said Judith White, communication and journalism assistant professor and Project Phoenix Workshop co-chair.
UNM faculty and students and professional journalists gave presentations and helped students understand the inner workings of a newsroom.
Throughout the week, students worked as reporters, photographers, copy editors and graphic artists, contributing stories, photos, video and audio for the project Web site and the print edition of the newsletter Rising Voices.
“Many of the students already had participated in other journalism camps, but Project Phoenix gave them a chance to produce something from start to finish that they were interested in,” said Michaela Saunders, NAJA mentor. “The students seem to take a lot away. The program educates Native American youth about the opportunities available in journalism and helps ensure our stories are told.”
Story by Jazmen Bradford
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
For Heather Ward, post doctoral pathology fellow at the UNM Health Sciences Center, an ugly green bridesmaid’s dress was more than a cliché, it was a motivator. If Ward had to wear an ugly dress, she was going to get fit and look good in it. At the same time Ward was looking for an exercise program, Judith Harris, College of Nursing faculty, started a program called Walk the Talk to help the UNM HSC community start walking toward a healthier lifestyle.
Photo: Heather Ward
Funded by a UNM Wellness Mini Grant, Walk the Talk offered participants a pedometer to track their steps for a full year. Each quarter, individuals and teams would meet to learn everyone’s progress and receive awards.
Ward took Walk the Talk as an opportunity to start walking for her fitness routine. She also invited other colleagues to join her and form a team appropriately named the Ugly Green Dress.
Ward lost a total of 63 pounds during the program. When the wedding took place four months into Walk the Talk, she had lost 43 pounds.
“When I was getting the dress fitted closer to the wedding date, I could see just how much progress I had really made,” said Ward. “It was such a great feeling to see all this material having to be taken in.”
Since the program ended, Ward has continued to walk and do other activities to stay fit.
“I now rock climb with a group and also workout with some friends over at Johnson Gym,” she said. “Walk the Talk showed me that I really like exercising with a group and that it helps me stay successful in my goals.”
Ugly Green Dress won overall team honors and had several individuals recognized for their success. In just the last quarter of the program, Ugly Green Dress walked a total 4,219,587 steps.
“We really did help one another stay motivated,” said Ward. “Someone in our team would tell me how many steps they had already walked that day, and that would get me wanting to get out there and do the same. It was fun to compete with them, but also walk together to unwind from the day’s stresses.”
More than 350 participated in Walk the Talk. Although the program is over, people can still log steps at som.unm.edu.
Media Contact: Lauren Cruse, (505) 272-3690; e-mail: lcruse@salud.unm.edu
UNM professor to reads and sign new novel at UNM Bookstore
Set in the United States after 2008, A Journey, a Reckoning and a Miracle by K. J. Fraser follows the stories of three fellow Americans: Lucy, a seventeen-year-old Rapture believer travels on a pilgrimage from her home in Texas to honor the dead from massacres; Judith, a young black soldier severely injured in Iraq, and a fictional George Bush who begins to have nightmares and visions in which he’s visited by a host of ghosts, including zombies, Mother Nature, Machiavelli, Schopenhauer and a couple of former presidents.
Informed as much by religion and politics as it is by adventure and humor, this magical story, A Journey, a Reckoning and a Miracle, reaches out to all. Almost everyone, if old enough, has had to change beliefs with new experiences, to acknowledge mistakes and make amends, and, in the face of terrible adversity, to summon the courage and creativity to try something new. As the characters in the story find out, this can happen with a little help from family, friends, history, myth, and higher powers, through the grace of imagination.
Currently on the faculty of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Kathryn J. Fraser is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry. For over seven years she has been the medical director of the Continuing Care Clinic at the UNM Psychiatric Center where she does patient care, administration and teaching.
Fraser will be at the UNM Bookstore on Saturday, Sept. 12 from 2-4 p.m. for a reading and book signing. The UNM Bookstore is located at 2301 Central Ave. NE at the intersection of Cornell and Central. Parking will be validated in the parking structure for up to one hour with purchase.
For more information, call Lisa Walden at 505-277-7494 or email lwalden@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
As a contribution to the statewide LAND/ART initiative, the University of New Mexico Art Museum presents two exhibits Friday, Aug. 28-Sunday, Dec. 20 and a film fest every Thursday in September. The public reception for the exhibits is on Friday, Sept. 25, 5-7 p.m.
“Dispersal/Return: Land Arts of the American West, 2000-2006” features the work of 18 artists from the Land Arts of the American West interdisciplinary field program in the Department of Art and Art History at UNM. Curated by Bill Gilbert, Lannan chair and director and founder of the land arts program, and Michele Penhall, curator, prints and photographs at the UNM Art Museum, the exhibition brings together former artist-participants from this innovative studio program who continue to work on land art based projects.
Artists include Julie Anand, Jeff Beekman, Nina Dubois, Jess Dunn, Blake Gibson, Jeanette Hart- Mann, Yoshimi Hayashi, Ryan Henel, Mark Hensel, Anna Keleher, Claire Long, John Loth, Erika Osborne, Gabe Romero, Geordie Shepherd, Brooke Steger, Jen Van Horn and Peter Voshefski.
“Bill Gilbert: Physiocartography, 2005-2006” is a solo exhibition featuring sites along Gilbert’s journeys. The digital prints and videos on view represent Gilbert’s investigations between the conceptual disjunction of abstract notions about the landscape and the physical experience of topography and climate.
The Land Art Film Fest will be screened in Keller Hall, Center for the Arts at 5:30 p.m. every Thursday in September. The schedule follows:
Sept. 3
“Smithson and Serra: Beyond Modernism.” Produced by the Open University in the United Kingdom, this film explores the challenging dialectic of site-specific works by Robert Smithson and Richard Serra through an examination of seminal works by both artists. (25 minutes.)
“James Turrell: Passageways.” In this overview produced by the Centre Pompidou in Paris, James Turrell discusses his research on natural light and presents his masterpiece Roden Crater, located in Northern Arizona, which he has worked on since 1972. (26 minutes.)
Sept. 10
“Robert Smithson: Spiral Jetty.” Robert Smithson reveals the evolution of this monumental work, arguably one of the most famous earthwork projects from 1970, which resurfaced in Utah’s Great Salt Lake in 2005 to new audiences and acclaim after being submerged for 30 years. (35 minutes.)
“Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Valley Curtain.” This Academy Award nominated film directed by David and Albert Maysles follows the construction of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s enormous (142,000 square feet of orange nylon) curtain suspended between two mountains in Rifle, Colo. (28 minutes.)
Sept. 17
“Ana Mendieta: Fuego de Tierra.” This video portrait weaves together interviews with Ana Mendieta and other artists and filmed records of her earthworks and performance pieces to render a vivid testament of her talent cut short in 1985 by her untimely death. (52 minutes.)
Sept. 24
“Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Surrounded Islands.” This hour-long documentary traces Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s seven-day installation in Biscayne Bay, Fla., where they and 400 volunteers wrapped 11 islands in pink polypropylene fabric. (57 minutes.)
For information, contact Angela Berkson, (505) 277-6773 or waxrtist@unm.edu. Visit Art Museum.
Show airs Friday, Aug. 28 at 7 p.m.; rebroadcast Sunday, Aug. 30 at 6:30 a.m.
The debate over health care reform has raged across the United States for most of the summer, including here in New Mexico. Within the last week, Senator Jeff Bingaman and Representative Martin Heinrich each held well attended town halls on health care. This week, “New Mexico in Focus” takes you inside each event, presenting arguments from both sides of the aisle.
“New Mexico In Focus” is KNME-TV’s weekly hour-long public affairs show airing on Friday, Aug. 28 on KNME-TV channel 5.1 and repeating on Sunday, Aug. 30 at 6:30 a.m.
Then co-host David Alire Garcia and the “New Mexico in Focus” team joins Bingaman and Heinrich to discuss what realistic reform expectations are as they prepare to return to Washington.
After talking with Bingaman and Heinrich, the panel on “The Line” will discuss health care, the recent town hall meetings, and the conflicting plans presented to address New Mexico’s economic problems. Joining co-host Gene Grant on the panel this week are regular panelists Teresa Cordova, professor with the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning, Margaret Montoya, with the UNM Health Sciences Center, UNM School of Law and CUNY Law School, and Jim Scarantino, columnist with the Albuquerque Journal, and guest panelist Colin Hunter, legislative director for former Congresswoman Heather Wilson.
“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) 277-1812; e-mail: etodd@knme.org
Daniel Pedro knew when he was a sophomore at Santa Fe Indian School that he wanted to be an anthropologist. He also knew that as a Zuni, he would not be able to touch human remains – a common task for physical anthropologists.
Photo: Daniel Pedro
Pedro began looking for a solution through the New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge. The challenge aims to teach teams of middle and high school students how to use powerful computers to analyze, model and solve real world problems.
Pedro hit on the idea to study the faces of living puebloans in search of consistent similarities and then project that data onto the past to identify and repatriate skeletal remains without disrespecting native customs.
An early advisor, UNM Curator of Human Osteology Heather Edgar, told Pedro that the people of the pueblos were too mixed to make the sort of determinations he was seeking. Nevertheless, she was impressed by his inventive approach to problem solving and encouraged him with advice on how to go about his project.
“We need a native perspective in anthropology, and especially a perspective that comes from working with living communities,” Edgar said.
Working in a computer program called StarLogo allowed Pedro to rotate two objects side by side and compare the objects in different profiles. His goal was to create a method for anthropologists to determine which tribe or pueblo a skull might belong to with minimal handling. The resulting entry in the Supercomputing Challenge, called “Scan of the Past,” received the Judges’ Choice Award for Integrating Computation into Anthropology.
At UNM-Gallup, Pedro studies anthropology with Professor Teresa Wilkins. Last year, he got a taste of the museum work he hopes to make a career by working at A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center in Zuni, where he learned how to care for exhibits and worked with the photo collection.
Pedro wants to continue to explore ways to use technology to repatriate human remains and relics to the tribes they belong to. “It’s best to listen to Native American oral traditions about what happened at these sites. If we can integrate these traditions with what we can learn from modern technology, we can create another level of thinking,” he said.
Story by Linda Thornton
Multilingual speakers can enhance their language abilities while earning certificates in medical interpreting, justice system interpreting and bilingual communication through the New Mexico Center for Language Access, which begins accepting students this fall. The program is managed by UNM-Los Alamos in collaboration with Doña Ana Community College and Central New Mexico Community College.
Photo: Los Alamos Executive Director Cedric Page
Chief Justice Edward Chávez of the New Mexico Supreme Court said, “The Center for Language Access will help the justice system and other public agencies ensure that all New Mexico citizens have equal access to services regardless of their English language ability. Equally important, the center’s programs will offer a wonderful opportunity for those multilingual citizens among us to leverage their language abilities into a professional career.”
The NMCLA will use a hybrid online and face-to-face learning model to ensure access across the state. Programs include Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese, Navajo and American Sign Language. Assignments and mentoring with language experts and working professionals in each target language and on-the-job internships will round out students’ experience.
“New Mexico now has the only online training program for interpreters that includes languages other than Spanish in the United States,” said UNM-LA Dean of Instruction Kate Massengale, who served on the team that developed the NMCLA.
“The New Mexico Center for Language Access is impressive in the degree of collaboration and commitment by our public agencies and higher education institutions to serve the needs of New Mexicans engaged with our judicial and health care systems,” said UNM-LA Executive Director Cedric Page. “We encourage service among our students and among our faculty. What better example of service than this endeavor?”
There is a great need for qualified interpreters around the state, especially in rural areas, said Artie Pepin, director of the Administrative Office of the Courts. “More than 40 languages were spoken in our courts over the past year.”
For more information visit: N.M> Center for Language Access.
Story by Bonnie Gordon
Students in online or hybrid courses perform better than those receiving face-to-face instruction, according to a meta-analysis of online learning studies released by the U.S. Department of Education. The results may contradict common perceptions, but they didn’t surprise staff at UNM’s New Media and Extended Learning, Extended University.
The analysis, based on research published 1996-2008, suggests that the advantage of online and hybrid courses comes from additional learning time, materials and opportunities for collaboration. Debby Knotts, NMEL director, said online courses give students more opportunities for engagement because they’re available around the clock.
UNM’s first online courses appeared more than a decade ago. UNM also offers hybrid courses combining online and classroom instruction and Web-enhanced courses – classroom-based courses supplemented with Internet tools. Last fall, classes included 132 online, 31 hybrid and 1,779 Web-enhanced.
NMEL staff provide course design and technical support for teachers and students. They also work with departments to ensure that courses for online degrees will be available within a reasonable timeframe for degree completion.
In the classroom, teachers employ a variety of techniques to increase student engagement. The same is true in the virtual classroom. “Good teaching is good teaching, wherever it happens,” said Becky Adams, multimedia services manager. Adams manages NMEL course designers and teaches in the College of Education.
Teachers do need to keep the environment in mind, Adams said. When students are physically present in the same room, it’s easier for them to feel connected. Instructors must work harder to foster community online, intentionally building student-teacher and student-student interaction.
That advice is backed by the U.S. Department of Education analysis finding that active, interactive and reflective learning techniques are more effective online than lectures or texts.
While helping instructors incorporate best practices, course designers are also aware that each course is unique. “Faculty should be able to make online courses their own,” Knotts said.
NMEL provides tools allowing faculty to interact with students in real-time, including audio or video chat. “Students can virtually raise their hand and ask questions through an audio interface,” Knotts said. Adams estimates that nearly half of the courses use some type of real-time interactive tool.
Other tools include online quizzing with automated grade entry, text chat, wikis, blogs, podcasts and time- or event-released content.
Knotts said online courses can be an effective recruitment and retention tool, attracting working and long-distance students and keeping students who have to leave the state before completing their degree. “It’s exciting to be able to help them finish at UNM.”
Contact NMEL at (505) 277-5765 or newmedia@unm.edu. Find current online and hybrid courses at schedule.unm.edu or online.unm.edu.
Story by Sari Krosinsky
The City of Albuquerque, in collaboration with the UNM Sustainability Studies Program, will host a ‘Climate Action Plan’ town hall meeting Wednesday, Aug. 26, in Lobo Rooms A&B at the UNM Student Union Building. The town hall begins at 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. City of Albuquerque town hall meetings being held this August are the product of a year-long project titled, ‘Climate Action Plan.’
The Climate Action Plan town halls have been designed so that individuals throughout the city may have a say in how neighborhoods, buildings, energy and food shapes our community.
UNM officials, including Sustainability Studies Program Coordinator Terry Horger, Associate Director for Utilities/PPD Jeff Zumwalt and Facilities Engineer/PPD Lee Imhoff, Facilities Engineer/PPD, were all involved on on committees that are part of the task force. Zumwalt also headed up the third-party review team for the plan before it went to the subject-matter experts at the City of Albuquerque.
Additionally, more than 60 community members participated in the project and developed nearly 50 recommendations to the Mayor for improving the social, economic and environmental fabric of our city, all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions between now and 2050.
The Climate Action Plan is a comprehensive blueprint written by and for community members, which covers eight aspects of climate change and quality of life issues for Albuquerque including:
Business, Industry and Carbon Offsets
Carbon Neutral Buildings
Clean, Renewable Energy
Complete, Livable Neighborhoods
Local Food and Agriculture
Recycling and Zero Waste
Social Change
Transportation
Individuals who can't make any of the town hall meetings (there will be one in every City Council district), visit the City's website at, Climate Action Plan Town Halls. Afterward, fill out the online survey at, Climate Action Plan Survey to have your say in a sustainable future for the Duke City.
For more information call 311.
The Division of Human Resources’ Benefits and Employee Health Promotion Program strive to provide meaningful and timely opportunities to establish a culture of wellness at UNM. Working with local health partners makes a wealth of wellness resources available to UNM.
UNM’s primary partners in helping employees and their families stay healthy are UNM’s medical insurance plan administrators. Not only do Lovelace and Presbyterian administer employee benefits, but they offer a number of wellness and support programs to members. Both administrators offer telephone counseling to help those who want to quit using tobacco. Other value-added services include:
· Personal health coaching from trained professionals for personal and family health questions
· Prenatal care to keep mothers and babies healthy throughout pregnancy
· Chronic disease management with guidance from registered nurses
· Discounted services for alternative medicine and health products
· Nurse advice line staffed by registered nurses for guidance on health and illness topics.
For more information or to enroll in these services, call the customer service number listed on your UNM Medical Plan card.
In addition to medical insurance administrators, numerous other health partners help the UNM community stay healthy. Tuesday, Oct. 13-Thursday, Oct. 15, Benefits and EHPP are coordinating health screenings and the annual Road to Wellness Health Fair. The event will provide information and resources to support healthy lifestyles in a convenient and interactive environment. For information about the Road to Wellness Health Fair or health partners, call EHPP at (505) 272-4460.
Story by Mary Jo Quintana, Employee Health Promotion Program
The UNM High School Equivalency Program held its second annual summer GED program. HEP, funded by the U.S. Department of Migrant Education, offers individuals with migrant or seasonal agricultural worker backgrounds the opportunity to earn a General Educational Development certificate through intensive preparatory instruction and support services.
“HEP changes the lives of many adult students by providing them with an opportunity to complete a high school degree and to begin college and university classes,” UNM Vice President for Student Affairs Eliseo “Cheo” Torres said.
Yesenia Martinez of Socorro said, “HEP has opened doors for me that I didn’t even know existed. This program has given me a sense of confidence and the ambition to succeed.” Martinez plans to study psychology and business administration at UNM this fall.
While most participants come from Albuquerque and Hatch, where UNM HEP works with GED programs run by Catholic Charities of Central New Mexico and Doña Ana Community College during the fall and spring, this summer’s students have come from as far away as Nevada and Oklahoma. The summer participants live and study on UNM’s Albuquerque campus.
“Being far away from home and out of your comfort zone can be really challenging sometimes, but working with a staff that is truly devoted to helping us makes it easier,” said Ana Maria Portillo of Las Cruces.
Michael Mills of Rincon said HEP helped him overcome self-doubt he had about continuing his education. Mills, who previously worked harvesting chilé and onions, now hopes to study theatre at UNM.
In addition to classes covering the five subjects on the GED test – writing, reading, social studies, math and science – the participants, ages 18-36, attended daily tutoring sessions, local cultural events, community service activities and life skills workshops. The workshops, with topics such as financial aid, résumé writing and money management, prepare students to enter college and the work force.
Story by Jessica Quade
As I write this column, the campus hums with the excitement and preparation for the fall semester. Facilities are being improved and readied. Grounds are being touched up. IT projects are being finalized. Advisors are engaging students. Administrators, support staff and coordinators throughout the institution are deep in preparations for classes to begin. It is work that can be invisible when it is successful.
Photo: Staff Council President Elisha Allen
In a recent visit, UNM’s 12th president, John Perovich, remarked on the campus’ beauty. It does not escape the notice of those that come here. It also underscores the importance of every job done on campus and the beauty that comes from all of us working together. While one can get lost in the details of everyday activities, a small step back reveals a collective effort that is truly humbling.
The first week of August marked the annual Staff Appreciation Week, a series of events presented by the Staff Council, Division of Human Resources and volunteers. Starting with a picnic at the zoo attended by nearly 3,500, events throughout the week showcased the diversity and creativity of staff and acknowledged the extraordinary work they do throughout the year. It was a great week and a credit to the volunteers who work year round to make it happen.
If the economy continues as it is, we know that there are hard times ahead. With that in mind, the strength of our bonds, commitment to each other and vocal acknowledgement of the contributions each of us make is more important than ever. An investment in gratitude and compassion has excellent dividends. Any time resources are scarce, fear and uncertainty spread easily. Good communication and inclusion in decision-making structures can alleviate this in part, and the Staff Council is committed to these principles.
Across the university, from the branches to main campus, Health Sciences Center to south campus, we are blessed with employees deeply committed to the institution. These staff pour their hearts into their jobs, not because they have to, but because they know and value the merit of their work for its own sake. I know of nothing more uplifting than taking a moment to show gratitude and appreciation for these efforts. In two words, thank you.
For more information visit: Staff Council or call (505) 277-1532.
By Elisha Allen, Staff Council president
UNM sporting events and recreational activities offer an inexpensive way for parents to spend time with their students. Students are admitted to most athletic events free. Discounted group and individual tickets are available for parents and extended family. Athletics Marketing Manager Lisa Romero and Recreational Services Coordinator Eric Boeglin presented the topic at the last Parent Talk.
Lobo football is on the horizon, and students may purchase up to four guest tickets for $10 each. Many UNM parents are faculty or staff and will have access to two-for-one season ticket packages.
“The Mountain West is getting a lot of attention with Utah having gone to Bowl Championship Series bowl game,” Romero said, adding that Coach Mike Locksley is taking the field for his first UNM season.
Romero said students packed athletic events in the 1980s. She sees a similar trend emerging led by student groups such as the Howlraisers.
Football may be in the air, but basketball is not far behind. The Pit is undergoing a $60 million renovation scheduled for completion in fall 2010. UNM’s winning baseball team takes the field at the amenity-rich Isotopes Park. UNM’s swim team shows its stuff in Johnson Center’s newly renovated Olympic pool.
Recreational Services boasts hands-on activities for students, who may bring a guest to Johnson Center for $5. Work-out in a cardio room with views of the Sandias or hit one of eight basketball courts with the family for a game of pick-up.
When you depart, Boeglin said, don’t worry that your students will languish. Daily offerings of lobo cycling/spin bikes, yoga, hip hop and salsa dancing, pilates and boot camp will keep them active and healthy.
Intramurals are now offered late into the evening thanks to new lights on Johnson Field. For the more experienced student athlete, club sports are an option.
Getaway Adventures include a fall break trip to Colorado and the ever-popular Balloon Fiesta. UNM’s Outdoor and Bike Shop provides equipment for cross country and snow shoeing, volleyball, flag football and more.
Boeglin said more than 150 students work at Recreational Services. If your student is active and looking for fall employment, Recreational Services might be just the ticket.
Parent Talk is held the first Wednesday of the month in the Dean of Students Conference Room, Student Services Building. In September, hear from Director of Student Activities Debbie Morris. The series is sponsored by DOS, Parent Relations, Parent Association and Extended University. View previous talks at unmlive.edu.
With a continued focus on efficiency and accurate communication, the Division of Human Resources has adopted process mapping to better serve the UNM community. A process map is a diagram that shows the tasks required to complete a procedure.
Several sets of process maps are available, including UNMJobs hiring procedures for posting a position, screening, and hiring students, faculty and staff. Process maps provide all the necessary instructions, forms and templates in an easy to follow format.
HR has adopted a process management approach using inProcess software. inProcess combines the visual representation of complex processes with the ability to drill down for references to procedures, additional details and specific forms in a single, Web-accessible location. One way to improve any business practice is to map the process from start to finish. The primary goal of using inProcess is to improve and document key functions of HR’s business practices while illustrating how these procedures relate to other core areas on campus.
Ultimately, process mapping accomplishes two basic objectives: it promotes understanding and consensus across different areas involved in a process, and it serves as a consistent, reliable method of documentation. With inProcess, UNM employees have a wealth of information in a single location.
Non-Standard Payments, Biweekly and Monthly Time Entry, and UNMTemps for competitive or noncompetitive placements of temporary employees are just a few of the process maps available via inProcess. Additional process maps will be developed to bring greater transparency to everyday functions involving HR. View inProcess maps at hr.unm.edu. For more information on process mapping, contact HR at hrpr@unm.edu.
UNM is planning far in advance for what could be a very significant flu season. Not only is the UNM Health Sciences Center planning for the annual seasonal flu, but also the next anticipated wave of the H1N1 flu, sometimes called “swine flu.” For the seasonal flu, HSC has ordered 45,000 doses of vaccine to administer through HSC’s clinical facilities on- and off-campus. When the vaccine is received, HSC will publicize dates, times and locations where people can get a flu shot. Locations will include UNM Hospital, Student Health Center, Lobo Care Clinic and UNM family clinics throughout the city.
While the seasonal flu vaccine is important for people who fall into high-risk categories, it will not be effective against the H1N1 influenza. That’s why the Centers for Disease Control and vaccine manufacturers are hard at work developing a separate vaccine, expected to be available in September or October. Unlike the seasonal flu vaccine which takes only one dose, the CDC anticipates protection against the H1N1 virus will require an initial vaccination followed by a booster at a later date.
One reason UNM is working hard to prepare for a potential H1N1 outbreak is that unlike the seasonal flu, which primarily affects infants and the elderly, the World Health Organization reports that the H1N1 influenza has disproportionally affected people 6-24 years old. That age group is a CDC priority for receiving the vaccine, and HSC and UNM will work with the New Mexico Department of Health to administer pandemic vaccine to students within that age group when it is available.
In addition to getting the vaccine when it is available, what else can people do to protect themselves?
The CDC recommends the following:
* Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when coughing or sneezing. Throw the tissue in the trash after use.
* Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after coughing or sneezing. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.
* Avoid touching eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
* Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
* If you are sick, stay home for seven days after symptoms begin or until you have been symptom-free for 24 hours, whichever is longer. This is to keep from infecting others and spreading the virus further.
Anne Taylor will deliver a lecture and book signing at the UNM School of Architecture and Planning Gallery on Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 5 p.m. Her ongoing exhibition will be displayed in the Pearl Hall Gallery from Aug. 24 until Sept. 12. Ice cream will be served on the patio during the book signing.
For the past 40 years Taylor has studied how schools, classrooms, playgrounds, homes, museums, and parks affect children and how they learn. As a result she has developed a holistic, sustainable philosophy of learning environment design.
In Linking Architecture and Education: Sustainable Design of Learning Environments (UNM Press) she argues persuasively that architects must integrate their design knowledge with an understanding of the developmental needs of learners, while at the same time educators, parents, and students must broaden their awareness of the built, natural, and cultural environment to maximize the learning experience.
When architects are cognizant of newer models of education and educators view the environment as more than a box in which to teach prescribed lessons, the result is an informed architecture that enables children to discover the power of their own learning.
Linking Architecture and Education presents numerous examples of dynamic designs that are the result of interdisciplinary understanding of place. Taylor includes designer perspectives, forums derived from commentary by outside contributors involved in school planning, and a wealth of photographs of thoughtful and effective solutions to create learning environments from comprehensive design criteria.
Anne Taylor, Ph.D., Hon. AIA, ACSA Distinguished Professor, is Regents Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at UNM, where she was the founder and director, for many years, of the Institute for Environmental Education. She is also president of a non-profit School Zone Institute. She is the author of Southwestern Ornamentation and Design and School Zone: Learning Environments for Children, as well as several Architecture and Children curriculum documents.
The UNM Bookstore is located at 2301 Central Ave. NE at the intersection of Cornell and Central. Parking will be validated in the parking structure for up to one hour with purchase. Please call Lisa Walden at 505-277-7494 for more information.
The UNM staff and faculty deadline to use the Popejoy Hall benefit is this Saturday, Aug. 29. Staff and faculty can save 50 percent on season tickets, with a minimum purchase of two shows. Brochures are available from Popejoy Hall by calling 277-8010 or by stopping at the UNM Bookstore Ticket Office.
Complete information is available online at: Popejoy Present.
On Monday, Aug. 24, the University of New Mexico's Parking and Transportation Services (PATS) will debut the university's first waste-vegetable oil (WVO) powered vehicle, the "Veggie Bus," at the UNM Duck Pond shuttle stop. Based on a conventional PATS diesel-powered shuttle, the Veggie Bus sports student artwork from contest winner Crystal Wong and will run on the Redondo route.
"The introduction of the Veggie Bus represents a major milestone in both innovation and sustainability for the University of New Mexico," said Cynthia Martin, PATS Program Planning Manager.
As with all PATS' shuttles, the Veggie Bus is free to ride. PATS invites the community to join them for a media event, inaugural trip around campus, and enjoy free vegetable-oil-cooked tater tots along the way.
Tater-tots will be available near the Duck Pond shuttle stop from 10:45 a.m. on Aug. 24 until supplies run out. President Schmidly will speak at 11 a.m., and after his speech members of the community and media will join Schmidly on the inaugural trip around campus.
Media Contact: Benson Hendrix, (505) 277-1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu
Students interested in working part-time on campus will have an opportunity to meet with UNM department and program representatives during the 3rd annual Student Job Fair Friday, Aug. 28, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Duck Pond. The fair is organized by the Graduation Task Force Student Engagement Committee and UNM’s Career Services.
The goal of the fair is to highlight student employment opportunities and encourage students to be more connected with campus through the UNM job experience.
UNM departments seeking student employees are required to register online at: Department Registration. UNM Departments should RSVP immediately as space is limited.
Students can click on the following link to see the array of recruiting participating departments: Career Fairs.
Additional sponsors include Student Financial Aid, Student Affairs, Enrollment Management, Title V, ENLACE and Information Technology Services.
For more information call UNM Career Services, 277-2531.
Media Contact: Jayson Capps, (505) 277-7796; e-mail: jcapps@unm.edu
In a letter to his faculty, Dean and Professor Roger Schluntz, FAIA, announced his intention to resign as dean of UNM’s School of Architecture and Planning on June 30, 2010. During his past 10 years as dean, Schluntz said he has witnessed “a number of truly remarkable accomplishments as well as many critical incremental transformations” at the School.
Photo: School of Architecture Dean and Professor Roger Schluntz.
Speaking of his dedicated faculty and staff, Schluntz commented, “Working together, I think we all deserve to share a sense of tremendous pride in what we have achieved in moving this School toward national prominence.”
“Roger has shown extraordinary vision and leadership during his years as architecture dean,” said Suzanne Ortega, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “It is UNM’s great fortune that he will continue to contribute as a senior faculty member as well as assist with campus planning issues and new facility design for the University.”
Ortega said a national search will begin this fall and intends for a new dean to be hired when Schluntz steps down.
The funding, design and construction of George Pearl Hall, the new home of the School prominently located at Cornell Mall and Central Avenue, is undoubtedly the most visible accomplishment of Schluntz’ tenure as dean. The School also initiated the professional degree program in Landscape Architecture, now fully accredited and highly respected.
In addition, two new interdisciplinary graduate certificate programs, Historic Preservation & Regionalism and Town Design are fully operational. As dean Schluntz also provides leadership for the fully accredited, graduate professional degree programs in both Architecture and Community & Regional Planning.
Through the School’s multi-faceted service learning and community outreach programs, Schluntz also notes with pride the vital role it contributes toward critical design and planning issues confronting many of New Mexico communities
Currently Schluntz chairs the University’s Design Review Board and was instrumental in the preliminary planning phases for UNM West and the update of the Master Development Plan for the main campus.
Schluntz holds a Master of Architecture degree from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Prior to his UNM appointment he served as dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Miami (Florida), and director of the School of Architecture at Arizona State University, where he also established the ASU/City of Phoenix Joint Urban Design Program.
Schluntz recently completed a three-year appointed term with the National Architecture Accreditation Board. He has served as the Professional Adviser for over 25 national design competitions for major civic and university buildings throughout the United States.
He serves as an appointed member of the National Register of Peer Professionals for the US-General Services Administration in its building and construction program. Recognizing his contributions in architectural education and achievements toward enhancing the quality of design of public buildings, in 1996 Schluntz was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Lobo WiFi, UNM's campus-wide wireless network, will undergo a configuration upgrade on Friday, Aug. 20 at 11 a.m. The upgrade will alleviate current issues some users are having with inconsistent logins.
A network authentication system (NAC) was implemented on Lobo WiFi on Aug. 18, requiring all wireless users with XP, Vista and Macintosh operating systems to log in using their NetIDs and passwords in order to access the UNM network and the Internet.
Contact the IT Support Center at 277-4848 with technical problems or issues connecting to Lobo WiFi.
Health care reform, featuring U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman and U.S. Representative Ben Ray Lujan, highlights this weekend’s edition of New Mexico In Focus. The show airs Friday, Aug. 21 at 7 p.m. on KNME, Ch 5.1 and repeats Sunday, Aug. 23 at 6:30 a.m.
First, David Alire Garcia sits down one-on-one with U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman. Then, find out what U.S. Representative Ben Ray Lujan has to say about his recent public forum on health care reform.
Additional topics include - What would drive someone to run for Albuquerque mayor as a write-in candidate? Hear Donna Rowe’s comments about her campaign. Also, new revelations in the firing of former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, and the growing controversy over police use of taser guns.
Afterward, The Line panelists, including political consultant Whitney Waite Cheshire, Political Consultant; Teresa Cordova, former Bernalillo County commissioner / UNM School of Architecture & Planning, Margaret Montoya, UNM Health Sciences Center/CUNY Law School and Jim Scarantino, Albuquerque Journal Columnist sound off on the various strategies for framing the health care reform debate.
“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.
UNM's Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addictions (CASAA) is currently conducting a research study where it will provide free motivational interviewing training to counselors, psychologists, physicians, social workers and nurses who work in the field of substance abuse. All participants will attend a two-day motivational interviewing training in Albuquerque to be held Nov. 17 – 18, 2009.
The goal of the study, taught by Theresa Moyers, Ph.D., William Miller, Ph.D., Jennifer Knapp Manuel, M.S., and Brian Burke, Ph.D., is to test two different strategies for training providers in motivational interviewing. The study is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. CASAA is recruiting licensed providers who have minimal (or no) previous experience with motivational interviewing and work in a not-for-profit setting. One person per agency or setting will be able to participate in this study.
Interested participants must be able to submit a pre-training audio work sample of a therapy session with an actual client. Following training, participants must submit three more audio work samples one week, six months, and twelve months. Participants will be paid $75 (with a $25 bonus for timeliness) for each of the three post-training audio work samples. CEU credits will be available. Travel and accommodations will be provided for all participants.
For additional information on this study or eligibility requirements visit: http://casaa.unm.edu/elicit.html; links to the Frequently Asked Questions and Eligibility Questionnaire are at the bottom of the page. Interested participants may also contact mitrainingstudy2009@gmail.com or call (505) 925-2335.
Primary care clinicians from around the state of New Mexico will gather with legislators and health policymakers at the Research Involving Outpatient Settings Network (RIOS Net) Annual Member Meeting, Policy Prescriptions: Forging Connections Between Primary Care and Health Policy Reform on Aug. 21, at the UNM Health Sciences Center. A keynote speech will be given by former Massachusetts legislator and Senior Advisor to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on national health reform John McDonough from 9 to 9:45 a.m. in the auditorium of the Domenici Center for Health Sciences Education at UNM. The speech is open to members of the public.
Photo: John McDonough
McDonough is well-known on national health reform through his work with the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. He is also the author of “Experiencing Politics: A Legislator's Stories of Government and Health Care.”
RIOS Net member clinicians will also have the opportunity to discuss national health reform efforts with Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellows who have spent time on Capitol Hill working in the offices of members of congress and federal agencies and advising policymakers on issues of health. The meeting will include a panel of state officials, including New Mexico Department of Health Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Vigil, who is a longtime member of RIOS Net, New Mexico State Representative Danice Picraux, Chair of the interim Legislative Health and Human Services Committee, and New Mexico Senator Dede Feldman, Chair of the Senate Public Affairs Committee.
RIOS Net is a statewide, primary care, practice-based research network composed of over 250 New Mexico doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. Member clinicians provide care in over 60 primary care locations in community health centers, Indian Health Service and tribal facilities, and academic settings. They voluntarily collaborate in research on topics affecting their patients and communities, with leadership from the UNM Health Sciences Center. Through this meeting, RIOS Net hopes to share its research and engage in dialog to allow clinicians and policymakers to better understand New Mexico’s healthcare challenges.
For more information about RIOS Net and how to become a member, and to find updates and registration for the Annual Member Meeting visit: RIOS Net.
Classes begin Monday, Aug. 24
The fall semester is almost here, and the Student Activities Center welcomes the UNM community to start the year off with free entertainment, food and fun at the annual Welcome Back Days, Friday, Aug. 21-Friday, Aug. 28.
UNM Welcome Back Days schedule:
Friday, Aug. 21
Friday Night Live at the Student Union Building, 8-11 p.m.: New Mexico's Vanilla Pop performs dance hits live in the SUB Atrium. Students can also partake in casino games, henna tattoos, karaoke, salsa dance lessons, video games and free food.
Sunday, Aug. 23
UNM Class Crawl at the Duck Pond, 5:30-7 p.m.: UNM gives students a personalized campus tour. Bring a class schedule printout for help finding classes.
Movie on Johnson Field, 8 p.m.: Bring a blanket and watch “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” on Lower Johnson Field, with free drinks and popcorn.
During the first week of classes, free music and food are provided noon-1 p.m. Information booths are open 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Each day features a different theme:
Monday, Aug. 24: UNM President’s Ice Cream Social near the Duck Pond.
Tuesday, Aug. 25: Safety, Health, Wellness & ROTC Day features free massages, a climbing wall, piñatas and watermelon at the Duck Pond. ROTC booths will be located on the SUB Mall.
Wednesday, Aug. 26: Women’s and Cultural Day at the duck pond highlights UNM’s ethnic, cultural and women centers and departments, with free green chili stew.
Thursday, Aug. 27: Student Organization Day at the Duck Pond offers a chance to meet student leaders and learn how to get involved with more than 400 student organizations. ASUNM leaders serve free pizza and Pepsi.
North Campus Welcome Back Day features information booths, free hotdogs and Pepsi, and music in the Health Sciences Center plaza, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 28: Community Service & Employment Day - An On-Campus Jobs Fair presents university departments hiring students and community organizations recruiting volunteers north of Ortega Hall, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Alumni serve free hotdogs and Pepsi.
For more information, call (505) 277-4706 or visit Welcome Back Days.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network Office, based in the Biology Department at the University of New Mexico, has been awarded $15.6 million by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support its scientific research activities for the next six years. The two-part funding includes a $6.7 million award for five years from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009) to support cyberinfrastructure development for integrated network science in LTER, and $8.9 million as renewal of the LTER Network Office (LNO)’s core Cooperative Agreement between NSF and UNM for six years.
“Significant changes in the vision for LTER network science have taken place since our last renewal in 2003, based on decadal strategic planning by the LTER community,” observed Robert B. Waide, the LNO Executive Director and a Lead Principal Investigator who will be responsible for implementing the award. “The stimulus funding will provide the first opportunity to implement the new scientific goals described in the Decadal Plan for LTER.
“This plan envisions collaborations between ecologists and social scientists to create a new body of theory that draws on and incorporates information technology and the most advanced educational approaches to amplify the social impact of this vision,” he said, adding that as a result, the LNO also identified needs for additional support to address new network synthesis, cyberinfrastructure, and governance goals.
To ensure accountability, LNO will undergo periodic reviews by external panels chosen by NSF during the duration of the awards, including the usual triennial reviews stipulated under the Cooperative Agreement.
NSF established the U.S. LTER program in 1980 to support research on long-term ecological phenomena in the United States. The Network, a collaborative effort involving more than 1800 scientists and students, comprises 26 research sites distributed throughout the U.S. mainland, the Caribbean, the Pacific island of Moorea, and Antarctica.
The LTER Network Office was created by NSF in 1983 to support and coordinate network and site activities of the LTER Network and moved to UNM in 1997. The Office provides a central point of contact and collective expertise to support the research and education goals of the LTER Network, represent the network in interactions with other scientific networks and institutions, facilitate operation of the network as a cohesive research entity, and foster new, broadly-based initiatives that extend LTER science, education, and cyberinfrastructure to new communities.
Media Contacts: LTER, McOwiti Thomas, (505) 277-2638; e-mail: tmcowiti@lternet.edu; UNM, Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The Mind Research Network boosts its world class neurodiagnostic capabilities with an award of $2,825,460 from the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“This federal money gives MRN the ability to expand state-of-the-art imaging equipment that will accommodate our increasing numbers of studies into brain disorders and development of the human brain," said MRN President and CEO John Rasure. “More imaging capability combined with our analysis of an individual’s genetics provides MRN with the best tools available to develop technology that brings hope and promise to individuals facing mental illness and other brain diseases.”
MRN now has 40 different research programs asking questions related to mental illness, brain disease, brain injury and normal brain development. The HRSA grant will accelerate investigators’ work to uncover new paths to early diagnosis that will lessen the impact of the disorder and ultimately provide clinicians with individualized treatments and cures.
The HRSA award is a fully funded federal appropriation for new imaging equipment that was secured by U.S. Senator Pete Domenici before he retired last year. Domenici founded MRN eleven years ago as a nonprofit neurodiagnostic facility in Albuquerque.
The dedicated MRN staff has worked with collaborators around the country to build one of the most comprehensive brain databases in the world. The unique collection of behavioral assessments, brain imaging and genetic data will be the key to MRN delivering diagnostic and treatment breakthroughs.
For more information on the Mind Research Network, go to www.mrn.org or contact Lisa Breeden, Director of Development at llbreeden@mrn.org or (505) 681-7110.
New policy includes cigarettes, smokeless tobacco
The University of New Mexico became a tobacco-free campus on Saturday, Aug. 1. The new policy includes not only cigarettes, but smokeless tobacco as well, and has been fully implemented for the return of students and faculty for the fall semester. The primary reason behind the tobacco-free initiative is to have a healthy environment for people to work and students to learn.
The new tobacco-free policy affects all areas of main campus, north campus, south campus and athletics, and UNM’s Continuing Education Center. The branch campuses must comply with the Dee Johnson Clean Indoor Air Act.
UNM’s indoor facilities have been smoke-free for more than a decade. In 2007, the UNM Health Sciences Center followed suit and became completely smoke free environment, seeking benefits for students, faculty, staff and patients alike. Additionally, the UNM Valencia campus also went smoke-free two years ago.
Pug Burge, co-chair of the Smoke Free Environment Committee, says the committee presented the revised policy to a number of campus groups to help prepare them for the upcoming changes. She also points out that the initiative is gaining ground across the nation at other universities and colleges.
“This is the way university and college campuses are going,” said Burge. “Last October, about 160 universities and colleges were completely smoke free. Now, more than 300 universities and colleges are smoke free.”
UNM President David J. Schmidly says the policy is not intended to be anti-smoker.
“I am aware of the impact this initiative may have upon many smokers and understand this may be uncomfortable for many,” said Schmidly. “Becoming a smoke free environment does not mean ‘smoker-free’ or ‘anti-smoker.’ It means supporting each other to choose healthy lifestyles and supporting everybody with options to help them make the best choices for themselves and for their families.”
The policy changes, which were available for a 30-day review and comment period in April, are based on input from faculty, staff, students, and the public made at the recent town forums, open committee meetings, and through UNM's Smoke Free website.
As part of the transition policy, designated smoking areas will be established for use when the policy takes effect. The policy states: “These designated areas are being provided to create a positive transition for individuals who currently use tobacco as UNM phases into a totally tobacco-free environment. As students and employees achieve success in quitting smoking and stopping the use of tobacco, the designated areas will be eliminated within a five-year period."
Designated Smoking Areas at UNM...
• Outside southeast corner of Zimmerman Library
• East of Northrop Hall
• Near Parking Lot D, between Hokona Hall and Laguna/Devargas Suites
• Between Coronado Hall and Redondo Village
• Designated areas at the Science & Technology Park, Student Family Housing, Health Sciences Center, UNM Stadium, the Pit and Continuing Education.
The adverse health effects of cigarette smoke, both first and secondhand, have been well documented over the years. Some of the facts about smoking from the Surgeon General and the New Mexico Department of Health include:
• 30% of all cancers are caused by tobacco use
• More than 2,080 New Mexican die annually from smoking
• An estimated 42,000 New Mexicans suffer with at least one serious illness from smoking
• Smokers have 6.5 more days of absenteeism than nonsmokers each year
• Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causing many diseases and reducing the health of smokers in general
• Secondhand smoke causes heart disease and lung cancer. Based on established facts, the Surgeon General has concluded that smoke-free workplace policies are the only effective way to eliminate secondhand smoke exposure in the workplace. Other local large entities that have enacted smoke-free environments include UNM HSC, Presbyterian Hospital and Sandia National Labs.
“This has been a committee effort,” said Schmidly. “There have been many dedicated individuals who have served on this committee and I want to thank them for their efforts in helping to provide a healthy environment for students, faculty and staff.”
Several UNM departments, including Student Health & Counseling (SHAC), Employee Health Promotion Program (EHPP), and the Campus Office of Substance Abuse Prevention (COSAP), are offering a number of cessation techniques. For more information visit: COSAP, EHPP or Student Health Center.
For general information about UNM’s new tobacco free policy visit: UNM Smoke Free. Individuals may also contact Pug Burge, co-chair of the Smoke Free Environment Committee at (505) 272-2652 or via e-mail: pburge@salud.unm.edu.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico has announced two faculty promotions. Dante DiGregorio, Albert & Mary Jane Black Professor in Economic Development, was granted tenure and promoted to the rank of associate professor. Craig White, Grant Thornton Professor of Accounting, was promoted to the rank of full professor.
The promotions were announced by Provost Suzanne Ortega who said “these accomplishments enhance the reputation of the University and bring honor to the campus.”
Additionally, on Aug. 15th Professor White became the new Anderson Accounting Department Chair, a position most recently held by KPMG Professor Joni Young.
Tradition welcomes new students
The University of New Mexico will celebrate Freshman Family Day on Sunday, Aug. 23. Held the afternoon before the start of fall classes, the event has become an annual tradition at UNM welcoming incoming students and their families to the college community. The festivities begin at 4 p.m. with the Freshman Convocation at Popejoy Hall.
A ceremonial event held at most colleges and universities, Freshman Convocation is a combination of the serious and light-hearted providing an opportunity for the administration, current students and parents to address families.
The convocation is followed by a social celebration from 5 to 7 p.m. near University House and the Duck Pond. Freshmen and their families are invited to stop by for food, fun and music. There will be a variety of activities for kids including jumpers and slides. Ice cream will be served on the lawn at University House. Additionally, the UNM Parent Association will have a table with information for parents.
A class crawl begins at the UNM Duck Pond at 5:30 p.m. Students can print out class schedule and tour guides will provide a campus tour to help students locate their classrooms. The event concludes with the movie, ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine,’ at 8 p.m. on lower Johnson Field.
The event demonstrates how the university partners with the families to ensure student success.
For more information and to register visit: Freshman Family Day, an event organized by the Office of the University Secretary.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
The UNM Staff Council recognized Laurie Mellas with the 2009 Jim Davis Outstanding Councilor Award for her commitment to improving the work+life balance for university staff. As founder and chair of Staff Council’s Work+Life Committee, Mellas advocates for the benefits of flexible schedules, alignment of the UNM and Albuquerque Public Schools spring breaks, and other issues that impact the ability of staff to lead full lives at work and at home.
Photo: Laurie Mellas with sons Michael and Ben.
The Jim Davis Award was founded in 1999 to recognize significant contributions to Staff Council. Winners are selected by the Staff Council Rewards and Recognition Committee. Mellas is the first non-councilor to receive the award.
In her acceptance speech, Mellas emphasized the importance of staff contributions to university governance. “True change always comes from the bottom up,” she said.
She founded the UNM Parent Relations Office in 2006, a unit she manages for the Division of Student Affairs. She is also executive director of the new Parent Association. An alumna and former editor of UNM Today, she has been on staff for 15 years.
Mellas serves as UNM’s representative on the APS Calendar Committee and was the driving force behind alignment of the UNM and APS spring breaks, effective in 2010. For years Mellas covered Staff Council for UNM Today, annually profiling council presidents and highlighting issues of critical importance to staff.
In addition to founding the Work+Life Committee in 2003, she formed a Work-Life Advisory Board to include faculty and students and created an award to honor managers who promoted work+life balance within their departments or divisions, since then discontinued.
The Joan Gibson Health Care Ethics Certificate Program (Module II) will be offered this fall, 2009, at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center - Institute for Ethics. The program is an accessible, interdisciplinary applied ethics, seminar series for practitioners in health-care related fields. This innovative approach to learning ethics is substantive as well as “doable” for people with busy schedules.
The program covers topics such as conflicts of interest, research ethics, ethical issues with aging and more.
The program will begin Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009 and will meet every other Tuesday from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (5 sessions), and one Saturday session on Nov. 14, 10 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Tuition is $800; tuition remission is available for UNM faculty and staff.
The program is open to the public. CME credits are available; other professional CEUs are available upon request.
For more information call 272-4566 or email jcabrera@salud.unm.edu
The IT Department is improving network security across campus. Beginning Tuesday, Aug. 18, the UNM wireless network, Lobo WiFi, will require users to login with their NetID and password to access the UNM network or the Internet. iPhone and SmartPhone users will need to open a browser. A one-time software download is required for all users to access Lobo WiFi.
Network Access Control is a centrally managed service to ensure devices connecting to the UNM network have the latest operating system updates, patches and antivirus software. The current deployment requires UNM business and academic community members to authenticate in order to use the UNM network.
Student Life and IT worked together to implement network access control for all wired network and Internet access in student residences in early August, which also requires users to log in using their NetIDs and passwords.
Visit Network Access Control for more information or contact the IT Support Center at, 277-4848.
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
University of New Mexico landscape architecture students Katya Yushmanova, Kristina Guist, Anthony Fettes and Elaine Stevens, as well as fine arts student Felicie Regnier, won first place in the Wayne Grace Memorial Design Competition, a contest accepting submissions pertaining to projects affecting the natural and built environment. The submissions must demonstrate a positive impact on the quality of life of the public.
The students submitted a project they completed in their Art and Ecology class for a new storm water surge pond that AMAFCA, Albuquerque Metropolitan Flood Control Authority, was in the process of developing on city’s Westside.
“In addition to preserving the character of the local topography, the students also sought to enhance the slope complexity from the original design, improve site stability, create microclimatic variation for not only visual interest but also enhanced biological function, and integrated design details that reference the engineered nature of the site,” said Alf Simon, director, landscape architecture program, UNM School of Architecture and Planning.
The competition is sponsored by the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards Foundation, and is open to any student or team of students currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate landscape architectural degree program. A jury of licensed landscape architects from across the U.S. and Canada was selected by the CLARB to evaluate the submissions.
Endowed chair to reside in UNM College of Education
The UNM College of Education will be the next beneficiary of the PNM Endowed Chair. Originally endowed by the PNM Foundation in 1985, the rotating PNM Endowed Chair will be filled by Dr. Viola Florez, former dean of the UNM College of Education and interim provost. The UNM Board of Regents approved the three-year appointment at its August meeting.
Photo: Dr. Viola Florez
Established with a gift of $750,000 to the UNM Foundation and matched by the State of New Mexico, the PNM Endowed Chair has rotated among various colleges and schools at UNM over the last 23 years. It will reside in the College of Education for 10 years.
“Since its inception in 1983, the PNM Foundation has demonstrated its commitment to education in New Mexico,” said Diane Ogawa, executive director, PNM Resources Foundation. “We are pleased that the PNM Chair at the UNM College of Education will fund innovative programs to provide New Mexico’s students with the opportunity for increased academic achievement, personal success, and quality of life through education.”
The PNM Endowed Chair for P-20 (pre-school through graduate school) Educational Renewal will focus efforts on advancing student success and professional development opportunities for teachers. The Chair’s activities will promote collaborations among multiple education disciplines; enhance, improve and coordinate existing outreach programs; research best practices for teaching and learning; and identify and disseminate innovative resources to help students achieve college success.
“In these challenging times, the Chair's efforts in educational reform will provide unique opportunities for the college to take a leadership role in the state of New Mexico,” says College of Education Dean Richard Howell. “We are especially pleased to have Vi Florez serving in the College of Education’s first PNM Foundation endowed chair to provide energy and direction for statewide educational renewal."
Throughout her career, Florez has been dedicated to academic quality and access and equity for all students. At UNM, Florez has focused on diversity, faculty investment, improvement of undergraduate and graduate education, and P-20 education as her benchmark priorities. Her major accomplishments include achieving national rankings for the UNM College of Education in U.S. News and World Report, increasing faculty and student diversity, securing funding for building renewal and new construction, and outreach with educational partners.
The UNM Foundation, an IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, promotes excellence at the University of New Mexico by raising, investing and managing private gifts through the cultivation of long-term partnerships with donors and matching their interests to the University's priorities.
Media Contacts: UNM Foundation, Jill Zack, (505) 277-9075; e-mail: jzack@unmfund.org; UNM, Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
UNM Regents have decided to name the UNM Business Center at the corner of Lomas and University NE for UNM’s 12th president, John Perovich and his wife, June. Over a 40-year period, Perovich served as UNM’s purchasing agent, comptroller, vice president for Business and Finance and president.
Photo: June and John Perovich
Perovich was chosen by Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Woodward to be the steward of their generous gifts to the Sandia Foundation for the benefit of UNM and Dickinson College. At their request, he assisted in the creation of the Sandia Foundation, and has led the foundation as Chairman of the Board. In that role, he and the many effective board members grew the Sandia Foundation to become the largest donor in UNM’s history.
Perovich has recently announced his retirement from the foundation, and the regents have chosen this time to publicly applaud his lifetime of work and service to UNM. The UNM Business Center will now be the John and June Perovich Business Center.
Media Contact: Susan McKinsey, (505) 277-1807; e-mail: mckinsey@unm.edu
The Initiatives to Maximize Student Diversity (IMSD) and Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC), two programs housed in the UNM biology department serving minority students, will host the 2009 Student Research Symposium from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13, at Castetter Hall, rooms 51 and 57.
In addition to IMSD and MARC, Undergraduate Opportunities (UnO) students will be presenting as well. The three programs provide research opportunities to UNM undergraduate students in diverse areas of the biological and chemical sciences, and prepare students for admission to Ph.D. Programs and research careers.
Thirty-one students will present on a wide array of topics. For example, two different aspects of West Nile virus (WNV) research will be discussed. Ivy K. Brown will present her work on tracking WNV genetic diversification during the course of a mosquito infection, while Jacob Greenberg will discuss mosquito feeding patterns in Bernalillo County and their implications for transmission of WNV. Other talks will range from the organization of genes in fungal genomes by Diego Martinez to the role that microRNAs play in neuronal development by Rebecca Pfeiffer.
For more information contact Lupe Atencio at 277-3609 or latencio@unm.edu.
Forbes' second annual "America's Best Colleges" places the University of New Mexico at 239 among the nation's top 600 colleges. Among public colleges, UNM is ranked at 38. The Forbes ranking boasts an unusual approach to scoring colleges - one based less on reputation and more on meeting students' needs.
In the Forbes report, the Center for College Affordability and Productivity ranks 600 undergraduate institutions on quality of education, students' experience and how much they achieve.
Using data from a variety of sources, including RateMyProfessors.com and "Who's Who in America," CCAP breaks down the ranking as follows: 25 percent based on student evaluations of courses and instructors, 25 percent on post-graduate success, 20 percent on estimated average student debt after four years, and the remainder on graduation rates and the number of award-winning students and faculty.
The complete report is available at: America's Best Colleges.
Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, (505) 277-1593; e-mail: michal@unm.edu
German scholar Matthias Voigt is spending part of his summer at the University Libraries Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections. Voigt teaches history to mid and high school students in Russelsheim, near Frankfurt, Germany and is researching American History and Native American activism.
His summer at the center is focusing on warrior traditions and the part they have played in the Native American movements. Voigt says he saw an area that had not been thoroughly explored by scholars and found it was interesting. His research has involved the Doris Duke Collection, the National Indian Youth Council collections, and the Carol Sullivan, Kay Cole, Roger A Fienzel, Robert Anderson and Robert Rubidoux Collections.
Voigt says he has found library staff unusually helpful during his stay, and says he is quickly able to access the research materials, which has made his job move more quickly. He is enthusiastic about the assistance he is getting in using the various audio, video and film files that are part of the collections.
Voigt expects to spend most of August in the center and plans to return to Germany just in time to prepare his classes.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
The central IT department at UNM (formerly known as ITS) is now called Information Technologies (IT). The departmental website at Information Technologies reflects the extensive IT services that are available and accessible to everyone on all campuses.
Ongoing and future projects, current IT alerts and status information, and other technology-related services and benefits, are listed here. As IT continues to evolve and change with the times in providing information technologies to students, faculty and staff at UNM, it will also continue to improve and upgrade services, communication and customer care.
Media Contact: Vanessa Baca, (505) 277-0987; e-mail: vjbaca1@unm.edu
The City of Albuquerque Mayor’s Office of Volunteerism & Engagement recently recognized El Centro de la Raza Director Verónica Méndez-Cruz with the MOVE UP Award for her support of the Mexican Student Association (MexSA) and Latin American students and families at UNM and in Albuquerque.
Méndez-Cruz has been at UNM more than 20 years and director of El Centro more than 15 years. Her role is to promote, celebrate and address challenges to access and success in higher education for Latin American students. She has a bachelor’s degree in social work from New Mexico State University and a master’s in education counseling from UNM.
Founded it 1969, El Centro de la Raza provides cultural, educational, mentoring and social programs to the campus community. The organization celebrates its 40th anniversary in October. Contact El Centro at (505) 277-5020 or elcentro@unm.edu.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has selected a research team at the University of New Mexico Cancer Center to lead the 10th National Center for Systems Biology in the U.S. with a five-year, $14.5 million grant. Systems biology is an emerging field that integrates quantitative measurements, new technologies and computational modeling to answer questions about fundamental biological processes that take place in cells, tissues and organisms.
“This grant will bring together people from many different disciplines and backgrounds, including biologists, engineers, mathematicians and physicists at UNM, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories,” said Janet Oliver, Ph.D. and principal investigator of the new Center, called the New Mexico Spatiotemporal Modeling Center (STMC). “Together, we expect to develop the new tools needed to understand the dynamic biochemical and spatial events that control the behavior of immune and cancer cells.”
Center co-leaders include Drs. Bridget Wilson and Jeremy Edwards from the UNM Cancer Center, Dr. Stanly Steinberg from the UNM Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Dr. William Hlavacek from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Dr. Anup Singh from Sandia National Laboratories.
For more than 20 years, Oliver’s team of cell biologists has been studying the locations, interactions and biochemical modifications of the molecules that transmit signals across cell membranes, resulting in better understanding about cell function and new approaches to discover and develop disease-fighting drugs.
With advances in cell-imaging technology, Oliver’s research was producing more complex information than biologists alone could analyze. Her team turned to statisticians, mathematicians, engineers and physical scientists and found not only improved understanding from current work but also entirely new approaches for future work.
“We welcome this tenth member of our National Centers for Systems Biology program,” said James Anderson, Ph.D., who oversees systems biology awards at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. “The new center will apply large-scale, multi-disciplinary approaches to understanding how the innate and adaptive immune systems interact, which bears upon debilitating conditions like inflammation, allergies, asthma and cancer. The center is also uniquely positioned to advance women and minorities within the emerging discipline of systems biology.”
Oliver’s combined team will include more than 50 biologists, biophysicists, physicists, mathematicians, engineers and material scientists, and will grow to include more faculty, postdoctoral researchers and students.
The program has four primary goals:
1.) To determine how cells interact and “talk” to each other, in real-time and space, to better understand what events at the cellular level trigger cancer and other diseases;
2.) To train a new generation of interdisciplinary researchers focused on quantitative, systems level analyses of complex biomedical processes;
3.) To build and sustain an infrastructure to support systems biology research and training as a long-term area of scientific excellence in New Mexico;
4.) To lead the advancement of women and minorities within the new discipline of systems biology.
“We are thrilled that the NIH chose Dr. Oliver to lead New Mexico’s National Center for Systems Biology,” said Dr. Cheryl Willman, director and CEO of the UNM Cancer Center. "This is the first and only site to be directed by a woman, and the only such center in this region of the country.
"It recognizes the biomedical research excellence of our Cancer Center scientists and it hugely expands their ability to collaborate with the superb physical and computational scientists at UNM and in the national labs. We are looking forward to seeing the scientific advances made by Dr. Oliver and her team.”
The primary mission of the National Centers for Systems Biology, which are supported by the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), a branch of the NIH, is to promote institutional development of multidisciplinary research, training and outreach programs that focus on systems-level studies of biomedical phenomena within the NIGMS mission.
The 10 National Centers are expected to establish themselves as leaders of research and education in systems biology. The other nine centers in the nation are housed at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California at Irvine, Jackson Laboratory, Princeton University, the Seattle Institute for Systems Biology, University of Chicago, Duke University and Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Media Contacts: James Korenchen, (505) 797-6671; e-mail: james@jameskorenchen.com or Stephanie Cartier, (505) 272-2265; e-mail: scartier@salud.unm.edu
In order to balance its current FY 2010 budget, which required that UNM cover a state general fund decrease while supporting a number of the academic and student success initiatives contained in that budget, the university is using both “pause and hold” vacancy savings and fund balances. UNM Regents approved this strategy last spring. At its Aug. 6 meeting, the Regents Finance and Facilities Committee heard a presentation outlining how this is being accomplished.
Along with other state reductions, UNM’s base budget for institutional support was reduced by more than $3 million for FY 2010 by the New Mexico Legislature. Non-academic units absorbed 75 percent of that reduction. The remaining 25 percent came from academic units.
The budget UNM Regents approved last May counted on $2.5 million on the revenue side to come from savings realized by continuing the “pause and hold” strategy. These funds are coming from non-faculty vacancy savings.
In addition, another $2 million on the revenue side comes from using a portion of the balances accumulated by units as of June 30, 2009. The Provost’s Office and Student Affairs agreed to contribute $750,000 of that amount. The remainder is coming from balances in the President’s area, in Administration and in Advancement.
With this budget, the University remained committed to funding initiatives that strengthened its core mission despite the difficult budget picture. So the use of vacancy savings and fund balances in large part will go into funding new faculty positions and faculty promotions, increasing graduate and teaching assistant positions, scholarships, advising, and enrollment growth.
Representatives from UNM’s Office of Planning, Budget and Analysis have been meeting with a number of campus constituencies to talk about current budget realities and future budget implications. They have offered to meet with any campus group that wants to learn more about how university financing works. Contact the office to schedule a briefing.
Some users experiencing intermittent delays
The ITS Department upgraded the UNM Webmail and CommuniGate e-mail systems Saturday, Aug. 1. As a result, some Blackberry users, who are not on the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES), are experiencing intermittent delays in receiving e-mails, and are asked to update their device programming to avoid future e-mail delays.
T-Mobile and AT&T users can turn off their devices for 60 seconds and upon restarting, the device should find the appropriate network. Verizon and Alltel users can dial *228, hit Send, and select the option for Update. Upon restarting, these devices should also find the appropriate network.
The Blackberry Enterprise Server allows Groupwise users whose e-mail addresses end in @unm.edu or @salud.unm.edu to have real-time synchronization between their e-mail, calendar and contacts in Groupwise and on their Blackberry. Blackberry BES users who use their UNM Webmail accounts should also confirm that the account on their device is pointed to mail.unm.edu.
For more information on how to connect to the BES, or for additional concerns or continuing problems receiving e-mail on your Blackberry, please contact CNS Customer Care at 277-1111.
Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Lawrence Guy Straus spent part of his summer in Western Europe with Jean Auel, author of the Earth’s Children series of books about the interactions between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. Her first book, ‘The Clan of the Cave Bear,” began a publishing phenomenon that has sold more than 34-million books.
Photo: Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Lawrence Guy Straus
She was collecting information for her 7th book. Together, they toured several sites of Neanderthal activity and met with many of Straus’ Spanish colleagues to discuss the latest research in the field.
In this audio interview Straus discusses their trip, and talks with Karen Wentworth university senior communications representative about his own research and latest findings, which are detailed in the current issue of the journal, “Antiquity.”
As part of his activities at UNM, Straus edits the internationally known “Journal of Anthropological Research.”
Straus interview:
UNMlive
Anyone interested in contributing to UNM research to help pay for student participation and travel may donate to the Fund for Stone Age Research at the UNM Foundation. The contribution code is No. 01700 UNM Fund.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
The Robert Wood Johnson Center for Health Policy at the University of New Mexico, selected eight fellows for the 2009-2010 academic year. The program is committed to selecting scholars from across the country from the social science fields including, political science, economics, sociology, anthropology, psychology journalism, and from the clinical sciences in nursing.
This year’s fellows include:
Marita Luz Campos-Melady
Campos-Melady, a native of Santa Fe, is a doctoral student in psychology. She received her BA from Williams College, Massachusetts, and MS from UNM. She is interested in researching how individuals and communities can interact to overcome substance abuse disorders; and she is currently pursuing research concerning alcoholism and homeless women in NM.
Demetrius Chapman
Chapman, a public health clinical nurse specialist, studied at The Jewish Hospital College and Saint Louis University. His professional interests include outcome measures of public health nursing practice; barriers to health care access; health behavior and behavior change; HIV/AIDS; sexually transmitted infections; lead poisoning; communicable diseases; adolescent parenting; health disparities, especially those of Native Americans; and universal health care access.
Loren Kelly
Kelly is a doctoral student in the Nursing program. She grew up in New York and received her B.A. in political science from the State University of New York at Potsdam. As an undergraduate, Kelly was selected to study in an interdisciplinary program which integrated the perspectives of anthropology, political science, history, sociology, humanities and biology. In 1996, she earned an A.D.N. from Castleton State College in Vermont. Her research interests include community health advocacy and understanding how to design and implement health care delivery and public policies that support prevention and have a positive impact on health, especially in Native American, underserved, and rural communities.
Julie Lucero
Lucero, from Española, NM, is a health communication doctoral student from the Department of Communication and Journalism at UNM. Her health disparities research experience is grounded in 10 years of progressive public health research activities and program evaluations at tribal, state and national levels in community, not-for-profit and university settings.
Michael Muhammad
Muhammad is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology. A native of Phoenix, he holds a BS in economics from Florida A & M University and a MA in sociology from Cleveland State University. His research interests include health inequalities for indigenous populations, poverty and racial discrimination.
Rongal Darnell Nikora
Nikora, a native Virginian, is a doctoral student in the Department of Political Science. After earning his BA in Religious Studies from the College of William and Mary in 1995, Nikora spent much of the next decade in working in Japan, returning to the U.S. to earn his MA in Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame in 2001. His research interests include health inequalities in the United States, universal health care systems and public health policy.
Lucia E. Naranjo
Naranjo, from Aztec, NM, completed her masters in Nursing Administration at UNM in 1996. She worked as director of Nursing Services for the State of New Mexico and is interested in health care access for the underserved, uninsured and underinsured population. She has been an RN for 21 years and has worked another 10 years in related health care areas.
Shannon Sanchez-Terry
Sanchez-Terry, a doctoral student in Political Science, is a native Albuquerquean who earned her BS from UNM before spending nine years working in women’s community health. Shannon’s research interests lie in the social determinants of health, particularly how racism impacts Latina women’s health.
The RWJF Center for Health Policy Graduate Fellows were nominated by their UNM academic departments for their scholarly potential and interest in health services research. In addition, they share a commitment to the primary mission of the RWJF Center--increasing the number of leaders from Latino, American Indian and other underrepresented communities to help shape future health care policies and practices in our nation.
In addition to the financial support provided by the Center, the Graduate Fellows are mentored by a network of scholars and policy analysts from across the US, who are dedicated to ensuring that the fellows gain experience and expertise to develop and implement innovative solutions to challenging social issues affecting the nation’s health.
Information on qualifications, deadlines and full details about each of the Center’s fellowships is available by visiting: Health Policy.
Media Contacts: RWJF, Victor E. Cornejo (505) 276-9342; e-mail: victor@cornejocommunications.com or UNM, Carolyn Gonzales (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Joni Young, KPMG Professor of Accounting at UNM’s Anderson School of Management, was one of only eight international accounting faculty members invited to participate in the Emerging Scholars Colloquium (ESC) in Innsbruck, Austria earlier this month.
Photo: Joni Young, KPMG Professor of Accounting
The colloquium is designed to provide doctoral students from all over the world, including North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia, with the opportunity to present their proposed work and obtain feedback from well-known scholars.
Young and the other esteemed faculty members spent two days meeting with accounting Ph.D. students and providing constructive comments on their research ideas. The colloquium was held in conjunction with the Interdisciplinary Perspective on Accounting Conference (IPA).
Started in 1985, the IPA Conference is an established forum for research into the social, political and organizational aspects of accounting theory and practice. Young was recently named UNM’s new KPMG Professor. She is one of only 38 professors in the United States to hold this prestigious title.
Wrap up Staff Appreciation Week with a lunchtime concert Friday, Aug. 7 featuring Soundclub Superstar. Lunch will be available with Chartwells grilling hamburgers ($2) and hot dogs ($1). Chips, ice cream sandwiches and lemonade will also be available for $1 each. The finale of the 2009 Greg Johnston Summer Concert series gets underway at noon near the Betty Sabo Modern Art Sculpture located southeast of the SUB and south of the Student Health Center.
Photo: Soundclub Superstar
Soundclub Superstar is a group of all-star musicians and artists from the Land of Enchantment. Albuquerque native Justin Hood, a recent UNM graduate, launched the project in March when he connected with producer and electro-DJ Dizzy at the South by Southwest interactive music festival in Austin, Texas. Since then, the hometown boys have been hard at work, providing a unique sound-clash of music in genres ranging from electronic to hip hop to show tunes to live, instrumental ensembles.
The duo has performed across the Southwest, from skate and snowboard events to graduation parties to film screenings. Hood and Dizzy are on occasion known to perform with a live, four-piece band to enhance the mash-up of music and creativity. Stay tuned, Soundclub Superstar has a special mix in mind to celebrate UNM staff.
The concerts were renamed the Greg Johnston Summer Concerts, in honor and recognition for Johnston’s work as founder of the concerts on behalf of the Staff Council Work+Life committee. The concerts are intended to provide a noon hour respite for UNM employees and students.
Johnston, who worked in the University Communication and Marketing Department as a Sr. Communications Specialist, died in February 2007 after a brief battle with cancer. The concerts are sponsored and supported by the UNM Staff Council and its Work+Life Committee and the Division of Student Affairs.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu