Report: Quality of Life Subcommittee
Members: David Stuart, Judy Wright, Felipe Gonzales, Demetra Logothetis, Marge Devon

Background
Raising the Quality of Life in New Mexico should be an explicit part of UNM’s formal mission. While the University of New Mexico is already involved in hundreds of community projects, the Quality of Life Committee recommends that the University of New Mexico become more proactive and create working partnerships, with appropriate entities in the state of New Mexico, in these 5 broad domains:

Health Issues and Health Delivery
The University of New Mexico is currently the state’s primary source of medical professionals (doctors, nurses, pharmacists, basic medical sciences, dental hygienists, EMTs, etc.) and medical research tailored to our regional population’s needs (diabetes, hantavirus, etc). UNM also needs to expand its role as an essential community health resource for New Mexico residents well-being and quality of Life. A multi-disciplinary team of health professionals and faculty from other UNM departments needs to be identified and recognized as leaders/educators/consultants  in the areas of healthy lifestyle promotion and disease prevention. Through a collaborative, highly interactive process involving diverse community representation, a vision of a healthier New Mexico can emerge.

This community partnership should strive to sustain our unique culture and promote strong families as part of our vision. We need to assure that the very best affordable and integrated health services remain available and easily accessible for all New Mexicans. Our healthy vision encompasses safe activities and a safe environment that enhances the minds, bodies and spirits of all who live in NM. A healthier population is more productive, more attractive to business/industry and less costly to support.
A community health assessment needs to be conducted to identify the issues affecting the health of individuals and to implement improvement activities.

Key areas that need to be addressed should include:


Health is more than simple absence of disease. Quality of life, infrastructure, economics, education and spiritual dimensions need to be included in a broadened definition of health. An organizational structure needs to be designed to engage the community around the common issue of health. We need to consult/include people from business, industry, government, healthcare, the faith communities, and law-enforcement, as well as education and civic organizations, who will meet regularly and serve as “UNM Health Partnership” advisors.

Recommendations:

1. Conduct a New Mexico/Community health assessment by 2002
2. Identify and prioritize Key Health needs from above
3. Develop long-range plan for UNM to help meet those needs through infrastructure, teaching, research, and practice
4. Create the UNM Health Partnership to implement above plan
5. Heavily involve UNM students in partnership projects and outcomes.
Sample Project
The Division of Dental Hygiene has developed a “Healthy Smile Program”, funded by a Medicaid grant, for APS 1st and 2nd graders in the Rio Grande school cluster. Dental Hygiene students conduct dental screening to identify urgent dental needs. Participating students receive credits.

Public Education (including K-12 and Cultural/Museum Programs)
This domain overlaps other strategic subcommittees (Education/Curriculum), thus our brevity here. UNM’s museums and cultural programs currently do as much to engage school children and the general public as any other domain at UNM, including teacher training and the Health Sciences. As in the health domain, UNM needs to be the state’s leader in educating the next generation of dedicated, high-quality public school teachers.

Recommendations:
1. Create formal consortium of UNM museums, Press, radio and TV to focus on public education
2. Expand teacher training and innovation to enhance quantity/quality of public school instruction.

Business and Economic Development
The University of New Mexico is one of the few billion-dollar enterprises in the state of New Mexico. As such, it has a huge effect on the economy, both by virtue of its daily activities, it’s Anderson Schools of Management, and programs in economics and public administration. These are enormous assets in a state where the economy is small and relatively undiversified by national standards. UNM has the skills, the research capabilities, and experience to have an even greater positive impact on New Mexico’s economy.

Key Areas that need to be addressed should include:

A university can do more than teach business administration and economic development. It can actually be a driving force in leading New Mexico to a healthier economic future. A healthier economy raises the quality of life nearly across the board.

Recommendations:

1. Study Utah as a possible model of university-driven economic development.
2. Form a “UNM Business and Administration Alliance” from among campus constituencies and appropriate partners in both the public and private sectors to assess our economy and propose avenues to diversify (such partnerships would include Anderson Schools, Department of Economics, Sociology, Architecture and Community Planning, the Division of Public Administration and the Bureau of Business and Economic Research).
3. Better support successful existing programs (e.g. Anderson’s Small Business Institute has the largest caseload of direct support to small businesses of any university in America).
4. Involve more students in hands-on community-oriented economic development projects (internships, practicums, coursework, special summer programs).
Sample Project:
Conduct a summer project analyzing the economy of a small town in New Mexico (example, Mora), bringing faculty, students, local government, and business owners together to forge a rough economic plan designed to enhance that town’s economy both in size and diversification. Assist in writing federal grants and/or preparing white papers for both the state and federal legislators who might sponsor legislation supporting “special economic zones”, etc.

Art and Culture
Art, considered in all its forms, is already an important part of UNM’s mission and activities. Art and culture are also fundamental themes that identify “the Southwest”. Through art, core cultural traditions have been kept alive in both Hispanic and Native American communities.
Art has a direct relevance to individuals in our society, as creators and audiences. Original thought and imagination, at the heart of the artistic process, are key to individualization and the progress of society. Art serves a fundamental cultural function, both as a mirror of society, and in giving a voice to many who may not be able to fully express themselves in other ways. The arts thus enhance the quality of our lives, nourish the spirit, and are an essential ingredient of all flourishing social groups, from small traditional communities to grand civilizations.

Key areas that need to be addressed should include:

While their primary raison-d’etre remains dedicated to the educational and research missions of the University, the College of Fine Arts (including Departments of Music, Theatre and Dance, Art and Art History, Media Arts, Tamarind Institute, Bainbridge Bunting Memorial Slide Library, Arts Technology Center, and the Arts of the Americas Institute) in addition to the University Art Museum provide a natural vehicle for outreach by virtue of their audience-based activities. With the exception of Art and Art History, these units have forged highly successful partnerships with local organizations and, in so doing, offer the community opportunities to experience music, theatre, film, dance, and visual art. Thousands of visitors, many of them school children, visit the campus for theatre, dance, and music performances, or to visit campus museums. In addition to bringing the community to the University, the University has also gone out into the community

Recommendations:

1. Continue to support Arts in the Schools Program.
2. Seek better coordination among UNM art Museum, Maxwell Museum, and Centers focusing on culture (The Ortiz Center, Center for Southwest Research, UNM Press, KUNM radio, KNME television, Harwood Foundation (Taos), and the Tamarind Institute).
3. Promote curriculum/projects which strengthen traditional cultures in New Mexico.
4. Form a formal consortium of university museums and another for cultural research programs (probably some overlap, e.g. The Maxwell Museum).
Sample Projects:
A number of important sample projects already exist at UNM, including Arts in the Americas (College of Fine Arts), Art in the Schools (University Art Museums—already reaches over 30,000 school children annually!), and the new Ortiz Center, community-based research and interpretation of Southwestern Cultures (The Department of Anthropology).

Emergent Social Problems
Many social problems stem from poverty. The Environmental Scan takes note of the fact that “New Mexico has a deep and persistent problem of poverty, ranking 48th among the states in per capita income and with the highest rate of poverty among the states.” Historical poverty does more than keep families economically unbalanced. It also gives rise to a host of other problems that directly diminish New Mexico’s quality of life.

For example, expanding drug addiction presently infects rural northern New Mexico. Picturesque Hispanic villages are dealing with a veritable heroin epidemic. Native American reservations are sometimes set upon by the predatory activities of outside illegal syndicates. Alcoholism and its attendant problems, such as drunk driving, run rampant among the poor, its tragic consequences all too frequently evident in the news media. In urban, as well as many rural areas, gangs continue to plague neighborhoods with gratuitous violence and hopelessly misdirected youth.

Other social problems are associated with what were the previously unforeseen consequences of development and modernization. These problems involve environmental degradation, scarce water for a rapidly growing population, air pollution from energy plants and automobiles, urban sprawl, and pricey housing markets driven by immigration and mismatched to the average incomes of the native citizenry.

Recent demographic changes are also creating new social issues. For example, the appearance of colonias (unincorporated residential districts without basic utility, road and housing standards) among recent Latino immigrant populations is introducing classic “third world” communities into New Mexico’s already fragile economy and infrastructure. Finally, the issue of low educational achievement among Hispanics, Native Americans, African Americans, and poor whites in New Mexico loom large.

Key areas that need to be addressed should include:
Poverty/Demography    Drug and Alcohol Abuse
Crime/Gangs     Environmental Degradation/Water
Educational Achievement

As an institution, UNM can, and should, focus part of its research and curriculum on New Mexico’s more profound social problems. Moreover, it behooves UNM to develop an “institutional identity” based, in part, on its commitment to the general welfare of its surrounding constituency.

Recommendations:

1. Conduct a formal inventory of UNM’s current Social Problems research and projects.
2. Better administratively support such research and projects (UNM’s Office of Research Services and the Development Office can play an important role).
3. Organize campus mini-conferences which call attention to present efforts, including the Institute for Public Policy, the Institute for Social Research, the Southwest Hispanic Research Institute, Native American Studies, academic departments, colleges, and schools.
4. Develop an interdisciplinary consortium (and curriculum) to focus on social problems which could provide academic consultation to the state legislature, businesses, social service agencies, and community/neighborhood organizations.


Sample Project:
Initiate a multidisciplinary study of heroin abuse and related crime/violence in a selected area of Northern New Mexico. Attempt to identify root causes and to construct solutions.

Implementation
It is essential that the University of New Mexico continue to take a proactive role in the next decade in fundamental quality of life issues in the State of New Mexico. The Quality of Life Subcommittee recommends that the University engage social, educational, cultural, health, and economic issues within our State and our surrounding communities. As a practical matter, it is essential that we broaden existing academic models for practicums and internships and create new administrative/organizational mechanisms and processes so that we can more easily engage our students and appropriate faculty in Quality of Life projects.

Recommendations:

1. We propose that UNM focus more public relations/advertising efforts to get the word out about our substantial current involvement in fundamental quality of life issues in New Mexico. Institutionally, we do a great deal, but tend not to “spread the word” effectively.
2. A greater focus on student involvement in Community-Based Projects. One of the University’s greatest assets is its student population and that population’s interest and engagement in community needs. UNM students already volunteer in a wide variety of projects from literacy to student teaching to volunteering in health organizations to agencies that provide food and services to the poverty-stricken and homeless. But UNM has no organized, institution-wide way to create such projects, to make them a fundamental part of the University’s teaching and research mission, and to reward students, either financially or academically, for participation. Further, it has no way to review those projects which are undertaken.
3. To advance the above (#2), we propose that the number of credit hours which apply to the undergraduate degree in any combination of approved, organized, academically valuable community projects, Independent Studies/Problems, or field research be increased to 12 rather than the current limit of 6 credit hours. Three earned credit hours in a community-based project would require 120 hours of direct participation in that project; that is triple the number of classroom contact hours ordinarily expected for a 3 credit hour course in the classroom. Other projects might award 2 credit hours for 90 project hours, and 1 credit hour for 40 project hours.
4. In order to further support community-based projects, we recommend that the Director of Student Financial Aid reserve 30-40 well-paid (non-need based) work-study positions annually to be awarded to those students chosen by the faculty to actively assist in the coordination of approved community-oriented Quality of Life projects.
5. UNM needs to formally create a consortium on Urban and Community Affairs. That consortium should consist of key people from main campus, branches, and partners in government, social services, and industry here in New Mexico each year projects could be selected and reviewed so that UNM’s contributions to the State of New Mexico and its citizens is tangible, palpable, valuable, and thematically focused
6. Faculty who conceive of, conduct research which leads to community-based projects, and/or organize/supervise those projects should be rewarded in 3 fundamental ways:
A. Release time from teaching for those projects which the Quality of Life consortium selects as focused target projects for the institution (by competition annually or biannually).
B. The Faculty Handbook should be clarified to make it explicit that research/service  directly contributing to such projects is fundamentally important and to be considered positively in tenure and promotion reviews.
C. Access to senior work-study support and/or special graduate assistantships.


Summary
The tax base, number of competing academic institutions, and relatively undiversified economy all contrive to make education, delivery of health services, the solution of social problems, and the enhancement of our state’s economy tougher than in most other parts of America.

If the University of New Mexico is to prosper in such a climate, the citizens of this state need to be far more aware of the kinds of expertise, teaching, practical training and service projects that we already engage in to enhance the quality of life in New Mexico. UNM is probably contributing hundreds of thousands of service hours and basic research to this enterprise yearly, but visibility for some of our endeavors is low.

Beyond what we already do, the University needs to engage the community in more visible, organized, and focused ways than it has in the past. One estimate is that, if 10% of UNM’s student body engaged in a community service project annually with 120 project hours, that would equal 300,000 hours of labor “donated” to meaningful quality of life issues and goals here in New Mexico. If 1/3 of our students and 1/5 of our faculty were involved, they would contribute more than a million hours per year of research and service valued at more than 20 million dollars of direct support to the citizens of New Mexico.

Executive Summary

Domains:
UNM should focus an appropriate portion of its teaching, research, and service on Quality of Life Issues that could benefit New Mexico in these 5 broad domains: Key issues, specific recommendations, and a sample “project” are found in the attached report for each of the domains.

General Recommendations:
The Committee recommends that UNM use existing resources in a more focused way to generate Quality of Life initiatives that proceed naturally from UNM’s current research and teaching strengths. UNM is already heavily involved in such initiatives, but we have not made that clear enough to the New Mexico community, and many faculty sponsoring such initiatives struggle with inadequate support. Hence, the following broad recommendations.