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 2002Sample Project
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.
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:
Recommendations:
1. Study Utah as a possible model of university-driven economic development.Sample Project:
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).
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:
Recommendations:
1. Continue to support Arts in the Schools Program.Sample Projects:
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).
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
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.