Language Learning Center Requests
Requested 2012: $0.00
Received 2012: $0.00
Requested 2013: $196,817.50
Hazardous electrical work, dangerous projection equipment and outdated furniture are among the problems Pam Castaldi, director of the Language Learning Center, said could be fixed with student fee money.
Castaldi said tombstone electrical outlets, raised, steel outlets implanted in the floor, present a tripping hazard for students who come to study and do lab work at the center. The center has six computer pods that teachers can rent out for classes and that students can use to do individual or small group work.
The projection equipment in the pods has a manual pull-down screen that Castaldi said once fell on her when she was trying to operate it. She said a flat-screen television on a rolling stand could eliminate the need to use the dangerous projection equipment so often.
The center recently added a lounge area with a flat screen TV and an Xbox, which students can use to immerse themselves in different languages. Yet Castaldi said the lounge is too small to fit entire classes in it.
The Language Learning Center is requesting $196,817.50 in student fees, $8.42 per student, to update the center’s furniture and equipment. Castaldi said that, to her knowledge, this is the first time the center has requested student fees in the more than 40 years that the center has existed.
Course fees from language classes, $10 per student, fund much of the center’s operating budget, and I&G money funds its administrative salaries. Castaldi said only some of the language classes, mainly the lower division ones, pay course fees, but student in any of the language classes UNM offers are welcome to use the center.
All but one of the pods has stationary tables and chairs. Castaldi said she’d like to update the furniture on two more of the pods because movable furniture is more conducive to group work.
She said she would also like to turn the central hub, around which all of the pods are located, into a lounge area for students to come practice language.
“The center does not have to be a quiet place,” she said. “Language is something that needs to be practiced. We just want to make this a comfortable place. Right now it really isn’t.”
African American Student Services Requests
Requested 2012: $72,800.00
Received 2012: $72,800.00
Requested for 2013: $72,696.25
Despite the fact that African American Student Services lost more than $130,000 in state- and University-supported funding over the last six years, the organization is requesting less money from the Student Fee Review Board for fiscal year 2013 than it received in 2012.
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Scott Carreathers, director of AASS, said the organization has learned to be frugal over the years. He said the organization plans to hire two new students this year without an increase in funding requests.
“We’ve been good stewards of the money you gave us,” he said.
During the presentation, Carreathers said the organization provides counseling and advisement services for students, hosts educational and cultural events, and awards scholarships to students in an effort to create an inclusive environment for students of all ethnicities.
D’Andre Q. Curtis, president of the Black Student Union, said AASS is vital to the support of diversity on campus.
“We preach diversity, but if African American Student Services loses funding, we will lose part of that diversity.”
