Some UNM students had the opportunity to visit colleges across the southwest this summer to bring back ideas for improving student life at UNM.
The visits were arranged by Walt Miller, associate vice president for Student Life, and included delegates from ASUNM and GPSA who observed recreation facilities, housing facilities, student health centers and food service/dining options.
ASUNM president Jaymie Roybal said the trips were worthwhile because UNM has a unique campus.
“We’re different from a lot of schools,” she said. “We’re a big commuter campus, we have lots of non-traditional students and we have a lot of alumni that are still involved in the University. I think the socioeconomics of a UNM student are different from a student at UNLV.”
Brittany Jaeger went on the trips as a representative for Miller.
She said the findings will be shown to organizations such as the Student Health Center and the Honors Program.
“We asked every school the same exact questions,” she said. “If the regents wanted to see it, we’d take it to the regents. We’d take it to student housing, to student affairs, the health center, the rec center … They’re all interested to see what students found.”
Jaeger said the trips were no longer than a day, with the exception of a trip to Texas Tech.
“We’d get to the Sunport at about 4:30 a.m. and return to Albuquerque at around 11:30 at night,” she said.
Miller refused to give exact costs for the trips, but said the short duration of each trip was meant to be economical.
“Most of what we had to learn could be packed into a tight schedule,” he said. “These were fact-finding trips, they weren’t visits.”
Miller said the trips weren’t funded using student fees.
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Both Roybal and Jaeger said they were impressed with the facilities schools had for honors students.
“I really liked the honors dorms concept,” Jaeger said. “It really created a community for a specific group of people.”
A task force formed last year concluded that UNM should take steps to establish an honors college. The program is currently housed in the basement of Student Health and Counseling.
Roybal, who took part in two of the trips, said she would like to see a more closely consolidated honors program, such as the one at Arizona State University, which she said is ideal for student success.
“The Barrett Honors College (at Arizona State) is its own facility,” she said. “It has a dining hall, their residence halls, faculty offices, classrooms, everything a student who is very, very focused on academics would need. I think our students deserve that. “
GPSA president Katie Richardson said she visited ASU and UNLV in the same day.
“I think that an honors dorm might serve to attract excellent students to UNM,” Richardson said. “My concern with both the honors dorm and the (proposed) honors college, is whether they will be able to serve first-generation college students and underrepresented groups.”
She said the ultimate question is where the funds will come from.
”We have to ask the question of whether students want to pay for such facilities,” Richardson said.
Roybal said she has already approached Provost Chaouki Abdallah with ideas on improving the honors facilities, but processes such as these don’t happen right away.
“Unfortunately, these aren’t ideas that can happen overnight,” she said. “But we’re absolutely having discussions on how to bring this to UNM.”
