Personal achievement varies from person to person. If you’re at UNM for four years, you’ll wind up doing a lot of things to entertain yourself, and some will be more meaningful than others. Here are a few things every Lobo should do before graduation. Call it a UNM bucket list:
Going to college can be rough. It’s time-consuming, brain-wracking and just all-around stressful. But the degree at the end of your time there is totally worth it. For those working toward that degree at UNM, here are some resources to help get to that light at the end of the tunnel.
Attending UNM can often mean hard work, late-night studying and other sacrifices. All of that hard work, however, is balanced by the many perks of being a Lobo. Here are 10 of them, most of which are located within walking distance of UNM’s main campus:
UNM has plenty of athletes to watch this upcoming year. There are several players on every team to keep an eye out for, but there wasn’t room for everybody on this list. The list of the top five athletes to watch isn’t meant to honor these athletes, but to highlight some of the better players that UNM puts on the field.
Some classes you have to take to satisfy your major’s requirements, but that doesn’t mean they have to be boring. With UNM’s robust course catalog, students are given a wide array of subjects to take. They may sound like “BS” classes on the surface, but they actually offer interesting subject matter. Here are five examples:
The New Mexico baseball team officially announced the hire of Buddy Gouldsmith, who will join the staff as third base coach. The move comes a month after former UNM pitching coach Dan Spencer left the team to take the same position at Washington State. Assistant coach Ken Jacome will take over as pitching coach for the departed Spencer. Jacome was the pitching coach for UNM from 2005-08.
Just because everybody in the media world is jumping off the cliff like lemmings to join the digital world doesn’t mean the Daily Lobo has to as well. Clearly, this is an economic decision and I wish the editorial staff of the Daily Lobo had the huevos to simply come out and say it: Printing on paper with ink costs a hell of a lot of money. On the other hand, because just about everybody and their dog is going digital, the printed word has an impact like never before.
New Mexico fans turn out for their Lobos. For the 16th consecutive year, New Mexico fans have topped the Mountain West for attendance in both men and women’s basketball. It is the 49th straight year that UNM’s fan base scaled the top-25 plateau for attendance at men’s basketball games. “I’m not surprised at all,” New Mexico Vice President for Athletics Paul Krebs said. “I truly believe we have the best fans in the country.”
There is no shortage of research on the positive effects of relaxation. Now one business lets customers find their happy place via floating. Enlighten Others specializes in holistic healing. Located a half mile southeast of the University, on Bryn Mawr Drive, the local business features hot yoga, massage therapy — and float tanks. Business owner Kenneth Pintor said he liked the idea of offering float tanks for relaxation because they create a distraction-free environment that facilitates a state of restfulness.
New Mexico is known as the Land of Enchantment for its culture and artwork. Recently, Young Women United has joined together with various female artists to create a historically focused mural. Isabel Fernandez de Williams, mural organizer and contributing artist, has created multiple murals before in Las Cruces. This time the focus will be on women in New Mexican history. “In Albuquerque, all sorts of murals are up, but they are missing the female part — no murals representing female culture,” she said.
Country boys and girls, grab your finest cowboy hat and a box of tissues and get ready to dive into the show. This is going to be a deep one. On Tuesday, the country band known as the Honeycutters will perform at Low Spirits Bar & Stage to show off music from their April release, “Me Oh My.” To give a preview of the material for their upcoming performance, this critic had the chance to listen to “Me Oh My” in its entirety.
Summertime is when many students choose to take a well-deserved break from courses and relax. For those who have not been able to see all New Mexico has to offer, though, the 2015 Summer Getaway Adventures is an opportunity for students to discover the Land of Enchantment. Jim Todd, recreational services director at UNM’s Johnson Center, said the Getaway Adventures program is a great way for students to engage in outdoor activities. The schedule varies from year to year, but this year’s excursion includes rock climbing, fiestas, cultural feasts and art festivals, he said. Laura Montoya, coordinator for Getaway Adventures, said that in the 26 years she has worked at Johnson Center, the program has grown to the point that it is always busy.
Cody Shane Pierce, a junior criminology major, lived and died like a leader. Pierce, 19, drowned in the Animas River near Durango, Colorado, on June 25, said Laura Jean Pierce, Cody’s mother. “One evening after dinner, a few of them were walking back to their cabins and decided they wanted to jump in the river to cool off. In Cody’s protective manner, he said he would go first, and unfortunately was overtaken by the undercurrent of the water,” she said.
The UNM/APS English as a Secondary Language summer program had a record 70 students attend its six-week program this year. Holbrook Mahn, associate professor in Literacy, Language, and Sociocultural Studies at UNM, said the 17-year-old institute condenses three of the five ESL courses into a six-week program for current and future teachers who want to receive English as a Secondary Language endorsement. “It’s a high-stress six weeks because you’re cramming in nine hours of student credit,” Mahn said. “We try to maintain the rigor of it because we know that we’re preparing teachers to go into the classroom. We want to make sure they get the best education to help English language learners.”
Sports Briefs AD contract extension Paul Krebs has a new four-year contract to remain as athletic director for New Mexico, the Albuquerque Journal reported Thursday.
In its most significant shift since going to a daily publication in the 1970s, the New Mexico Daily Lobo will transition to a digital-first approach beginning this fall semester. The Daily Lobo, UNM’s student-run news organization, will focus primarily on its website and social media accounts to report news on campus and the surrounding area, relying less on its printed product. Rather than a daily newspaper, the Lobo will publish a newspaper twice a week: Mondays and Thursdays.
Although UNM regents voted not to divest from fossil fuel companies during its June 12 meeting, pressure from pro-environment organizations and individuals continues. Several of those parties don’t think the Board’s vote serves the best interests of those whom the University serves: its students. This has left some, including Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino (D-Abq.), wondering whether University officials have the right priorities in mind. “I am afraid we did not light the fire that we had hoped,” Ortiz y Pino said. “They didn’t even discuss the issue behind the suggestion to divest: the reality of climate change.”
With ears still ringing from Independence Day fireworks, musicians everywhere are ready to jump from the national celebration to a local one: the Mariachi Spectacular de Albuquerque. The MSA concert and conference series is an event at which the next generation of mariachi musicians may not only perform, but also learn from historians, professors and renowned musicians within the genre via lectures and workshops offered over the course of four days. To add a new element to the 25th anniversary of MSA’s conference and concert series, the UNM Alumni Association and Lobo Living Room have partnered with MSA to add an educational element to the festival in the form of music education workshops and a lecture from a mariachi historian.
What do the following international graduate students from India in the United States have in common: Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam, both of Louisiana State University; Randhir Kaur of University of California, San Francisco; Sai Kiran of Miami Atlantic University? They were all innocently going about their business, working hard pursuing advanced degrees, and were murdered.
Envision not eating, drinking, smoking or having sex from sunrise until sundown every day for a month. For people who observe Ramadan, doing so is an annual event. Serene Akkad, a junior International Affairs major and event coordinator for the Muslim Student Association, said the fast during Ramadan is intended to help cleanse the soul and body, to help practitioners get closer to God, and to return them to their roots. “It teaches us to always be thankful,” she said.
Solutions by The State News
