By Kevin Haaf Some say music and movies can make a society. That the shape of a culture is crafted and reflected by the celebrities who set trends. Joe Ragland III, a senior psychology major, said his five favorite artists and celebrities are all feminists.
Plans for the University to create an entertainment plaza on South Campus have grinded to a halt after project partner Marble Brewery decided to back out of the venture. Tom Neale, interim director of UNM Real Estate, which manages all property holdings of the University, said they were notified in late May of Marble’s withdrawal. Neale said that despite presenting financial figures of their plan to the Lobo Development Corporation earlier in the year, Marble became uncomfortable as they and the University worked to finalize a contract.
The flow of the game has always seemed to be an issue in college basketball, and the NCAA has taken some steps to rectify that. In an attempt to fix the pacing of the game, the NCAA approved a change from two 20-minute halves to four 10-minute quarters starting this upcoming season for the women. “They’ve been debating them for a couple of years now, so I knew something was going to change,” UNM head coach Yvonne Sanchez said. “I really like it. It gets us more toward more global basketball. In FIBA rules (for international play), it’s four quarters.”
Ike Reilly’s seventh album offers many things for fans to look forward to: raspy vocals, upbeat rhythms, occasional guitar solos and a few misspelled titles. The indie rock “Born on Fire” is a record five years in the making, but it sounds more like country rock meets campfire sing-along with instruments. A truly great record is able to capture the hearts of listeners regardless of whether they are die-hard fans of a particular genre. Unfortunately for Reilly, his release falls short of that: this album can expect to be bypassed by those of the heavier rock n’ roll community.
On June 8, the New Mexico Legislature was called back into a special session to reconsider passing the $295 million capital outlay bill that died in the final days of the 2015 legislative session. The special session requires that lawmakers return to Santa Fe to reconsider spending on capital projects critical to higher education and communities throughout rural New Mexico. Not only does capital outlay provide improvements to public facilities in local communities, but it also provides much-needed jobs through the construction and improvements of facilities in a state that currently ranks 48th in job growth. The special session is an opportunity to restore some of the funding request made my colleges and universities throughout New Mexico. Gov. Susana Martinez and House Republicans had proposed a 44 percent cut to institutions of higher education throughout the state during the 60-day regular session — now is the time to restore these cuts. Some of those cuts included building and infrastructure improvement such as roof improvements to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, a tech center at UNM Gallup, and improvements to UNM’s Health Education Building. Smaller institutions critical to the state mission of higher education, such as Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, also depend on capital improvement funds to maintain buildings, and have requested $500,000 to upgrade a fire alarm system to be in compliance with fire regulations.
ollowing the MLB draft, New Mexico will head into the offseason looking to fill some major holes in their lineup and on their coaching staff. UNM’s junior starting pitcher Toller Boardman and junior infielder Sam Haggerty will test their luck in the professional baseball realm, forgoing each of their senior seasons as Lobos. Boardman was selected in the 22nd round (670th overall) by the Detroit Tigers, while Haggerty was selected by the Cleveland Indians as a 24th rounder (724th overall). Head coach Ray Birmingham was unavailable for comment, but he said in a statement that the program he runs at UNM sets out to get student-athletes into the major leagues.
New Mexico sent four athletes to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon this past weekend, all of whom reached the All-American plateau for the first time in school history. Senior pole vaulter Logan Pflibsen set the bar high for UNM’s track and field program after tying for a sixth-place finish in his final collegiate meet. Pflibsen’s personal-best 17 feet, 18 ½ inches breached the top eight spots of the 24 athletes. Pflibsen is only the third pole vaulter in school history to finish as an All-American.
The LGBTQ Resource Center is arranging Safe Zone trainings across UNM campus to make the University more welcoming for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. The resource center will offer cultural competency workshops to build allies who recognize homophobia and stand up against it, said Alma Rosa Silva-Banuelos, director of the LQBTQ Resource Center. “Providing the Safe Zone trainings has been part of our mission to make sure this campus is welcoming and safe for LGBTQ-identified students,” she said. “We really want our students to be able to go to school and not worry about all the other issues that they face when they are in higher education or at college.”
Shinsuke Eguchi, an assistant professor of communication, said he approaches teaching as a way to practice his culture, gender, sexuality and communication research. “I am strongly devoted to developing an academic advising relationship between students and me,” Eguchi said. “By doing so, my goal is to assist students to become active members of an intellectual community and to develop critical, creative, transformative knowledge that is relevant for today’s globalized, intercultural communication contexts.” Originally from Tokyo, Eguchi came to the United States in 2001 to attend an undergraduate program in California. He started as a theatre arts major and wanted to be an actor, but said he fell in love with communication studies.
What’s your name? This is the question the University’s LGBTQ Resource Center is addressing with their latest goal, the preferred name initiative. The initiative is to allow transgender students to use preferred names, rather than legal names, in the academic setting, including on students’ Lobo IDs.
Despite the large numbers that attend pride parades, the history behind them doesn’t seem to be well-understood by the general populace. Curtison Badonie, a senior biology major, said ‘pride’ means having acceptance of who an individual is, no matter what. Pride focuses on LGBTQ community representation through art and other forms of expression, regardless of how society treats them. Badonie said he learned more about activists who were underrepresented than prominent figures such as Harvey Milk.
Not long ago, the idea of a gay athlete was foreign to many. Yes, there had been athletes who ‘came out’ after their playing days were over, but their stories were relegated to the back pages of the newspapers, or not talked about at all. That long-held stance has since fallen to the wayside with Jason Collins and Michael Sam breaking barriers by coming out as gay during their careers. Collins became the first openly gay active NBA player when he took to the court for the Brooklyn Nets in 2014. Sam was the first openly gay player to be chosen in the NFL draft when St. Louis selected him with the 294th pick just last year.
In honor of Pride 2015, here is a list of some of the most incredible, but often forgotten, LGBT films in history.
On Saturday, Civic Plaza Presents hosted a ‘creativity festival’ titled Creative 505, a showcase at which Albuquerque locals and tourists alike experienced local culture at Civic Plaza. Creative 505 was a collaborative, family-friendly event among local organizations and businesses to showcase Albuquerque’s film, theater, art, music, tech and other communities. The event provided a variety of entertainment options, including live music and other performances, interactive informational booths, vendors, food trucks, face painting and chalk art. There were also more formal options, such as business demonstrations and installations.
All 21 New Mexico athletics programs hit the required mark of 930 in the NCAA Academic Progress Report. APR is designed to penalize teams that are not meeting the required academic standards set by the NCAA. None of UNM’s teams are in danger of receiving a penalty. Four UNM athletics programs had four-year scores of a perfect 1,000: women’s tennis, men’s tennis, women’s cross country and women’s golf. Last week, all of those programs were recognized by the NCAA for being in the top 10 percent of a particular sport in APR.
A string of injuries derailed New Mexico’s chances of winning another Mountain West baseball championship. Over the course of the season, the Lobos saw six of their nine starting players miss time due to injuries. The pitching staff wasn’t immune to the injury bug either, as UNM lost two starters — sophomore Conner Rusch and senior Colton Thomson — during the year. The Lobos were able to endure the losses, but finished in fourth place in the Mountain West at the end of the regular season. UNM’s finish is its lowest since the 2011 season, when it placed sixth.
Sports Briefs Track and Field New Mexico will send four athletes to the NCAA Championships after they qualified for the meet at the 2015 NCAA West Preliminary in Austin, Texas this past weekend. Peter Callahan, Logan Pflibsen, Callie Thackery and Alice Wright will represent the Lobos at the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon this month.
Motivated by a desire to help people enrich their lives through literacy and education, local organization Zombie Bar Krawl is launching a free exchange library system called 1000 Paper Brainz. Chelsea McBride, founder of 1000 Paper Brainz, said the name was originally an idea for an art project based on the Japanese novel “A Thousand Paper Cranes,” which is founded on the legend suggesting that if one folds 1,000 origami cranes, he or she will be granted a wish. “I’m an avid book reader and lover. I’m always trying to think of ways to convince everybody to read,” she said. “I took the idea to my Albuquerque Bar Krawl Krew (the local chapter of Zombie Bar Krawl), and they loved it.”
Feeling, hearing, speaking: the often intense, sometimes intimate relationship between the senses and interpersonal communication. These are the elements that make “Marie’s Story,” the new film by Jean-Pierre Améris, a unique variation on the common subject of communication. “Marie’s Story” centers on a French monastery — a school for the deaf — and a nun named Soeur Marguerette, played by Isabelle Carré. Her sole mission is to teach Marie, a young, blind and deaf girl portrayed by Ariana Rivoire, how to communicate and eventually find pleasure in a world outside her own perception. The story is similar to that of Helen Keller, which has been dramatized as “The Miracle Worker” in English several times. The concept is well-trod, and it feels that way in the film. The two primary characters go through little development. Marguerette starts out as a woman with something missing from her life and trying to fill the void with teaching Marie. She then discovers a newness and excitement about the world through her own eyes in the process.
The UNM School of Law has made its way onto a list of the top 20 law schools in the country. Above the Law ranked the top 50 law schools, looking specifically at the cost, amount of debt and quality law jobs graduates had after their time at each school, according to the legal trade website. “Forty percent of 2014 law graduates did not secure a job in the law,” surveyors said on abovethelaw.com. “We believe the ATL Top 50 gives prospective law students a way to analyze schools using metrics that actually matter.”
Solutions by The State News
