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ASUNM, Heading Home initiative unveil new installations in SUB that shed light on student homelessness

Matthew Reisen | January 20

The Associated Students of UNM and Heading Home unveil on Thursday a new installation aimed at increasing awareness to the plight of homelessness, especially when it affects UNM students. Dennis Plummer, CEO of Heading Home, announced the SUB installation and partnership between the two entities in their Two Sides To Every Story campaign. “It takes a conversation in the public imagination, about homelessness, to change hearts and minds,” Plummer said. He called the installation on campus a “creative project” that will encourage those very conversations across campus.

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Award-winning UNM prof discusses the importance of language

Nichole Harwood | January 20

UNM professor and regents lecturer in the Department of Linguistics Melissa Axelrod recently received an award from the Linguistic Society of America for her work studying endangered and extinct languages. Axelrod has been working on language revitalization efforts in the Southwest since 1995, collaborating with the Jicarilla Apache Nation and with the Sandia Tiwa, Nambe Tewa, Pojoaque and Tesuque Tewa pueblos, she said. “Native American communities across the United States are taking steps toward combating loss of their native language, and for many tribes whose native speakers are few and elderly, the need to increase the number of fluent speakers is urgent,” Axelrod said.

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UNM passes new policy calling for universal restrooms

Cathy Cook | January 20

Over winter break UNM passed a policy that requires all newly constructed facilities to include universal restrooms and. While the policy is only 318 words, the battle to bring universal restrooms to UNM’s campus has been a long one. According to Francie Cordova, director of the Office of Equal Opportunity, the LGBTQ Resource Center began a gender-neutral restroom initiative to ensure UNM has safe restrooms for people who are gender nonconforming. In 2013, the Associated Students of UNM passed a resolution in support of universal restrooms being introduced on campus. Ben Savoca, a facility planner who wrote the new policy, said he got involved with the initiative because he deals with some of the signage around campus.

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Visiting prof discusses future of informatics in medicine

Sarah Trujillo | January 20

A lecture on Thursday morning by a visiting UNM professor covered the history of informatics, but it’s his beginning work in general internal medicine that laid the groundwork for national standards today. “A lot of internal medicine in the past 50 years has been diagnose and give them some pills, right?” said Stuart Nelson, who works in the UNM Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center. Nelson was one of the original designers of the Unified Medical Language System — a vast treasure trove of vocabulary for biomedical sciences. Nelson was head of Medical Subject Headings at the National Library of Medicine, where he reconstructed MeSH into a concept-oriented vocabulary, and came up with the national standard for discussing prescription drugs.

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Concerned students group meet with UNM administrators over upcoming Yiannopoulos visit

Cathy Cook | January 20

Some UNM student groups and administrators found themselves divided Thursday over the line between free speech and hate speech. Members of seven different student organizations met with administrators Thursday to discuss controversial Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos’ speaking appearance at UNM scheduled for next Friday. KIVA Club, MEChA, Black Student Union, Queer Student Alliance, Muslim Student Association, DREAM Team, The Red Nation, and Showing Up for Racial Justice all signed a statement of concern which argued that Yiannopoulos’s appearance would incite physical violence on the UNM campus. 

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Crime Briefs for Jan. 19

Elizabeth Sanchez | January 18

Arson and criminal trespass at Woodward II On Jan. 8, a UNMPD officer was dispatched to Woodward II at 700 Lomas Blvd. NE in reference to a fire alarm, according to a report. UNM dispatch was unable to identify the exact location of the fire alarm within the building. 

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Student government leaders looks ahead to 2017

Nikole Mckibben | January 18

ASUNM and GPSA hope to surpass their accomplishments from last semester by increasing student engagement, introducing new legislation and advocating to the State Legislature on UNM Day. GPSA President Glenda Lewis and ASUNM President Biederwolf, along with the Governmental Affairs team, will be in Santa Fe on Jan. 30 for UNM Day to speak to legislators about the importance of saving the Lottery Scholarship and other initiatives important to UNM. “The Lottery Scholarship is in danger of losing many portions of its funding, and lawmakers will need to act this session in order to keep New Mexico higher education accessible for all students,” Biederwolf said. Lewis said they are “definitely” in preparations for UNM Day, and hope to see a successful outcome from this year’s event. Lewis said she wants to “start the spring semester with a bang.” One of her goals is to increase student engagement and find how to better serve the students.

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ASUNM prepares for UNM Day at the Roundhouse

Nikole Mckibben | January 18

ASUNM Governmental Affairs is offering a training for anyone wanting to be a team advocate for UNM Day, a day when the New Mexico State Legislature focuses on UNM-specific issues. These advocates travel to Santa Fe every year to meet legislators and lobby for issues that benefit UNM students. “With the capitol in Santa Fe, it creates distance between the legislature and students,” ASUNM Governmental Affairs Executive Assistant Royce Dellar said. “UNM Day allows legislators to put a name to a face.” Executive Director Nathan Cowan and his assistants Dellar and Jack Hodge started with a video highlighting “What to Expect” as an advocate. It presented UNM Day as an opportunity for UNM organizations to head to the state capitol to talk about what is most important to them. The 20-minute training session outlines what is means to be an advocate, and how to best interact with legislators and other professionals in Santa Fe.

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Governor has yet to name new UNM regents

David Lynch | January 18

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez has yet to nominate the replacements for three UNM regents, despite their tenures having ended on Dec. 31. With the 60-day state legislative session beginning this week, it might be hard for her to find time to name replacements, who must then be confirmed by a Senate committee before starting work on the Board. According to the UNM Board of Regents website, the tenures of Regents Jack Fortner and Bradley Hosmer technically ended last month, as well as the tenure of Student Regent Ryan Berryman. Berryman graduated in December, and has since sent an official letter of resignation to Martinez, according to University officials.

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Student groups write letter to University admin criticizing Yiannopoulos visit

David Lynch | January 18

As the visit of controversial Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos looms ever nearer, local opposition to his arrival and speaking event is ramping up. A slew of UNM student groups have placed their names on a letter sent to University administration earlier this week condemning the upcoming event to be held Jan. 27 in the SUB, calling it a contradiction of UNM policy. The letter alleges that Yiannopoulos’ talk will lead to “physical violence and expand bias against us,” referring to undocumented students, indigenous students, Muslims, LGBTQ and other minority members of the UNM community whose concerns are raised in the letter.

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Search for next UNM president still ongoing

Nichole Harwood | January 17

The Board of Regents last semester began the process of searching for UNM’s next president, preparing for a smooth transition as well as preparing to place previous UNM P Bob resident Frank in a new position in the Center for Innovation in Health and Education on North Campus. The search — which now is being conducted by a group of individuals from various facets around the University — has since solicited community input via forums, the last being held on Nov. 11. The search committee has also held its first two meetings since the process began, according to UM Regents President Robert Doughty.

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How UNM is working to reduce its carbon footprint

Sarah Trujillo | January 15

With the upcoming legislative session, the state government is looking to make big cuts in higher education. Last year, the University of New Mexico tended to their carbon footprint by implementing multiple large-scale sustainability efforts and, for their efforts, PNM awarded UNM three Energy Star Awards to acknowledge efforts to decrease energy consumption across campus. Here are a few of the efforts that resulted in UNM having received this recognition, as well as ongoing efforts for the future.

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MLK March unites the community

Nichole Harwood | January 15

On Saturday morning, a march honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. began near campus before making its way to Civic Plaza downtown. The march not only celebrated the work of the Civil Rights Movement, but promoted unity within the community. It including an array of groups such as La Raza Unida, the Macedonia Baptist Church, Daniels family funeral service, CNM outreach and the New Mexico Dream Team. Sayrah Namaste said she attends the event yearly, but marched with the group La Raza Unida this year.

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Student progressive group plans Inauguration Day rally

David Lynch | January 15

The Young Progressives Demanding Action is a group that started – both on a national scale and at UNM – just in recent months, but the progressive activist group has one priority for the foreseeable future: battling the potentially harmful reverberations of a Trump presidency that officially begins on Friday. While most of campus will probably be tuned in to TV screens, laptop displays or their phones to watch the inauguration of the already polarizing President-elect Donald Trump on Friday, YPDA will be hosting a rally at Cornell Mall to “show opposition on many of his policies and ideas on day one,” said Nathan Siegel, president of YPDA UNM.

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Project ECHO may face cloudy future under Trump administration

Johnny Vizcaino | December 16

In our current healthcare system, the interests of hospitals and clinics don’t always align with the interests of patients, but healthcare providers shouldn’t feel penalized for doing right by those who require their services. That was the message that UNM Hospital doctors had for U.S. UNMH doctors told U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-NM, during a visit on Wednesday. The senior senator from New Mexico received an update on Project ECHO, an internet videoconference-based “telehealth” service aimed at revolutionizing medical education and reducing healthcare disparities in hard-to-reach, rural areas by “moving knowledge instead of patients,” said Sanjeev Arora, the project’s founder.

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Wolf Tracks Podcast Ep. 5: Feature Special!

Jonathan Baca , Daniel Montaño and David Lynch | December 16

On today's episode, we'll be hearing some radio feature stories produced by members of the Lobo family, as part of a Radio Production class this fall. First we'll hear from Daniel Montano, who went all the way to Scotland to learn about how city projects similar to Albuquerque Rapid Transit are affecting towns in the UK.

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UNM project plans to analyze how academic culture can be improved

Nichole Harwood | December 15

A collaborative effort by three UNM departments has researchers exploring the impacts of commonly found disparities between academic contextual culture within student participants and their learning environments at Arizona State University. The research team — made up of UNM sociology associate professor Roberto Ibarra, Earth and planetary science professor Gary Weissmann and UNM graduate Michael Howland-Davis — will be be studying conceptual context diversity at ASU in a project funded by the National Science Foundation.

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UNM-created health care access initiative to be expanded nationally

Nichole Harwood | December 13

On Nov. 29 New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall, D-NM, joined the U.S. Senate in unanimously voting to approve legislation which would spread the UNM-created model of improving access to healthcare in rural areas nationwide. “We have already seen how the Project ECHO model can improve health outcomes in rural areas of New Mexico and throughout the United States by providing an innovative and affordable way to train local physicians in more specialized fields to treat diseases that they were not previously trained to treat,” Udall said. The ECHO Act expands the model by requiring Health and Human Services to actively seek areas where it can be implemented and provides funding opportunities to do so, Udall said.

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Settlement reached between UNM Regents, University president; Frank out at end of 2016

David Lynch | December 13

UNM President Bob Frank’s time at the helm is ending six months earlier than expected, after he and the Board of Regents reached a settlement on Tuesday. The agreement officially ends Frank’s tenure on Dec. 31. University Provost Chaouki Abdallah will take over as interim head of the University in the spring semester, while a Regent Robert Doughty-led committee continues its search for the next University president.

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Grad Issue: Student's daughter helps power her to degree

Emma Citizen | December 12

After 20 years of not going to school, Lisa Mascarenas will be receiving her associate’s degree in criminology from UNM Valencia. “Knowing I got this far, remembering the struggle and realizing just how easy it would have been to quit, I didn't and that makes me happy to know I did it,” Mascarenas said. Over the last three years, Mascarenas has been trying to get her degree. The biggest push for her was her 19-year-old daughter, Renee, who has been there the whole way.