For the first time during the 2016-2017 year, the UNM Honors College has introduced a class exploring incarceration. Assistant Professor Marygold Walsh-Dilley and Associate Professor Megan Jacobs are teaching the course through integrating two fields — sociology and art — and inviting guests to talk to students about their own personal experiences with incarceration.
Student group representatives discussed the state of several upcoming capital projects ventures for UNM, and how they could have a negative impact on students. On Tuesday, the Associated Students of UNM’s Joint Council convened for the third time this semester to discuss UNM’s upcoming and ongoing capital projects, including Johnson Gym, Smith Plaza and the new Physics and Astronomy center.
On Wednesday evening, Associated Students of UNM senators will deliberate over whether or not the undergraduate student governing body as a whole supports putting baby diaper-changing stations in all restrooms on campus. The business comes in the form of Resolution 2F, introduced and authored by first-time Sen. Sadé Patterson, herself a mother.
UNM’s ongoing budget issues have not only caused cuts and hiring freezes — it has also posed a threat to the Italian language program as its last faculty member, Rachele Duke, refuses to retire in order to keep the program alive. “I was going to retire two years ago, but when this story came up — eliminating Italian because I am the only faculty member in Italian, and have been since 1990 — I decided not to because I love the job that I am doing, and as long as I am here they will not cut the program,” Duke said.
In a move that breaks away from the organization’s tradition of supporting Republican candidates on principle, the New Mexico Federation of College Republicans officially endorsed Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson for the presidency, denouncing Donald Trump in the process. On Monday, UNM College Republicans followed suit, stating in an official release, “We have never seen two presidential nominees with such high unfavorable ratings” before touting Johnson as “not just the third option, (but) the only option.”
“We can’t drink oil! Leave it in the soil!” The chant rose up from the crowd at the Indigenous People’s Day march on Monday downtown, in celebration of Albuquerque’s second annual day devoted to recognizing the resilience of natives in recent centuries.
It’s estimated that, of the 4 million emails that are sent to UNM inboxes daiy, almost 95 percent of them are filtered and discarded as spam. Occasionally, spam slips through the filters that UNM has set up on all inboxes. As spammers become more sophisticated, preventing junk gets harder, said Duane Arruti, interim chief information officer for UNM IT. Filtering emails depends on the sender reputation and the content of the email, Arruti said. Considering these factors, the filtering system determines the likelihood that the message is spam, and either discards it or sends it through.
Assistant Professor Aaron French has been a professor with UNM for three years and, in this time, said he has learned just as much from his students through their diverse cultural background as they have learned from him. French earned his undergrad and master’s in business from Western Kentucky University, and his doctorate from Mississippi State University. As a professor, French experienced a variety of cultures during his time teaching, from Mississippi to the three-and-a-half years he spent in South Korea.
UNM has decided to create a new Physics & Astronomy and Interdisciplinary Science center, despite the University facing a projected $1 billion in debt. Construction of the state-of-the-art facility, which will be located west of Popejoy Hall, is expected to begin in fall of 2017. It will be a 137,000 square feet facility and is anticipated to cost $66 million, according to College of Arts and Sciences Dean Mark Peceny, with $27 million allotted to the project through General Obligation Bond C. For Peceny and Ronald Rosa, a junior computer science major, the project is well worth the price tag.
Tailgating might be the most dangerous activity at a Lobo football game. Students showed up to party before Friday’s football game versus Boise State as early as 4 p.m. A condensed crowd of students, dressed in red, bobbed up and down to house music at sunset, while paramedics stood by to respond to potential alcohol poisoning or dehydration.
The Free Spook Movement hosted a hip hop and poetry show at the Endorphin Power Company on Saturday to raise money in support of an individual who allegedly killed law enforcement officers. Mivhael Armendariz was convicted of first-degree murder in 2003 for the death of sheriff’s deputy Damacio Montano and the attempted murder of Eric Montano, a state police officer. The prosecution said the Montano brothers, who were off-duty at the time, were breaking up a bar fight when Armendariz killed one and injured the other.
There are choices for the highest position of power in the country other than Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton — and Libertarian Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson visited UNM to make that clear. Johnson, also a former two-term New Mexico governor, hosted a campaign rally at the SUB Saturday afternoon, where he urged attendees and potential voters to consider his leadership when the polls open Nov. 8.
Are student tailgate parties conducted responsibly?
Since its founding nearly 50 years ago, faculty and staff in the UNM’s Africana Studies program have wished for full department status. A pending expansion will be helpful, but there is still work to be done. Robert Jefferson, director of Africana Studies, said the creation of a new, state-of-the-art facility, which began last month and is chalked to finish early next year, is a sign of growth and prosperity for the program. “The construction of the research hall shows our capacity to grow as a program,” he said.
UNM Bar Exam Found Unequal A national bar exam, recently adopted by New Mexico, may contain bias.
Large Off-Broadway performances like The Lion King — which is running through October — have become a double-edged swords. While bringing revenue to Popejoy and the University, the scheduling of popular visiting shows tends to take top priority, causing smaller student organizations to have to schedule around them or find another venue. Faith Grattan, a junior music education major, said there has been difficulties with planning student performances because Popejoy schedules events that bring in revenue. In turn, they take precedence over on-campus groups — even UNM Theater productions.
UNM IT officials, at a town hall earlier this week, provided potential solutions — some already in place at some department — to combat inefficiencies brought to light in report earlier this semester. One of the report’s suggestions was to streamline necessary procedures in order to make things less difficult across all University entities, but that is easier said than done, said Brian Pietrewicz, IT interim deputy CIO. “One of the main themes of the report is that the University is spending a substantial amount of money on IT, but we are not getting a return on our investment,” Pietrewicz said.
With UNM enrollment data indicating that, in 2011, Latinos/Hispanos made up 37 percent of the student population, the Daily Lobo decided to sit down with Dayra Fallad, a student programs specialist at El Centro de la Raza who identifies as Hispanic, to discuss the subjects of Hispanic Heritage Month, El Centro de la Raza, cultural identity and other related topics.
With a new freshman living requirement to be implemented in fall 2018, we took it upon ourselves to crunch and compare the estimated living costs for options on and off campus.
Solutions by The State News
