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Monday on the Street: Albuquerque Rapid Transit
Matthew Reisen | October 23What do you think about Albuquerque Rapid Transit now that it has begun?
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Panel: Youth at the forefront of juvenile detention and mass incarceration
Sarah Trujillo | October 23Last week, the UNM Honors College hosted a roundtable discussion concerning juvenile detention and mass incarceration across the states and here in New Mexico. Experts discussed their research, local efforts and possible solutions to the epidemic. This event was organized by Assistant Professor Marygold Walsh-Dilley and Associate Professor Megan Jacobs as part of their year-long honors class “Locked Up: Incarceration in Question.” The class is an interdisciplinary examination of mass incarceration through the lenses of art and sociology.
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UNM chalks pavement expression up to free speech
Nichole Harwood | October 23The University has provided positive outlets for students who are interested in marketing their events, as well as supporting their candidate of choice in both local and national elections. Ryan Lindquist, associate director of the Student Activities Center, said the policy allowing students to use chalk on UNM’s malls and walkways has existed for over 15 years. His department is only contacted in cases of potential violations. Lindquist said his department tries not to edit content. Instances in which chalkings must be removed mainly involve profanity or inappropriate content, although he said these cases are not common. The biggest deal for the department is usually someone having to pay for removing spray chalk using a power-washer.
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UNM town hall tackles budget
Nikole Mckibben | October 23A town hall meeting was held in the SUB on Thursday to discuss UNM’s budget shortfall and potential strategies to address it. In order for the University to cover needed expenses, officials will implement a mid-year recall of funds previously dedicated for certain University areas for the year. “This is the biggest challenge we’ve ever faced, to take money out of a budget that has already been allocated,” President Bob Frank said. UNM will see a total recall of $15.5 million — $9.8 million from Main Campus, $4.7 million from Health Sciences and $1 million from branch campuses. Academic Affairs will see $4.56 million in cuts, which accounts for 2.7 percent of its total budget.
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Decision 2016: The prospects for third-party success
Brendon Gray | October 23Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson is polling at just over six percent across the nation, according to a Real Clear Politics aggregate of 13 polls conducted across the country. However, some believe his chances of winning are good, as long as Johnson can secure New Mexico’s five electoral votes. “If Gary Johnson takes the state he has a chance for the presidency,” said Marina Herrera, a junior double-majoring in English and speech and hearing sciences. Herrera is also the New Mexico State Chair of Youth for the Johnson/Weld campaign.
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Republican VP hopeful visits ABQ campaigning for Trump
Cathy Cook | October 21Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence spoke at a rally Thursday night at the Embassy Suites, campaigning for presidential candidate Donald Trump just days after Vermont Sen. Bernie Sander visited UNM to encourage support for Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. Pence’s speech touched on everything from political ethics and foreign policy to health care and voter fraud. Pence said the Clinton Foundation, and Clinton herself, has acted unethically, while emphasizing that Trump has laid out a five-point plan for reforming ethics in Washington D.C.
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UNM professor terminated after reports of sexual discrimination
Matthew Reisen | October 20UNM officials on Thursday announced the termination of a professor’s contract after sexual harassment and discrimination allegations were brought against him. Cristobal Valencia was suspended earlier this semester for a second time in light of new information into the allegations against him. A report from the UNM Office of Equal Opportunity concluded with probable cause that he discriminated against certain students based on sexual orientation, violating University policy.
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New report assesses UNM's gender pay gaps
Jonathan Natvig | October 19Much has been said at varying levels about the pay gap between different genders and ethnicities in certain industries, but when factoring in rank and field of study, women and minority faculty are almost paid equally to men at UNM. However, according to a report analyzing base pay of faculty from the Office of the Provost, , men are more likely to be promoted to full professorships, while salaries for women and minorities become less “competitive over time.” In 2007, the UNM Economics Department conducted an analysis of faculty compensation for the Office of the Provost and found that — on average, without looking at rank and field of study — women faculty earned 87 percent compared to the salaries of white, non-Hispanic men.
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UNM law program welcomes new director
Brendon Gray | October 19Rodina Parnall, the former senior policy advisor to the assistant secretary of Indian Affairs, is joining the American Indian Law Center as the assistant director for the Pre-Law Summer Institute for American Indians and Alaskan Natives. PSLI is an intensive 8-week program designed to prepare American Indians and Alaskan Natives for their first semester in law school. Parnall, currently an adjunct professor atthe UNM School of Law, will be taking over for Heidi Nesbitt as director of the institute next year. Nesbitt, has been in the position since 1984 and will be retiring.
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HSC leans on technology to push preventative measures at home
Sarah Trujillo | October 19Associates and students at UNM’s Health Sciences Center has developed a smartphone app that engages visual aids to teach how to prevent injuries and hazards to children in the household. The app stems from the Child Ready Program, which was made possible through a federally funded grant awarded to New Mexico and border regions of Arizona, Colorado, Texas and Mexico.
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Board of Regents briefs
Nikole Mckibben | October 19The UNM Board of Regents met on Tuesday and discussed, among other things, the University budget, athletics finances and the timeline for finding President Bob Frank's replacement.
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UNM to provide mental health screenings
Elizabeth Sanchez | October 19“More than 43 million adults in the United States struggled with mental illness in the past year. Half of us will meet the criteria for a diagnosable mental health condition at some point in our lives, and one quarter by the age of 14,” said SHAC Public Information Representative Maya Trujillo, citing the Center for Disease Control and Preventio. In the wake of such high statistics, this Thursday, University of New Mexico will be hosting free, annual mental health screenings from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the SHAC on Main Campus and at the UNM Law School on North Campus.
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Bernie Sanders visits UNM to campaign for Hillary Clinton
Johnny Vizcaino | October 19Former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders returned to Albuquerque on Tuesday morning to address over a thousand students and community members — some supports, some opponents — in a Get Out The Vote rally on campus. Five months after sharing his message of political revolution during his own candidacy in front of more than 7,000 at the Albuquerque Convention Center, the senator from Vermont once again drew a crowd, made up mostly of those in support of the campaign’s mission to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office.
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Report: HSC improving in terms of faculty diversity
Jonathan Natvig | October 18In 2011, UNM Health Sciences Center and Main Campus officials began a program to facilitate a more diverse faculty community at HSC, and it has been paying dividends in the years since its implementation. The program is called the Advancing Institutional Mentoring Excellence Pilot Project (AIME), and according to a 2016 status report, the initial objective was to foster a more diverse workforce, mentor junior faculty members in “understanding of relational structures” and create educational tools for faculty to set and realize goals.
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Jeers combatting cheers
David Lynch | October 18While Hillary Clinton supporters cheered at comments made by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders – Clintons’ surrogate at an on-campus rally in front of Mesa Vista Hall on Tuesday – just as many congregated closer to the SUB, countering with political signage and chanting anti-Clinton rhetoric. The vast majority of this group was for Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico who has steadily polled around 10 percent nationally in recent weeks, and as high as 24 percent in the state, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
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UNM, DOJ agree to reforms to combat campus sexual assault
Cathy Cook | October 18UNM and the U.S. Department of Justice signed a formal agreement on Monday outlining changes the University must implement to be in compliance with federal Title IX and Title IV policy. The agreement offers a three-year plan for updating UNM’s policies and practices in the handling of Title IX complaints, acknowledging that the University began addressing some of the issues outlined in an April report which detailed the findings of the DOJ’s investigation into how UNM handles claims of sexual assault or harassment.
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University seeking feedback from students for potential academic modifications
Johnny Vizcaino | October 18The UNM Office of Assessment is set to host its second annual Institutional Assessment Days, on Tuesday and Wednesday. Director of Assessment Neke Mitchell said the purpose of IAD is to determine whether or not UNM core curriculum is making the desired impact on student learning, and if the University is preparing students to enter the workforce with skills desired by employers. “The whole idea of the core is to provide students with a foundational knowledge that will help them better succeed in their upper-level courses,” she said.
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UNM expands donor campaign
Cathy Cook | October 16A new campaign, UNM Gives, is encouraging charitable donations and volunteerism within the University community, expanding on its United Way Campaign. Abra Altman, a strategic support manager at UNM, said that every year the president’s office and the University encourage people to donate money. Altman said the goal of the new campaign is to encourage giving to the United Way of Central New Mexico and UNM Foundation, as well as highlighting the ways UNM students and staff already support the Albuquerque community through volunteer work.
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Community councils monitor APD
Sara MacNeil | October 16The Albuquerque Police Department’s newly-created Community Policing Councils are seeking UNM students to help them better facilitate communication between APD and the community. CPCs were one of the requirements included in the 2014 settlement agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice and APD, as a result of the DOJ’s investigation of APD’s use of excessive force. In light of its findings, the DOJ mandated that the city establish CPCs in each of the six area commands that APD divides the city into: the foothills, the valley, the northwest, northeast, southeast and southwest commands.
