According to UNM press release, the University's best online courses are being recognized in an awards ceremony on Thursday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the SUB ballroom, sponsored by the UNM Center for Teaching & Learning. In 2012, the University of New Mexico Provost Chaouki Abdallah tasked the Online Course Advisory Council to establish online course standards.
Dr. Nana Osei-Kofi, Director of the Difference, Power, and Discrimination program at Oregon State University, was received last week by members of the Communication & Journalism Department as well as others within the UNM community in the Centennial Building Auditorium. The event, titled “#FightRacism: Educating for Social Justice,” is part of the 2016 Interdisciplinary Insights Lecture Series. The Daily Lobo caught up with Osei-Kofi afterwards for a Q&A.
Junior journalism major David Lynch was selected on Friday last week to be the next editor-in-chief of the Daily Lobo. Lynch, who has served as managing editor and news editor, said applying for editor-in-chief felt like the natural next step for him. In his 18 months at the Lobo, he said he has accumulated a lot of experience in both journalism and in running a paper.
The Department of Communication and Journalism hosted a speaker on Friday who presented on an increasingly utilized tool of social change. Arvind Singhal, a professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, discussed a new approach called positive deviance, which is the belief that, in every community, there are some people who learned how to solve problems against all odds. Those individuals are deviant because they are not the norm, and they are positive because they solved a problem, he said. The idea is to look at other individuals or groups who are using uncommon strategies or behavior, but are resolving problems with better solutions than others with the same resources.
On Friday morning the Department of Justice revealed their findings regarding UNM’s handling of sexual assault causes, saying the University is not up to code because of confusing policies and outdated procedures. But at a press conference later that day, University officials emphasized that there is more to the issue than the DOJ report suggests. Informational posters were set up in the room, illustrating a timeline spanning the past three years and a checklist of key tasks that arose out of a University commissioned report in February of last year.
Do you believe UNM is doing enough to combat sexual harassment on campus?
Three men who were accused of raping a UNM student in 2014, only to have the charges dropped, are suing the University. In the lawsuit, the men allege that UNM’s investigation, conducted by police as well as the University, was flawed. The men claim they were presumed guilty because they were black, and that investigators failed to interview witnesses or obtain evidence that would have cleared them. Attorney George Anthony Bleus represents Ryan Ruff, a CNM student, as well as Crusoe Gongbay and SaQwan Edwards, who were both UNM football players.
Kelly Speer, a UNM alumni, is one of four new students who was recently accepted year into the American Museum of Natural History's prestigious program for comparative biology. Kelly studies at the Richard Gilder Graduate School located in the American Museum of Natural History, working alongside internationally recognized staff of scientists and curators as she conducts research on the role of habitat fragmentation of blood-borne parasites.
The University of New Mexico’s Health Sciences Center has created Project ECHO in an effort to improve access to high quality specialty health care in underserved and rural areas. The center recently hosted the second global MetaECHO Conference in Albuquerque, gathering together nearly 500 people from around the world involved in the global ECHO movement, all committed to the goal of impacting one billion lives by 2025.
Associated Students of UNM has made a stance representing UNM undergraduates who feel their voice wasn’t heard before the Regents passed a2.5 percent tuition increase last month, as well as a and 10.5 percent fee increase for the 2016-2017 school year. Last week the undergraduate student government unanimously approved a resolution pushing for stronger communication between the student body and the Board of Regents. The legislation proposed that the student academic calendar be lined up with the Regent’s meetings to avoid future issues.
The UNM LoboRESPECT team arranged an open forum on Tuesday evening to discuss with students security issues on campus and possible solutions on how those issues could be resolved. At least 30 students showed up for the Safety Solution Summit, held in the SUB Ballrooms, where they shared their opinions on campus security as well as their concerns with the LoboRESPECT officials. Rob Burford of UNM's Safety Committee was also present.
Branen Norton-Giron is a freshman business administration major. At first glance, there wouldn't seem to be much for him at the Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections, which specializes primarily in interdisciplinary subjects related to the surrounding region.
In order to better equip teachers for New Mexico's linguistically diverse climate, the College of Education launched TECLA, Teacher Education Collaborative in Language Diversity and Arts integration, according to a UNM press release. The TECLA program is funded by one of three grants from the ECMC Foundation, which total $1.27 million, according to the release. The ECMC Foundation is a Los Angeles-based, nationally focused foundation with current assets of $354 million.
According to a UNM release, with construction soon to begin at some major UNM facilities, University President Bob Frank held his annual Open House to keep UNM’s community partners informed. “We’re very excited about all of these projects and know they will have a major impact on the University and our students,” Frank was quoted as saying in the release. “They will also have some effect on our neighbors, so it’s important for us to have a dialogue with them, answer questions and work together on these important projects.”
UNM Computer Science Professor Melanie Moses is leading a national competition that will teach students to program small robots to swarm, according to a UNM release. UNM collaborated with NASA to build 55 Swarm robots, and schools across the country received 36 of the robots, according to the release. The rest of the robots were either used for testing or will be part of the competition scheduled for this weekend.
The University of New Mexico’s College School of Pharmacy has received the 2015 FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award for its efforts to educate residents of New Mexico about the misuse and abuse of prescription medications. Frank Fisher, media coordinator for the FBI's Albuquerque Division, said the award was in recognition of UNM’s contributions to the improvement of life standards of the people of New Mexico.
Feeling inspired after assisting NM Sen. Tom Udall last summer, Gabriel Gallegos dreamed of one day becoming a communications advisor for a United States Congress member, and his new internship just might take him there. Chosen from a nationwide pool of applicants, Gallegos will be one of 24 students participating in a U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Internship Program: a paid, intensive internship for exceptional sophomores and juniors over two summers, said Anne Callaghan, an outreach coordinator for the Department of State stationed at UNM.
The Department of Communications and Journalism has recently added a new concentration called “environmental communication.” One of the core courses for the concentration is the Ecocultural Communication course, instructed by Tema Milstein, which synthesizes culture with communications with a focus on the environment.
The eighth annual Sustainability Expo, put on by the UNM Sustainability Studies Program, will be held on Cornell Mall this Thursday, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., free to the public. Dana Sharp, a junior international studies major and part of the marketing committee for the event, said there will be something for everyone, including a growers’ market, food trucks, educational events and live entertainment.
What are your thoughts on the concept of marijuana decriminalization?
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