ASUNM held their second full Senate meeting of the fall semester on Wednesday evening, and although no major pieces of legislation were presented, several appropriations and president appointments were presented for approval, and the LoboRESPECT Advocacy Center got an opening date, courtesy of Dean of Students Tomás Aguirre.
For the second time, the Albuquerque City Council will vote on a bill to decriminalize marijuana. This new development comes after an overwhelming citizen vote that showed the majority of Albuquerque residents support decriminalization. Albuquerque City Councilors Rey Garduño and Isaac Benton will introduce a bill to decriminalize marijuana on Sept. 9 with full council consideration taking place on Sept. 21.
The UNM Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addictions hosted a Fetal Alcohol Syndrome awareness day to inform students and the general public about the syndrome. Jerome Romero, CASAA education and outreach manager, said he believes that the event brought the issue of FAS to public consciousness.
New Mexico Gov. Susanna Martinez came to UNM on Wednesday to outline some of her initiatives for higher education across the state, in hopes that new policies will be implemented to help college students finish their studies on time. “We are falling far short of one of the key expectations that New Mexicans have of us: to see students graduate and graduate on time,” she said.
At a time when the European Union is debating plans for dealing with a major refugee influx from the Middle East, a UNM professor is helping refugees feel at home in the United States. Jessica Goodkind, associate professor at the Department of Sociology, is pairing up refugee families with UNM students to help them resettle in the U.S. as part of the “Refugee Well-Being Project.”
The Mind Research Network at UNM is beginning to study adolescent brain development, and is being funded by a program that strives to create employment opportunities while also conducting research projects. Vince Calhoun, professor of electrical computer engineering and executive science officer at the Mind Research Network, said he is the principal investigator for a new $5.9 million research grant from the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. The four-year project, which started Aug. 1, will begin scanning child participants in October, he said. “The goal is to look at a rapidly changing period of time, the adolescent period between the ages of 9 and 14 years old,” Calhoun said. “(We want to) really try to understand what’s going on in the brain in terms of all the different changes that are occurring.”
TEDxABQ , a nonprofit organization that brings together New Mexico’s most exciting people to share inspiring ideas, has announced its lineup of speakers for its annual event on Saturday at Popejoy Hall. According to a TEDxABQ press release, the event, themed “On Your Mark” will highlight 20 homegrown ideas from New Mexico’s scientists, artists, activists, educators, healthcare advocates and community members. “Created in the spirit of TED’s mission, ‘ideas worth spreading,’ the TEDxABQ program is designed to give New Mexico’s communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level,” according to the statement.
As part of an ongoing initiative to become more environmentally friendly, UNM is improving the visibility and overall appearance of its blue recycling bins around main campus, according to a University press release. The bins are getting a fresh coat of the trademark blue shade of paint that is associated with the general recycling enterprise, along with the “new UNM Recycling bright green footprint logo,” the release stated. Mary Clark, sustainability manager at UNM, said that the improvement in the bins’ look could make the difference between whether a student recycles something or throws it in the trash.
The UNM Board of Regents recently approved a news health sciences education building at the University’s branch in Rio Rancho, according to the Albuquerque Journal. The branch currently services about 1,500 students, according to the article, but UNM West CEO Wynn Goering said that some potential students have had to be turned away due to space constraints, which the new facility would address. “UNM’s nursing program downtown takes about one out of five qualified applicants because they don’t have room, literally, to do any more,” Goering told the Journal.
UNM students can vote for Kenan Thompson, a veteran member of Saturday Night Live, to appear at UNM as part of a national competition held in a collaboration between NBCUniversal and Comcast. The contest is available to colleges nationwide, and students can vote by visiting xfinityprofessors.com, according to an email sent to the Daily Lobo. According to the email, students can vote and increase their chances of winning by “participating in a series of tasks such as taking an online quiz or watching a video.
A new mobile app to stay safe on campus, called BlueLight, is available to students, according to a press release emailed to the Daily Lobo, . “[It] lets students share locations in real time and pings contacts when they get to their destination,” the release stated. “The app also routes emergency calls based on location and alerts emergency contacts via text.” A survey conducted by BlueLight shows that mobile access is playing a bigger role in students feeling safe on university campuses nationwide.
Two UNM students have decided to bring their expertise into the world of independent software development. Forrest Shiloff, a junior business major, and Jeffery Gordon, a computer science grad student, are the heads of dataCloud LLC, a UNM-based software company startup with promising services and a bold vision. Shiloff is head of marketing; Gordon is the founder of the company. “What it comes down to is that this is a new realm of space within cyber-physical security,” Shiloff said.
Strengthening the University of New Mexico’s commitment to sustainability, 10 energy-saving VendingMiser devices have been installed across campus from resources provided by the Green Fund. According to the UNM Office of Sustainability Facebook page, VendingMisers are environmentally-friendly vending machines that “reduce power consumption and utility costs by up to 46 percent, while decreasing CO2 greenhouse gas emissions.” The Office of Sustainability worked with Pepsi and UNM Facilities Engineer Hans Barsun to choose the best locations for the greatest energy savings. Units have been installed in Dane Smith Hall, Student Services, Parish Library and Mitchell Hall, according to a UNM press release.
Orcilia Zúñiga Forbes, former University of New Mexico vice president for student affairs and vice president for institutional advancement, died at her home in Portland, Ore. Aug. 28, at the age of 77, according to a UNM press release. Zúñiga Forbes's brother-in-law, Chuck Chavez, notified University officials of her death, according to the statement. “Starting at her head and looking down, Zúñiga Forbes was always neatly coifed, perfectly made up, stylishly and professionally dressed, stockings and...running shoes. Perhaps they were the secret to her administrative career in higher education. Always on the move, literally, she knew how to balance professionalism with comfort,” according to the statement.
The UNM Department of Linguistics is arranging a special symposium to pay tribute to Phyllis Perrin Wilcox, a professor of linguistics. The symposium will be take place on Sunday, Sept. 13, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in SUB Ballroom A, according to a UNM press release. “Wilcox was the first instructor of American Sign Language at UNM, at a time when most people did not realize that ASL was a language. She went on to establish UNM's Signed Language Interpreting Program, one of the first Bachelor's-level preparation programs, and currently one of only 12 Bachelor programs to be nationally accredited,” the statement said.
Isaac Neal, a University of New Mexico alumnus, is helping develop state-of-the-art laser technology designed to protect troops overseas. Neal currently works in the Laser & Electro-Optical Systems organization within The Boeing Company as a guidance, navigation and control engineer for the Compact Laser Weapon System project in Albuquerque, according to a UNM press release. The system will help the military and other consumers track and take precautionary measures against drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, that may pose a threat, according to the statement.
Students, law enforcement officers, military personnel and others are congregating at the Anderson School of Management this week for a seminar about cybersecurity fundamentals, in hopes that they can apply it to their education or careers. The week-long course, formally called Advanced Digital Forensics, is a mix of lecture and hands-on activities based on the concepts of reverse engineering and network analysis, said Drew Hamilton, professor of computer science and engineering at Mississippi State University.
New Mexico Lottery scratcher sales increased by 14.54 percent in fiscal year 2015, which means more students at UNM could potentially benefit from the lottery scholarship, according to University Associate Vice President Terry Babbitt. According to a press release from New Mexico Lottery, $1 million in additional money was raised for college students this year from the increased sales.
According to the Energy Information Administration, 85 percent of all electricity in the United States in 2014 was generated via coal, natural gas and nuclear. Solar barely even gets any love among the seven percent of our power that comes from renewable energy resources – only 0.4 percent of our power came from the sun. The SunPort, a product made by a local Albuquerque startup team, is looking to change all of that on a global scale, and it’s as easy as just plugging it into an outlet, and the consumer is using solar.
A team of UNM researchers is exploring the impact of historical events on the collective and individual memories of Native American tribes. The research project, titled “Historical and Current Trauma: Examining Community Memories for the Health of a Nation,” is a community-based participatory research study conducted by the Seneca Nation and UNM’s School of Medicine and Department of Family & Community Medicine, according to a UNM press release. Dr. Tassy Parker, director for the Institute of Indigenous Knowledge & Development, is the principal investigator on the project.
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