On Sunday, volunteers around the country united to participate in the largest community service effort in the nation — Make a Difference Day.
UNM’s chapter of the Lambda Theta Phi Latin fraternity spent the weekend giving bicycles to children who need them. About 15 members of the fraternity volunteered to help the Community Bike Recycling Program.
UNM and its peer institutions are finding themselves with an influx of students who need advisement, but the universities don’t have the money to hire more advisers. UNM’s University College student-to-adviser ratio of 770-to-1 is the highest of 16 peer institutions that had data readily available, and it is more than twice the last recorded national average.
A group of environmentally-conscious students have organized to promote recycling in the dorms. Eco-Reps — a collaborative effort between UNM Recycling, Residence Life and Student Housing and a service learning class — is a group of students who want more recycling opportunities on campus, said Elyse Jalbert, the group’s president. “Eco-Reps are elected student leaders who basically encourage sustainable living and recycling in the dorm,” Jalbert said. Since 2004, UNM Recycling has attempted to install permanent recycling bins near the residence halls — including a 30-yard bin between lower Johnson and Santa Ana residence halls — but they have been placed sporadically and are removed without notice, said Linda McCormick, president of UNM Recycling. McCormick said the bins were moved to south campus and there are no plans to return them closer to the dorms. “They were moved out of there for a variety of reasons and they are now located on the south side of the Pit,” McCormick said. There are several cardboard recycling bins near the dorms, and McCormick said students should use them until more substantial bins are provided. “The ones that I put near the dorms — they can put bottles and cans in a bin and they can also put cardboard or paper or anything else in the other bins,” McCormick said.
UNM community members can get their electronic waste recycled free of charge on campus this Saturday. UNM Recycling, NetImpact and the Staff Council Environs Committee teamed up to host the third annual UNM E-waste Recycling Event, where students, faculty and staff can recycle old cell phones, radios, microwaves, VCRs, DVD Players and more for free. Recycling old televisions, however, will cost $10. Linda McCormick, president of UNM Recycling, said electronic waste can hurt the environment. “If they’re not recycled, then they can have a profound negative impact on the environment, because they typically contain heavy metals like lead or copper in the solder, tin — things like that,” she said.
A growers market, complete with a solar-powered band, a balloonist and more than a dozen local food vendors, will take over Johnson field on Saturday. Sustainability Studies Program Coordinator Terry Horger, who organized the event, said the growers market emphasizes environmental consciousness and local produce.
The checkered flag might wave early for a team of race car-building students. The Formula Society of Automotive Engineers is an annual international collegiate engineering competition where students design and build their own race cars.
Martinique Chavez, daughter of Mayor Martin Chavez, is a sophomore who inherited her father’s zeal for politics. She’s double majoring in political science and broadcast journalism. Martinique has been surrounded by politics since she was three, and when her father hands the reigns over to Mayor-elect Richard Berry on Dec. 1, she is anticipating some major changes in her life.
UNM community members can give input on proposed admissions standards changes and get responses to their concerns by e-mailing the Office of Enrollment Management. The e-mails are posted on an online forum linked to the main page of the UNM Web site.
A group of UNM students is offering a healthy alternative to the snack options of chips and candy available at the SUB. The UNM chapter of New Mexico Youth Organized has a fruit stand, stocked with local and organic fruit, near the duck pond. Cheyenne Beardsley, co-chairwoman of UNM NMYO, said the group has organized the fruit stand twice and plans to open it again on Friday. “We sell organic and local fruit and we’re trying to have that available for students on campus,” she said.
If you’ve ever been frustrated trying to understand your degree audit online, help is on the way, according to the Office of Enrollment Management. The LOBO Trax degree audit is an upgraded version of the current E-Progress report, said Annette Torres, Enrollment Management senior degree audit analyst.
The UNM class ring is available after five years of careful design. The ring is available from Jostens, a nationwide college ring manufacturer, for $511 to $630, depending on the type of metal used and ring size. The same company makes Eastern New Mexico University’s ring for $408 and New Mexico Tech’s ring for $388 to $494.
The worldwide non-profit organization Invisible Children has reached the UNM campus. In early 2003, three young filmmakers from southern California embarked on a journey to Africa in search of a story they could share with the world. When Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole reached Uganda, they learned of an epic tragedy that shocked them and motivated them to make several documentaries displaying the hardships faced by Ugandans. The documentaries expose the plight of northern Ugandan child soldiers in the hands of Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army since 1989. The documentaries had a powerful and inspiring impact on two UNM students, Carol Payne and Kristin Sandine, who created Invisible Children UNM this semester. The Invisible Children UNM group had a free viewing of two of the documentary films, “The Rescue of Joseph Kony’s Child Soldiers” and “Together We Are,” on Monday in the SUB Movie Theater. Payne, vice president of Invisible Children UNM, said the organization aims at grassroots activism to fix a problem thousands of miles away.
The empty space at Lomas and Yale boulevards is going from a lot of dirt to a lot of concrete. UNM began construction Monday to convert the Bureau of Business and Economic Research parking lot, or J lot, to a parking structure for 800 vehicles.
Daily Lobo: How long have you been doing flips? Zackery Wright: I have been doing it for three years. DL: How did you learn? ZW: I taught myself very carefully.
While the 2009 New Mexico Legislature special session has yet to bear budgetary fruit, one thing is pretty much guaranteed: University presidents will have discretion in making the cuts handed down to them from the state. For UNM, this means that the University’s ethnic centers — including El Centro de la Raza, African American Student Services and American Indian Student Services — are going to be protected from any budget cuts, according to a statement from President David Schmidly. “We’ve asked for flexibility in dealing with the proposed budget cuts so that we can do what’s best for the institution as a whole,” Schmidly said. “UNM’s ethnic centers are vital to the success of our students and it is always our priority to preserve the programs that deal directly with student success.” Before the special session, the Council of University Presidents wrote a letter to legislators requesting flexibility in implementing the cuts the Legislature recommended. “Institutions want to control their own budget decisions,” the letter stated.
Congressman Martin Heinrich was on campus Monday to meet with UNM health officials, visit the flu vaccination clinic in the SUB and discuss UNM’s preparation for the H1N1 virus. “I wanted to see the clinic here and see how they are handling the coordination between UNM-H, UNM and the entire campus community,” Heinrich said.
Classical-music lovers may not see much of Popejoy Hall auditorium in the weekends ahead. The New Mexico Symphony Orchestra often performs at Popejoy, but since Aug.
Homecoming week has arrived, filled with festivities for the UNM community. The celebration will kick off Tuesday with a department-decorating contest.
Solutions by The State News
