The Associated Students of the University of New Mexico elected student-Senator Satchel Ben to President Pro Tempore of the student senate Saturday afternoon. Ben was elected with a 19-0 count, with one senator absent. Ben is a junior studying finance at the Anderson School of Management. Last semester Ben served as the chair of the ASUNM Finance Committee.
Nearly five hours of public meeting, and still four sports were cut from the University of New Mexico Athletics Department Friday. The decision at the special Boards of Regents meeting was in many ways similar to the contentious July 19 meeting, eliminating men and womens skiing, beach volleyball and men’s soccer, but kept diving. The meeting was called after the Office of the Attorney General (NMAG) said the meeting in July “violated” the state’s Open Meetings Act according to a letter sent to the University last week by the NMAG threatening legal action if another meeting was not held. The University responded earlier this week, stating it did not violate OMA, but would hold another meeting.
The Board of Regents will convene to have a meeting regarding cuts to four sports from the University of New Mexico’s athletics program tomorrow at 1 p.m. Sound familiar? That’s because it’s a re-do. The meeting held on July 19 “violated” the state’s Open Meetings Act (OMA) according to a letter sent to the University last week by the Office of the Attorney General (NMAG) threatening legal action if another meeting was not held.
The University of New Mexico Board of Regents met on Tuesday morning to discuss veterans programs, global and national security degrees, medicare and more. President Garnett Stokes spoke about her statewide “listening and learning tour,” which wraps up this week. She said she has traveled over 4,287 miles and met over 1,100 people across the state of New Mexico. Stokes is now working to create initiatives based on the information gathered and issues discovered on her tour. Some of these initiatives include growing the teaching and healthcare workforces, coordinating with businesses to create more internship opportunities for students, and increasing alumni engagement and community outreach.
A list of Distinguished Professors on the Provost’s website shows that since the 2004-2005 academic year, the University of New Mexico has promoted 92 professors to this rank. Out of those 92, 16 of them are women. Dr. Alex Lubin said the Office of the Provost is fully aware of this disparity and its employees are working to remedy it. Lubin is the associate provost for faculty development. He has been with UNM since 2002, when he was an assistant professor in the Department of American Studies. One of his responsibilities includes managing the Distinguished Professor process.
My study abroad program lasted about two weeks and took place in Mexico City. The program — called Camera, Culture and Coyoacán: Framing the Urban Landscape in Mexico City and La Luna, La Virgen y La Frida — was led by University of New Mexico Staff Jaelyn DeMaria and Roberto Rosales with members from Instituto Legal. From the beginning of the program I learned about some of the deep, coexisting histories and cultures imbedded with the land. I learned about how, for thousands of years, the maguey agave plant — a native species to Mexico — has been used for sewing, medicine and making beverages.
The new director of the University of New Mexico Press will be Stephen Hull, who starts on September 17. Richard Schuetz is currently the interim director of UNM Press and has been for about a year. When Hull takes over, Schuetz will transition to the position of associate director of business affairs. Schuetz is from Waco, Texas, where he earned his B.A. in business from Baylor University. He received his MBA from the University of Central Florida and has been with UNM Press since 2002.
Researchers at the University of New Mexico, NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Arizona State University recently had their research titled Silica-rich volcanism in the Early Solar System Dated at 4.565 Ga published in Nature Communications after uncovering the oldest igneous meteorite on record. The meteorite, known as Northwest Africa (NWA) 11119, is 4.6 billion years old, making it 65 million years older than Earth and 2 million years younger than the earliest fragments of the solar system, according to UNM professor and Director of the Institute of Meteoritics Carl Agee.
The University of New Mexico hosted its fifth annual Summer Community College Opportunity for Research Experience (SCCORE) this summer. According to the SCCORE website, the program is part of the Alliance for Minority Participation (AMP), which aims to increase the success of minority students pursuing STEM degrees. The program works by allowing students who are currently attending community colleges across the state to participate in a four-week long summer research project at the university they intend to transfer to. In addition to participating in research, the program allows the students to attend orientation sessions that help them get to know the campus, as well as professional development workshops. This summer, five students had the opportunity to participate in the SCCORE program at UNM.
The New Mexico Attorney General’s office sent a letter to the University of New Mexico stating last month’s Board of Regents meeting to cut sports “violated” the state’s Open Meetings Act (OMA). In response, the University said it did nothing wrong. “Although this issue is moot in light of the upcoming meeting and agenda, the University would nevertheless like to address the alleged non-compliance because (1) it was never the University's intent to be vague or overly broad in the agenda item and (2) the University believes that the agenda item complied with the guidance provided by the AG Compliance Guide,” Associate University Counsel Patrick Hart wrote in a letter.
Editor's Note: A previous version of this article contained misquotes and incorrect paraphrasing of both President Stokes and UNMPD Chief Kevin McCabe.
The lunch rush has come and gone at Chēba Hut. Its employees shuffle around cleaning tables and helping customers. Isaac Montoya is working the register. As a Pink Floyd song reaches its climax, Montoya finishes inputting a customer’s order, a French Dip sandwich named after a strand of weed, the AK-47. As the customer heads towards his table, he’s wearing a smile he didn’t have when he came in. Montoya is a graduate of the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico, and the franchise owner of the Albuquerque Chēba Hut.
The University of New Mexico’s online college has been ranked as one of the most affordable and LGBTQ-friendly universities in the nation. OnlineU is a website that annually publishes many lists of the most affordable online U.S colleges. Their lists differ based on various demographic traits. This year, UNM rank 11th on their list of most affordable LGBTQ-friendly online colleges.
Student veterans at universities often find the experience more difficult than their peers, but not everyone is so understanding as to what that experience is. The University of New Mexico is taking steps to provide better services and education for student veterans. UNM is hosting two workshops to train staff and faculty as to better assist student veterans in their transition back to civilian life. The first workshop will be held on Monday, July 23rd, hosted by Dr. James Goff, the New Mexico Veterans Affairs’ chief of staff. It will be in the SUB, room Lobo A 8:30-4:30.
Boos and jeers rang out as the Board of Regents unanimously approved a proposal by the Athletic Department to eliminate four sports from the University of New Mexico. The sports included Men's Soccer, Women's Beach Volleyball, the diving portion of Women's Swimming & Diving, and both Men and Women's Skiing. Track and Field is also receiving a sizable reduction in athletes, but will remain a sport at the University. The decision affects a total of 63 athletes and was made, in part, due to struggles the Athletic Department has had with finances and Title IX compliance.
The final whistle will be blown for four University of New Mexico sports next July. After an emotional four and a half hour special Board of Regents meeting, the regents voted unanimously to cut men’s soccer, beach volleyball, women’s diving from the swimming and diving team, and men’s and women’s skiing.
Multiple professors at the University of New Mexico were promoted s to the rank of Distinguished Professor last week. The recipients are professors Timothy Graham, Greg Taylor, Vallabh Shah, Mohamed El-Genk, Karl Karlstrom and Mahmoud Taha. Distinguished Professor is the highest rank and title one can earn at UNM. The process of becoming one is exceptionally thorough and unarguably objective. The process begins by a professor being nominated by a colleague, but the nomination is not required to originate from a colleague in the same department.
A new student organization, the University of New Mexico Photography Club, is open to receiving members interested in a photography community as of June 4. The group is centered around creating a supportive community for people of all ages interested in taking photos at UNM. The executive board includes President Devon Ficher-Chavez, Vice President Justin Schatz, Treasurer Anthony Jackson, Secretary Paul Benne and Justine Lopez created the organization to create a community to push people’s limits and to bounce photo ideas off of eachother.
During a journey from Denver to El Paso, a bus carrying dozens of people crashed and flipped on its side on Interstate 25 near Bernalillo, killing at least three people and injuring 24, according to a Sandoval County Sheriff's Office press release. The press release stated that initial findings have indicated that the bus crash was part of a series of accidents that occurred around 2 a.m. Sunday morning. The first accident involved a truck rear-ending a car while heading southbound on I-25. The truck’s driver was ejected while the truck continued moving into oncoming traffic.
The ten-year Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant for the University of New Mexico’s Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy has ended and the Center is about to complete the process of transition by the end of July to its new enterprise — the UNM Center for Social Policy. The primary mission of the RWJF Center for Health Policy at UNM was to identify, train and graduate doctorate students primarily of color that focus on racial and ethnic health disparities.
Solutions by The State News
