When I asked Antoine Predock for an interview, I was not expecting to be welcomed as if I were a family member who was coming for a casual visit after a long absence. Predock, a renowned architect, greeted me with a big smile, his famous black-leather jacket, his sunglasses and his hat. He was dressed like a motorcycle rider, which helped us bond over our shared love for Ducati’s.
At the end of last year, the city passed an ordinance prohibiting pedestrians from panhandling motorists or people within a vehicle on medians or busy streets. Although a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico stopped the enforcement of the ordinance (at least during the duration of litigation) the idea of the ordinance still resonates with me today.
Albuquerque is a city with a strong cultural presence. The city has developed over many years and has been modernized along the way. Technology and development are quickly overtaking history, so I felt it appropriate to return to Albuquerque's roots.
Just a short trip outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico is one of the largest and most significant monuments to be discovered on American land — Chaco Canyon. Chaco Canyon was an active community between 900 and 1150 AD, where its indigenous population made revolutionary strides in architecture, agriculture and astronomy.
Dance is not only an extremely emotional and expressive visual art, but also a massive community of artists that support each other. The University of New Mexico’s Department of Theatre and Dance is a community of exciting collaborations between dancers, choreographers, musicians and costume designers regularly.
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles by the Daily Lobo about individuals running for public office in New Mexico this year. University of New Mexico alumna Deb Haaland is a Democrat running for Congress in New Mexico Congressional District 1. If Haaland wins the election, she will be the first Native American woman ever elected to Congress, as she is a tribal member of the Laguna Pueblo. Haaland graduated from UNM with an undergraduate degree in English in 1994, and gave birth to her daughter four days later. She also graduated from UNM School of Law with her Juris Doctor in 2005. Haaland said she has always been enthusiastic about helping people become active in their community and exercising their right to vote.
Nine students, ranging from undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D. levels, and two faculty members to represent the University of New Mexico at the Kennedy Span Center in Florida for the NASA Swarmathon. UNM originally proposed the idea for the Swarmathon competition several years ago after NASA requested competition suggestions from universities across the country, said Dr. Melanie Moses, a professor of computer science and principal investigator of the NASA Swarmathon.
On April 27, the Islamic Center of New Mexico opened its doors to students of the University of New Mexico, allowing those of all religions, genders and walks of life to attend its daily prayer service. UNM students were allowed to attend the daily prayer services held at the mosque, which was followed by a missionary Muslim speaker’s presentation to the student group. Those attending were also given the opportunity to talk with members of Albuquerque’s Muslim community to attend the daily prayer services, themselves.
The University of New Mexico College of Education is currently undergoing a self-evaluation process to determine if the name of the college accurately represents all of its departments and paths of study. According to the College of Education Dean Hector Ochoa, this has been a lengthy process that began in 2012.
New Mexico is the ninth sunniest state in the nation, and the future looks bright for the dermatology program at the University of New Mexico. The dermatology resident program re-earned accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) – meaning medical school graduates have the chance to train in the specialty in New Mexico.
Student Health and Counseling celebrated their condom-mint program’s 7th anniversary by providing paletas, condoms, mints and safe sex pamphlets to University students on April 26. The event, held in the Student Union Building Mall, was in collaboration with representatives from the University of New Mexico Truman Health Services, the UNM LGBTQ Resource Center and the LoboRESPECT Advocacy Center.
The UNM Green Fund has invested $43,000 of allocated student fees to support student-created projects like electric charging stations in campus parking garages, a seed library and a composting system to Lobo Gardens and events educating the public on zero waste initiatives. UNM’s Office of Sustainability created the Green Fund five-years ago. Its mission is to stimulate ideas and actions that make UNM more environmentally friendly.
The University of New Mexico College Democrats held a panel, featuring women involved in politics in New Mexico, at the Student Union Building earlier this month. The event, Women in Politics, featured a panel made up of Antoinette Sedillo Lopez and Deb Haaland, both running for a spot in the U.S.
The University of New Mexico has a lack of female faculty in science, technology, engineering and math fields. A survey of UNM departments reveals a disparity between male and female faculty members. This shortage of female professors is apparent in the STEM fields. Of 12 STEM departments at UNM, the percentage of tenure-track female faculty (assistant, associate, full and distinguished professors) is only 24 percent. All of the departments had more male than female faculty.
Associated Students of New Mexico President Noah Brooks and Vice President Sally Midani each gave a State of ASUNM address Thursday afternoon. The address highlighted campus events, improving campus lighting, promoting sexual assault awareness and this year’s tuition bump. “We had a lot of big challenges that we faced from the very beginning,” Brooks said, addressing students in the Student Union Building theater.
On Tuesday night, Patricia Henning, Ph.D. of the University of New Mexico’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, spoke about solar systems, stars and other elements of the universe, while also touching on her own research. She gave a lecture titled “Our Abundant Universe” as part of the New Mexico Philharmonic’s series, “Discovering Abundance.” Held on the third floor of Hodgin Hall, Alexis Corbin, operations coordinator and personnel manager of the New Mexico Philharmonic, introduced the lecture.
The Institute for Medieval Studies hosted their 33rd Annual Spring Lecture Series this week. Speakers came from many different universities around the world to talk about elements pertaining to this year’s topic: “Sacred Objects and Places of the Middle Ages,” according to Timothy Graham, director of the Institute for Medieval Studies and regents' professor at the University of New Mexico. “We're...examining that concept of sacred objects and places through four different religious and cultural traditions: the Western European Latin Christian tradition, the Greek Orthodox tradition, the Hebrew tradition and the Islamic tradition,” Graham said. “The individual lectures are going to be talking about particular revered books within those traditions, buildings or locations.”
The glasses came off, and on and no punches were pulled. Gina McCarthy, the former administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama, gave an animated speech to community members at the University of New Mexico School of Law about the concerns of climate change Wednesday evening. The focus of the speech was reframing how climate change and policy is discussed.
University of New Mexico community members gathered at Cornell Mall Wednesday evening to advocate and raise awareness for sexual violence. The event, formerly called Take Back the Night, was renamed Survivors Stand. It was hosted by the Student Alliance for Reproductive Justice, a student run group on campus. Survivors Stand was one of the last events at UNM held during April for Sexual Assault Awareness month.
Mostafa Peysokhan, an international student studying optical science and engineering at the University of New Mexico, is not willing to stand by and watch plastic bags pollute waters and harm marine wildlife. In February of this year, Peysokhan came up with an idea that could potentially change the impact of plastic bags on our world. He designed a device that can compress up to 50 plastic bags and by using heat and pressure, will turn them into a small compact disk.
Solutions by The State News
