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February 2, 2012
Study abroad gains popularity by Ashley McElroy amcelroy@unm.edu
Despite the downturn in the economy and rising education costs, more students from UNM are venturing abroad to study in other countries, and more international students are coming to UNM. The number of international students enrolled at UNM has increased from 927 in 2006 to 1013 in 2010, the most recent data year. Additionally, 484 students from UNM spent semesters studying abroad in 2010. The top three countries UNM students travelled to were Mexico, Italy, and Spain. Ken Carpenter, interim director of the Office of International Programs and Studies said students have been able to study abroad due to the number of available scholarships. The office has documented more than $300,000 in student scholarships this year. “Cost is one of the inhibitors and a lot of people think that there’s just no way they can afford it unless their families have a lot of money,” he said. “But we’ve been pretty successful in helping students find and apply for (scholarships).” OIPS is hosting its biannual study abroad fair today in the SUB atrium from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Students can get a chance to learn about study abroad opportunities through UNM and other outside programs. UNM offers discounts to students and allows them to use scholarships they have earned during their time at the University and apply them to study abroad programs, Carpenter said. The economy has made it tough for some students to participate in the program, but Carpenter said scholarships, including the Regents International Study Grant, are available to all UNM undergraduates. Students can also use their Lottery Scholarship to pay for tuition overseas, and tuition costs the same amount as it does at UNM for some programs; students just pay housing and living costs. Carpenter said the
costs are reasonable. OIPS is requesting about $40,000 in student fees from the Student Fee Review Board in 2013, up from $25,500. In their presentation before the board, OIPS members said the increase in the funding request follows budget cuts from the state and from the University in recent years. Carpenter said the fair is one of the most powerful tools for recruiting students. “It’s a chance to bring together all the different programs in one place,” he said. The Latin American and Iberian Institute offers study abroad programs in Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Robyn Cote, program manager for the institute, said students should attend the fair in order to find a program that is right for them and talk to other students. The LAII offers semester exchanges and intensive language programs. “They have a table where they can showcase things from their (home) country and people who went abroad can talk about their experiences,” she said. “I think the best thing is to have returning students there to talk about what they did abroad.” Both Carpenter and Cote agreed that it’s important to study abroad for personal and educational development. “It’s very effective for teaching people languages,” Carpenter said. “It looks good on a résumé and it gives you a real leg up on jobs because of the international and intercultural skills that students learn.” Lizzie Scripsick, who went to Granada, Spain last spring, said that going abroad was the best semester of her life. She said that the Lottery Scholarship funded her tuition and part of her other expenses. “My time in Granada taught me more that I could have ever learned in a classroom,” she said. “I learned a new language and about life in a different culture.”
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AIR DANCE
Dylan Smith / Daily Lobo AirDance New Mexico troupe member Josh Burgess reclines into the aerial fabric Monday night at AirDance ArtSpace. Aerial fabric is used to perform acrobatic feats up to 20 feet in the air.
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Kansas proposal employs undocumented immigrants by John Hanna
The Associated Press TOPEKA, Kan. — An architect of state and local laws cracking down on undocumented immigration is a leading Republican officeholder in Kansas, but business groups in his home state are asking legislators to move in the opposite direction by starting an unusual program designed to give undocumented immigrants hard-to-fill jobs. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a former law professor who helped draft tough laws against undocumented immigration in Alabama and Arizona, criticized the new Kansas proposal Tuesday as
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“amnesty” for people who have come to the U.S. illegally. A spokeswoman said Gov. Sam Brownback, a fellow Republican, isn’t supporting the measure. But Brownback’s agriculture secretary has acknowledged having several conversations with federal homeland security officials about potential labor shortages. The coalition pushing the new program includes agriculture groups with memberships that traditionally lean toward the GOP, as well as the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, another stalwart supporter of conservative Republicans. Utah has a guest worker program, but it isn’t set to start until January
2013, and its enactment was part of a legislative package that included initiatives in line with Kobach’s thinking on immigration. States with large populations of undocumented immigrants — including California, Florida and Texas — don’t have their own programs. It would be “unprecedented” if Kansas implemented the program proposed by its business groups, said Wendy Sefsaf, spokeswoman for the Washington-based Immigration Policy Center. She said she is skeptical that the federal government would allow such a program, though she’s sympathetic toward its goals. “Maybe it’s a good thing to have
a counterbalance to Kris Kobach,” she said. The new proposal complicates the debate over immigration in Kansas where, ironically, Kobach and his allies in the GOP-controlled Legislature haven’t been able to pass the same tough measures enacted in other states. It also could split Republican majorities enough that nothing of either stripe passes in an election year. Kobach said he doesn’t see the business groups’ proposals as a poke at him but rather as confirmation that some employers want to keep hiring undocumented immigrants to suppress wages. He also said they’re out of touch with legislators
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and Kansas voters. “Their bill is a legal impossibility and a political fantasy,” he said. “I don’t take it personally at all.” The new program proposed by the groups would create a pool of immigrant workers that businesses could tap after the state certifies a labor shortage in their industries. The state would support requests from individual workers for the federal government to authorize them to continue working in the U.S., despite not being able to document that they are in the country legally. Representatives of the groups pushing the plan provided a draft of
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