DAILY LOBO new mexico
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February 8, 2012
wednesday The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Student Fee Review Board begins deliberations Students share where they want their fees to go by Luke Holmen
The Student Fee Review Board deliberates on allocating a projected $10.7 million in student fees today. The board will review the applications and presentations made by the 27 organizations requesting funding. Each member of the board will make recommendations on the amount to fund each organization, and their recommendations will be averaged during the meeting. The averages will then be given to the President’s Strategic Budget Leadership Team by Feb. 15. The team votes on the final allocations by March 1. The Daily Lobo asked students how they feel their fees would be best spent.
by Nathan Farmer
news@dailylobo.com
Popejoy Hall Requests Requested 2012: $150,000.00 Received 2012: $93,388.64 Requested 2013: $150,067.50
The amount of student fees Popejoy Hall receives could determine how many shows students can attend for half price next year. Tom Tkach, director at Popejoy Hall, said the organization uses student fees to give students the chance to buy two tickets for every show at 50 percent off the
Jee Hwang
“I think student fees should be spent on good resource centers, that goes along with the ethnic centers and LGBTQ community as well. They should also be spent on academic departments.”
“I think that much of the student fees should be spent on hiring more graduate students, or at least providing more positions for graduates... Many graduate students seem to be dropping out because they can’t fund their education.”
president of the Multi-Cultural Greek Houses junior, nursing
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Popejoy requests funds to help keep half-price tickets
Shawna Nelson
GPSA representative Ph.D. student, economics
Matthew Jones
Jesse Haley-Walker
“Supplies for any and all organizations and academic programs since everyone gets charged that fee.”
“Research credits providing improvement to some of the facilities, teacher salaries, academic things.”
senior, university studies
sophomore, music
listed price. “The funding that we receive from SFRB is to support the discounted students’ tickets both for subscription and regular tickets,” Tkach said. Preston Jones, a junior majoring in music education at UNM, said students should always be given discounted prices regardless of how much funding Popejoy receives. Jones, who said he attends about six events each year, said raising student ticket prices would be unfair. “I feel like being a student at UNM, that’s being degrading to us,” he said. “We put a lot of money into this school and a lot of effort wanting to see a show that is presented to us for half the price.” In 2012, Popejoy Hall is bringing
in five traveling Broadway shows and 20 Ovation shows. The 1,985 seat hall currently offers an unlimited number of discounted student tickets for Ovation shows. For traveling Broadway shows, UNM students receive no discount. Tkach said in the past when Popejoy did not receive the full amount it requested from SFRB, it had money set aside to help subsidize the cost of student tickets. “In the past have we have had over $30,000 in additional subsidies so students can continue to attend events at Popejoy still,” he said. Jones said he is pleased Popejoy still wants to help out the students by subsidizing the tickets. “It’s good for them to keep their word and have the community and students come in
and watch shows for a cheaper price,” he said. “It still shows me that they are trying to do their fair share of the job.” Tkach said if the organization does not receive the full amount it requested from SFRB, it intends to continue offering student tickets at the discounted price. “We wouldn’t raise prices,” he said. “We have subsidized students in the past out of our own pocket.” Tkach said he is unsure how much money will be set aside next year to help subsidize student tickets. “It depends on what they (SFRB) decide to do,” Tkach said. “I don’t know what will happen this year with the funding. We will have look at that once we hear back from SFRB.” Tkach said regardless of how
much money the organization receives, it won’t affect how many shows Popejoy will bring to Albuquerque. “Our program won’t change substantially because we are really providing for a room scale that is well thought out by the public,” Tkach said. “Students will still attend regardless of what happens with the funding.”
SFRB deliberations Wednesday 6:30 p.m.- 9 p.m. Roberts Room in Scholes Hall open to the public
Travel advisories impact study abroad to Mexico by Nathan Farmer
news@dailylobo.com Violence in Mexico isn’t just scaring away vacationers from the country. Students are staying away, too. In 2009, the Provost’s Office issued a travel advisory for the country following an escalation of violence, and ever since the number of UNM students studying abroad in Mexico has dropped; 13 in 2009, seven in 2010, and only two in 2011. Robyn Cote, program manager at UNM’s Latin American and Iberian Institute, said the numbers are dropping because of a travel warning issued by UNM and by the United States Department of State. “People just don’t want to go to Mexico because of the travel warnings,” she said. “What they see and hear on the news has really impacted the amount of students studying in Mexico.” According to the Department of
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State, more than 15,000 murders occurred in Mexico in 2010 (2011 data not yet released), many of them drug related. In 2011, the death toll in Ciudad Juárez alone was reported to be 1,955. Cote said the drop in numbers started around the same time drug cartels began a campaign to take control of the Mexican government. Sarah Garcia is a senior at UNM planning to study in a foreign country over the summer, but said she has ruled out Mexico as an option. “I really don’t think it would be a good idea to ever go to Mexico, let alone for a summer,” she said. “I always hear on the news about all of the drug problems and kidnappings and murders. I don’t want to put myself in a situation where that could happen to me.” Cote said students are also denied some scholarships based on travel warnings, including the Benjamin Gilman International Scholarship. The scholarship, which
provides up to $5,000 to over 2,300 undergraduates each year, cannot be used in countries with a travel warning. Cote said students often opt to go to other countries where funding is more readily available.
“I really don’t think it would be a good idea to ever go to Mexico, let alone for a summer” ~Sarah Garcia UNM senior Former UNM student Andrew Beale studied in Mexico during the summer. He traveled to Mexico City, Querétaro and Cuernavaca, all lo-
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cated in central Mexico. He said he always felt safe. “There are still parts of Mexico that are completely safe if you know where you’re going and you know what you’re doing,” he said. Deborah Kuidis, manager of industrial security at UNM, said Ciudad Juárez is extremely dangerous. “Juárez is the most violent city in the world, and I believe that the increase in murders has a direct correlation with why students are not studying there,” she said. Kuidis puts together an international safety presentation at a mandatory pre-departure meeting for students studying abroad each semester. She said she focuses on students studying in Mexico. “I tell them to travel in groups, and I let them know about the drug cartel issues that are going (on) over there,” she said. “They can just be in the wrong place at the wrong time and be a victim of a homicide.” UNM offers students 35 differ-
ent universities to study at in Mexico, but Lia Driscoll, office assistant at LAII said students from UNM only visit a small number of safer universities in the country, including universities in central and southern Mexico. “No UNM students are allowed to go to any northern part of Mexico, including Monterrey and Nuevo Leon,” she said. Driscoll said if students want to study at universities in the north, including Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, and Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, they are required to apply for special permission from the Regents. But Cote said Mexico isn’t as dangerous as it is made out to be. “For everyone who goes there they honestly don’t have any problems,” she said. “They all felt very safe when they were down there and I still encourage students to go there.”
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