DAILY LOBO new mexico
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tuesday The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
February 23, 2010
IT seeks input on revamped e-mail portal by Shaun Griswold
by Candace Hsu
Daily Lobo
Daily Lobo
UNM alumni are opening up their homes to 12 strangers. “Dinner with 12 Strangers” began about six years ago to better connect alumni and students. This year, former students will host 10 dinners will be hosted in their own homes, said Sue MacEachen, the program coordinator at the Alumni Association. “There is no agenda for the dinner,” she said. “It is just casual conversation. The intent is that the group will have one thing in common, which is some type of connection to the University.” The annual event has had about 75 to 100 participants each year. All the dinners will be held throughout Thursday, Friday and Saturday at different houses. Attendees can’t select which dinner they attend, unless a day is restricted for them. This allows the dinners to have a large range of people, MacEachen said. Students, faculty, and alumni applied in early February to attend the dinners by contacting MacEachen. It was on a first-come, first-serve basis and students can still apply. MacEachen said they try to coordinate the homemade dinners as close to UNM’s birthday as possible. “This year the birthday is on Sunday,” she said. “Each host will get a birthday cake to give as the dessert. Students can meet professors that are not all in the same department. The idea is to have different people meet each other and learn from them.” Laura Kelley, the alumni relations officer at Anderson School of Management, attended a dinner last year. “It is a really great opportunity to meet people in the community and on campus,” Kelley said. “We talked about food, the University, and some alumni even shared some stories from when they were students. It’s fun to see the different perspectives that people have on UNM.” The hosts are all volunteers, MacEachen said. The only funding given is for the birthday cake. “It is an easy way to get involved. It doesn’t require a lot of attention besides being able to carry a conversation. It is really light hearted, with no obligation. I think people should really take advantage of the program because there is a lot to gain,” Kelley said. Ryan Lindquist has attended dinners in the past, and is hosting one this year. Lindquist is the associate director of student activities. “I’ve been to three dinners and all of them have been great,” he said. “It is a great opportunity to get connected with people that you don’t know. Every person there has gone or is attending UNM. It is nice to have that common ground.” He said anyone with spare time should sign up for a dinner. “I highly suggest the opportunity,” Lindquist said, “It is 10 times better to sit and share stories and to make connections than to just stay at home, as long as your evening is open.” To attend a dinner, e-mail Sue at Smac14@unm.edu
UNM Students and staff are growing accustomed to the updated e-mail system, even if they are disinclined to the sudden change. A forum, scheduled for Wednesday in Hokona Theater, will provide students and staff an outlet to voice their problems and suggestions about the e-mail system. UNM Information Technologies is hosting four more forums throughout February and March. Moira Gerety, IT spokeswoman, said the department is receptive to concerns about the UNM e-mail system. “We are really going to talk about what your problems are,” Gerety said. “We want to listen to what the campus is saying. We want to know how students use e-mail. We are hearing that people are interested in having a single e-mail system that faculty, staff and students can collaborate on.” The forum is part of a collaborative process brought on by the UNM Enterprise Messaging and Calendaring Assessment. The groups seeks to develop a campus-wide consensus about the direction of messaging services so “the appropriate investments can be made with confidence,” Gerety said. “We intend to replace just about everything we have (in the) system that everyone will use,” she said. Gerety said it‘s important for students to come to the open forums to ensure their voice is heard on this matter. A survey will be e-mailed to students for their input if they can’t make it to the forum. Student Dayra Fallad said the revised e-mail system didn’t transfer her address book. She said her other concerns were that the system is too slow, confusing and logs users out too quickly. “I am part of a lot of student organizations and all of my work e-mail goes to my UNM email, so it is my primary e-mail, and I lost all my e-mail groups during the transition,” Fallad said. “I miss the old interface. It was convenient, easy to use and the new e-mail is not user friendly.” Gerety said that after UNM upgraded its banner system that some UNM systems are based on — including MyUNM and LoboWeb — it became evident that the system vendor, SunGuard, could not support the e-mail system. UNM was forced to change the interface of its email service to the web portal system to remain up to date with SunGuard development. “The (MyUNM) portal has been more designed to handle transactions between students
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UNM partners up to promote U.S.-Mexico border research center by Kallie Red-Horse Daily Lobo
UNM is joining other universities near the U.S.-Mexico border to create a resource center aimed at tackling an issue at the forefront of American politics. UNM signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Feb. 16 to potentially collaborate with institutions bordering Mexico to create a Border Studies Resource Center, led by the University of Texas at Brownsville. Antonio Zavaleta, associate provost at the
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University of Texas at Brownsville, said the creation of such a resource is paramount in today’s political climate. “We feel that the U.S-Mexico border is one of the most important — if not the most important — region in the United States today,” he said. “Looking forward to the next presidential election and beyond, immigration-reform issues concerning illegal immigration, homeland security, border security — all that will become forefront in the American mind, and we believe that there is not enough information available to people about the border out there now.”
The on-campus meeting generated interest from a diverse range of University departments and resulted in signing a Memorandum of Understanding between UNM and UT Brownsville, said Vice President for Student Affairs Eliseo ”Cheo” Torres. “The meeting was just basically bringing faculty from both universities together,” he said. “It was a meeting to get input and advice and to talk about collaborations here in the near future.” Torres said UNM departments in attendance included the School of Public Ad-
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ministration, the Spanish Colonial Research Center, the Communication and Journalism Department, the Law School and University College. The Memorandum of Understanding is not a binding contract, Zavaleta said, but just a means of facilitating communication between the institutions. “It doesn’t commit us to any specific thing, funds or resources, but it does allow us to sit down and talk about potential collaborative
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