DAILY LOBO new mexico
Upping the anti see page 5
wednesday The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
April 7, 2010
Capital projects department to lay off 6 workers by Leah Valencia Daily Lobo
UNM Office of Capital Projects is eliminating six full-time positions and cutting six unfilled positions to deal with a lack of funding for fiscal year 2011. “We’ve reduced the size of the organization by almost 50 percent,” said Vice President of Institutional Support Services Steve Beffort. “Because before we had 20-some employees.” Beffort said the OCP received a 60 percent
drop in funds from about $100 million per year to about $40 million. Though he couldn’t say how much money the layoffs would save the department, it is substantial, he said. “It’s enough to balance the budget next year based upon the numbers we are looking at,” he said. William Turner, director of capital projects, said the department saw the budget decrease coming. Turner said most capital projects employees have been on staff from three to 15 years. He noted that Human Resources policies stipulate
that the department follows seniority preferences when conducting layoffs. “On average, it is the people with the least seniority,” he said. “But in one of the job categories, an individual that has been here over 15 years is being laid off.” For privacy reasons, Turner would not release the names of the laid-off employees. “We are able to project income versus expense two to three years in advance,” he said. “We have known that our projected income has been shrinking.” However, the Board of Regents said at the
end of 2008 that the University’s financial situation would allow for future projects to continue. “I don’t anticipate layoffs,” Regent Jamie Koch said during a December 2008 Finance and Facilities meeting. Both Koch and UNM President David Schmidly said expanding projects during the economic downturn would create jobs for UNM community members. Turner said that though the OCP knew they would have to deal with an income shortfall in
see Layoffs page 3
Business plan takes students to Germany
Dance quake
by Tricia Remark Daily Lobo
Vanessa Sanchez / Daily Lobo Celia Lopez-Chavez, left, and Andrea Guendelman dance the “Cueca,” a Chilean folk dance near the SUB on Tuesday. The dance was part of a fundraiser to help victims of the Feb. 27 earthquake in Chile. To help relief efforts, visit UnTechoParaChile.cl.
U News offers a student-run broadcast outlet by Andrew Beale Daily Lobo
In the Wild West of UNM journalism, there’s a new gunslinger in town — albeit a friendly one. U News, a Web-based TV station, has been broadcasting once a week starting this semester, said founder and news director Dan Martinez. Martinez said U News is available only on the group’s Facebook page, which is linked to Unews. unm.edu. He said U News plans to start broadcasting on televisions in the SUB as early as next week. U News has been completely student-directed from the start, Martinez said. “The cool thing about it is it wasn’t a faculty member or someone from one of the departments that wanted to do this,” he said. “It was myself. It was the students that worked really hard to get this started.”
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 114
issue 130
Martinez said the nine-person U News staff is made up of volunteers, and students who want to work with U News are welcome to contact them and pitch an idea. “We’re looking for people to join next semester,” he said. “You don’t have to be a journalism student to get involved. We want everybody.” Martinez said he sees the project as an addition to the news projects operating at UNM, not as a competitor. “I don’t see us as competing against the Daily Lobo or UNM Today,” he said. “There’s no reason the Daily Lobo can’t work with us, no reason we can’t just have a TV outlet for this.” U News already works with several campus outlets to produce content, he said. “We use so many different outlets other than just ourselves,” he said. “The people who run GoLobos. com send us sports videos, (and) the people who do
UNM Today point us to good stories.” Broadcast journalism is rapidly changing, and journalists are required to perform diverse tasks such as writing, recording and sound editing. “Now you have to do all that stuff yourself,” he said. “It’s so much better for kids our age. We grew up multitasking, using so many different technologies.” U News Reporter Alex Zannes said the station provides a valuable experience for students. “We’ve come a long way in recent weeks. It’s a learning experience for everyone, and it’s student driven, so we have the creative control,” he said. Zannes said one of the most important things U News has done for the University is to provide coverage of the upcoming ASUNM elections. “We’re trying to do a bunch of election coverage (because) student elections is one of the things that
see U news page 3
Where are we?
The wheels are turning
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Five UNM students are chasing their dreams — all the way to Hamburg, Germany. The group earned one of five spots at the International Supercomputer Conference 2010 in Germany with a business plan they made for a local company, said graduate student Adel Saad. “We’re really excited because, in the beginning, they told us that they’re pretty competitive in Europe,” he said. “I think it’s great to see that we can keep up with the international community even though we’re from New Mexico.” MBA student Charles Kassicieh said he helped predict revenue, sales and expenses, made a five-year timeline and researched future clients. “I think this will help UNM put us on the map internationally, especially for engineering and business,” he said. The start-up plan that the group made for Creative Consultants, a local supercomputing company, takes cutting-edge technology and makes it widely available over the Internet. The technology processes large groups of numbers at the same time, not serially like a normal computer. This produces faster results for scientists, engineers and researchers. Kassicieh said the technology is becoming especially popular in biomedical sciences for looking at molecules and how they interact with their environment. “I think our technology will help companies come up with drugs and cures faster,” he said. “It can help people in the movie industry, mining, medical imaging — a lot of people can benefit from our plans.” Saad said the group competed against 54 groups from all around the world. The conference is May 30 through June 3, and the students will get 20 minutes to talk about their start-up project, as well as a chance to show their project to representatives
see Germany page 3
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