DAILY LOBO new mexico
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tuesday
April 10, 2012
The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
ASUNM Senate candidate runs slate-less by Victoria Carreon vcarreon@unm.edu
At UNM, candidates traditionally run for ASUNM as part of a slate, but one candidate this year broke tradi-
tion by running independently. Spenser Owens, who is running for a Senate seat, said he chose to run separate from the other slates, Impact and Students for Students, to bring more diversity to the table.
“I am running independently because I want to break the slates up, and bring fresh, new ideas to the Senate independent from others who would be running with me,” Owens said.
Ruby Santos / Daily Lobo Student Spenser Owens poses for a portrait in the SUB Monday. Owens is running as an independent separate from the other slates in the ASUNM spring elections.
Students have historically run for positions in ASUNM on slates, groups made up of students with a particular platform and common ideas, which allows candidates to pool resources. Owens has dubbed his campaign “Integrity” and said his goal if elected is to improve conservation and sustainability. As a commuter student, Owens said he wants to push issues that would help students who do not live on campus, especially those who use the school’s shuttles. He’d like to do this by equipping the shuttles with GPS devices that would allow students to use a phone application to determine where the buses are so they can plan their trip better. While running as an independent is unusual, Owens isn’t the first student to go it alone in an election. In fall 2009, Connor Lites ran independently for senator and lost. Last spring, Lites planned to run again as an independent candidate, but backed out before the election. Lites said the slate system complicates the legislative process. “I think it just makes it harder for a lot of people to get their foot in the door and it makes it harder for people who may not get along with other people in ASUNM to stay and be honest,” he said.
Although Lites did not succeed as an independent candidate, he became involved with ASUNM as a senior associate justice on Student Court. Lites said his experience as chief justice revealed inconsistencies with rules governing slate formation. The ASUNM Constitution is based on the U.S. Constitution. It handles groups in the same manner — political parties are not officially recognized in either document. According to the ASUNM Law book, groups of students running together are not officially recognized. However, no law exists prohibiting slates. Lites said this situation creates an inconsistency within ASUNM. “Why let people group together if you do not want to recognize them as a group?” Lites said. “There should just be a campaign regulation barring any groups from forming and running.” Like Lites, Owens thinks something needs to be done about slates. “In my opinion, students should run on their own individual merits and should manage their own financial affairs and campaigning,” Owens said. “That allows the maximum amount of connections to be formed between candidate and constituency and the maximum amount of accountability.”
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Wireless problems due to lack of funding, resources by Avicra Luckey
avicraluckey@gmail.com According to a recent survey, students identified reliable wireless Internet access as the No. 1 tool they need in UNM study spaces, but the department doesn’t have the money to provide it. Jane McGuire, strategic planner and chief information officer for IT, said slow and unpredictable service is caused by the fact that IT’s wireless routers are too old and too few in number. She said there would need to be a complete $5 million overhaul if students want to see reliable wireless Internet access across campus. “You can’t have wireless without a wired network, so you have to have the wired infrastructure first and then you build the wireless on top of that,” she said. McGuire said although the IT department’s budget is $32 million, there is not enough money to replace the old wireless routers, let alone to rebuild from the ground up. “We would need approximately $5 million. We would need to replace the existing obsolete (routers) and increase the density,” she said. “You couldn’t do that all in one year. It would be that kind of thing that if you did over three years or five years you’d have to hire a lot of staff, it’s not just find the equipment, configuring it, deploying it.” Emily Bulling, a first year graduate student earning an M.F.A in dance, said she experiences trouble in some areas. “I don’t really use it that much to be honest with you; every time that I have used it hasn’t worked,” she said. “I’m a dance major, I’m in the dance building and we don’t have
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our own wireless in there so it’s a struggle to try and get it. We’ve all come to the conclusion that we’ll never be able to use wireless in the dance building.” The Daily Lobo tested Internet connections in areas around campus. The best Internet connection of the those tested was at Zimmerman Library with a download speed of 9 Mbps, according to the app, SpeedTest. In an effort to garner additional funding to improve service, IT requested $128.84 per student from the Student Fee Review Board, but only received $16.39 per student. SFRB member Greg Montoya-Mora said SFRB recommended this amount to help pay for printing costs, but not for wireless support, which the board said needs to come from other funds. “In no way (did IT) expect us to fund all of their $3 million request, but through talking it out we found out what would be most appropriate for students to pay for, in this case (it was) software,” he said. “We don’t think it’s the student’s responsibility to have to pay to fix computers or replace them, that’s out of Instruction and General funding.” The same fall 2011 survey reported 61 percent of students surveyed experience difficulty connecting to the wireless network at the University. McGuire said a $2 million budget cut for the fiscal year 2011-2012 means the department has been unable to make any equipment updates this year. Although McGuire said the IT department needs more money from student fees, in its request for funds from SFRB it said $0 will go to improving wireless on campus. IT spends about 30 percent of its budget
on salaries for 150 staff and 75 students. These students and staff members work in all areas of IT, from maintenance of applications such as my.unm.edu to grade reporting and payroll. McGuire said IT employs only eight network engineers charged with taking care of all UNM’s wireless needs. During fiscal year 2011-2012, IT’s biggest expense was help desk and workstation management at $706,806. Networks came in second at about $646,500 and third was about $483,500
for staffing and general administration. Since IT did not get the fee increase from students it expected through SFRB, McGuire said the department plans on fundraising through foundations outside the University. “We will be looking for grants from any external foundations, such as federal grant opportunities and also, I believe, there’s one from the National Science Foundation and local organizations that support development in New Mexico,” she said.
Campus wireless speeds
Speeds by Speedtest on a 4th gen iPhone
Place
Network type
Download speed
Upload speed
Zimmerman
WiFi
9.00 Mbps
10.94 Mbps
Johnson Gym
WiFi
5.61 Mbps
3.73 Mbps
Mitchell Hall
WiFi
2.66 Mbps
2.81Mbps
Mesa Vista
WiFi
1.84 Mbps
1.23 Mbps
SUB.
WiFi
1.62 Mbps
1.88 Mbps
Duck Pond
Cell Network*
1.06 Mbps
0.05 Mbps
Art Building
WiFi
0.73 Mbps
0.82 Mbps
Dane Smith
WiFi
0.71 Mbps
0.53 Mbps
*No WiFi was available at the Duck Pond
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