DAILY LOBO new mexico
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July 23-August 12, 2012
summer The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
UNM looks to expand cramped med school Addition would ameliorate state’s health care workforce shortage by Avicra Luckey
avicraluckey@gmail.com A $29.7 million addition to the Domenici Center for Health Sciences Education could be underway in less than a year. If approved by the 2013 Legislature, the proposed project would be funded by severance tax bonds. Chief Information Officer for the Health Sciences Center (HSC) Holly Shipp Buchanan said the University has already had to turn away qualified nursing students due to lack of space and will have to do the same with other HSC programs if space isn’t found. “We are at capacity for our existing facilities,” she said. “We have worked with our education dean and found that there is a need to increase the HSC education programs by nearly 50 percent by 2018. The reason for this is to address New Mexico’s health care workforce shortage.” HSC Student Council President David Medrano said the medical school has added students through the University’s BA/MD program, which has caused the class size to increase to about 100 students. He said that the class size exceeds the capacity for available space. Medrano said the increase in medical school students forced the College of Pharmacy and College of Nursing to share space and sometimes move classes to entirely
different buildings. “We’re kind of just swapped,” he said. “We actually had to kick the College of Pharmacy out of their auditorium, because their classroom was the only classroom on north campus that could fit us.” Medrano said most of the facilities for the HSC are more than 20 years old and have outdated technology. He said the lack of up-to-date technology discourages promising students from attending the University. Buchanan said the addition to the Domenici Center could operate as early as spring of 2016 and that the additional 85,000 square feet will be used primarily for classroom space. She said the addition will include videoconferencing technology that will allow students to stay in touch with professors and classmates while out of the classroom. “As an example, students who may be on a rotation out in clinical areas would be able to conference in and attend virtually, so that their learning doesn’t stop when they’re at their clinical sites,” she said. Buchanan said the planning committee for the addition consulted with representatives from the schools of pharmacy, nursing and medicine and learned that students were interested in having more communal learning spaces and team-centered learning. “Rather than an auditorium, our faculty are looking at space that would
Adria Malcolm / Daily Lobo Health Sciences Center Student Council President David Medrano (left) addressed problems with overcrowding in classrooms at a Health Sciences Center Board of Directors Meeting. HSC information officer Holly Shipp Buchanan said the University often has to turn down qualified nursing students due to lack of space. facilitate team-based learning, so that it’s not just the faculty member presenting a lecture,” she said. “Instead, there would be some prep work before and then the faculty member would facilitate discussion in the teams.” Buchanan said classrooms would include large tables, white boards and
more mobile chairs so students can rearrange them as needed. She said the addition will include an auditorium that seats about 150 students. Buchanan said the new facility will be able to compete with the University’s peer institutions and encourage more high school graduates to stay in-state
to continue their education. “We hope that (after graduating), they return to their communities, so that we continue to increase the number of clinicians in New Mexico, but also we facilitate people being able to stay in the state and give back to the state,” she said.
New presidents talk challenges, objectives UNM president Robert Frank
Daily Lobo: What have you done to get acquainted with the University and your new position as president at UNM? Robert Frank: It seems like a blur of meetings right now. When you come in, I grew up in New Mexico but I’ve been gone forever, so I don’t really know a lot of people here that I need to know. So it’s really just a process of getting to know the people here and what they’re trying to do and accomplish and how I can be helpful to them, and getting a clearer understanding of the challenges they see for their part of the University. It’s a huge place, and by the time you go from the north campus to the south campus and everything in between, there’s a ton to learn. And then of course, UNM has very dynamic streams, if you will, out into northern and central New Mexico as well as the rest of the state. So it’s all of these different people and understanding what they need from the University. Basically it’s just a lot of hearing what people are interested in and hearing out what they need and how I can help them. DL: How will you make yourself
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accessible to hearing the needs of the University? RF: I want to be as accessible as any human can be. The way we’ve done it thus far is that we’ve tried to be very open to requests and not censor requests, if you will, we don’t judge whether we think that’s a useful appointment, we just try to meet with everybody that wants to spend time with me. At some point though, you reach the point where there are no more hours in the day and we’ll have to prioritize and we’re getting close to that right now. But in terms of guaranteeing access as we go on, I’ll meet with student groups, I’ll talk to the leaders of student government about which student groups to meet with and I’ll try and keep a routine schedule so I’m interacting with students. I’ve certainly been talking to both graduate and undergraduate student leadership so far to hear what they’re interested in. With regards to the community, it’s the same kind of process of trying to find the people who can represent broad views and meet with them as often as possible. I’ve been talking with both the GPSA and ASUNM president, the
ASUNM president Caroline Muraida
Daily Lobo: What are some of your goals for your term? Caroline Muraida: I would say communication is the first and foremost goal, because whatever other objectives we seek to accomplish as an organization means so much more if we’re able to communicate them to the rest of the student body. Overall, I want each agency to develop, to grow and to strengthen, that’s internal. I want to be able to work with the senators collaboratively. Also, the SFRB (Student Fee Review Board) policy and working to lead the board as chair into a more stable state and guiding the new student regent. As far as my legislative initiatives at the state level, we have a longer legislative session this year. I’m really excited to be working
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GPSA president Marisa Silva
Daily Lobo: What have you done this summer to prepare yourself for the school year? Marisa Silva: As soon as I took office, one of the first projects was to compile a list, with the aid of outgoing GPSA administration, of departments, universitywide committees, and the people serving on those committees, and meeting with those people to have formal introductions to establish relationships with them. With a one-year term, I have to be very preemptive, to ensure I establish those relationships in such a short time frame. And that list is constantly modified as additional contacts are found. I’m still in the process of reading last year’s files, but as soon as I was elected, I did begin to participate in different committees, for example the Student Fee Review Board. I did attend those late meetings, along with ASUNM President Caroline Muraida, to promote continuity in this hallmark organization of UNM. I’ve attended both public and private institutions in New
Mexico and there’s no level of student participation that mirrors UNM’s. DL: What have you struggled with the most so far? MS: I already began to address what I think is one of the biggest struggles of becoming a president, and that is getting to know the resources, the people, and all the departments, and to situate yourself in this environment, which is essentially a small town of about 25,000 or more people. To sort of situate myself in that environment and learn where things are located, what is available, what are the programs and studies, and really identifying all the key programs and players, I think is a great challenge but I’ve already been well underway. I think that I am still working to remedy any person who I have not yet met or any program or organization that I’m not yet familiar with. That’s been my homework this summer. I’ve sort of undertaken, but haven’t completed yet, a meetand-greet campaign to physically visit facilities and become as
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