Daily Lobo 08/28/23

Daily l obo

What is going on with college athletic conference realignments?

By Lily Alexander & Maddie Pukite @llilyalexander @maddogpukite

Listed to improve athlete welfare, the athletics department Research and Public Service Projects Funding request was increased by $3.5 million from last year. This increase comes amidst conversations about the potential realignment of the Mountain West Conference.

“With the recent changes in membership composition in several conferences, the Mountain West is exploring all opportunities to strengthen the league, including through the addition of new member schools,” MWC Board of Directors statement from Aug. 9 reads, which President Garnett Stokes serves as the chair of.

The MWC is one of 10 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision conferences with some independent programs. Its uncertain future follows the reorganization of the Pacific 12 Conference, now left with four teams.

In 2022, University of California, Los Angeles and University of Southern California left the Pac-12

for the Big 10 Conference. Since July 2023, six more schools have followed suit, heading to either the Big 10 or the Big 12, according to CBS.

Now, the MWC can attempt to recruit the Pac-12’s remaining teams — UC Berkeley, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State — or merge with them and create a new conference. No official decision has been made yet.

“With the recent changes in membership composition in several conferences, the Mountain West is exploring all opportunities to strengthen the league, which could include the addition of new member schools,” Stokes said in a statement to the Daily Lobo Athletic conferences determine where college teams travel for. If schools in the conference are further east or west, that extends travel time rather than if they are in neighboring states. With the current MWC members, Univeristy of New Mexico Women’s Volleyball player Elizabeth Woods said these trips have not affected her academic life.

“With our traveling scheduling, I do not miss any important dates for

see Conference page 3

Welcome Back Days

Miles to fight cancer

By Sydney Walker @squidneywrites

The seventh annual fundraiser event for the University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center is taking place at University Stadium on Sept. 23. All money raised will benefit the Cancer Center and its patients.

Last year the Lobo Cancer Challenge raised $373,500. Those participating this year will either take on a 5K, stair challenge, 25 or 50 mile bike ride or virtually decide which athletic challenge they will do individually. For children ages 1-10, there is a cub pack 1K run or walk.

The sky’s not the limit

By Danielle Knox

Recently, the University of New Mexico’s physics and astronomy department was granted $750,000 from NASA. This grant is headed by associate professor, Diana Dragomir, who leads the research into exoplanets at UNM.

“What we want to do with this

grant is find a different kind of exoplanet. We want to find more of them. Especially those of a longer orbit,” Dragomir said.

The benefits of this research for the average person, Dragomir said, is to help provide answers to the fundamental questions of life. Why is there life on Earth? Is there life elsewhere?

see Sky page 3

Inside this Lobo

Pukite: Librarians advocate for alternative to textbooks (pg. 2)

Davidson: REVIEW: Snoop Dogg’s Highschool Reunion tour brings volume to ABQ (pg. 2)

One fundraising team, the “G.O. Ovary Achievers,” is halfway to meeting their fundraising goal of $30,000, according to the Lobo Cancer Challenge webpage. The team is raising money for women’s cancer research, the cancer survivorship clinic and the patient care fund.

Team captain of the “G.O Ovary Achievers” is Eglis Pereyra who works as a nurse practitioner for the gynecology oncology department. Pereyra comes from a family with a history of cervical and uterine cancer and said she was inspired

by Carolyn Muller, Chief of gynecologic oncology,

to join the Lobo Cancer Challenge.

New Director and CEO of the Cancer Center, Yolanda Sanchez, said their goal is to have 1,000 participants to help bring awareness to their mission.

“I think it’s a very important event – not only for fundraising and for supporting the Cancer Center and our patients, but also for awareness about preventable cancers. Because of the nature of the event, we have sponsors. The sponsors pay for the event itself, so all the money raised goes to either research or patient care,” Sanchez said.

Donors select from 19 programs to raise funds for, such as patient care assistance, leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and stem cell transplant, women’s cancer research, gynecological cancers and breast cancer research, Sanchez said.

“I really wanted to be helpful and to be part of a great team. To be able to raise – even if it’s a little bit of money – to help these people that are having a hard time,” Pereyra said. “The team that we work with is incredible.

Muller, a fellow “G.O. Ovary Achiever” member, said she has

worked at the Cancer Center for nearly 20 years.

“Our team is very heavily embedded in the Cancer Center and drives a lot of clinical trials and clinical research that sometimes leads to practice changing treatments or strategies in cancer care for gynecology oncology patients,” Muller said.

Medical students, residents and fellows in the Lobo community work together with the gynecology oncology department to learn and train in the comprehensive care that UNM provides, Muller said.

The UNM Cancer Center is the only NCI designated center in New Mexico. National Cancer Insitute designation puts the UNM Cancer Center on the same scale as MD Anderson and Memorial Sloan Kettering — the top cancer treatment centers located in Texas and New York, Muller said.

The “G.O. Ovary Achievers” have pulled together to promote their fundraising team through social media and t-shirt sales. Trish Mather – Unit Administrator of the Gynecologic Oncologic division and team member – set up a partnership with Chipotle on Saturday,

see Cancer page 3

Davidosn: Even the rain couldn’t stop United’s heat (pg. 4)

with The Power of Change

Jessica Baca / @Jessica_Baca_ / Daily Lobo

United players celebrate their win against FC Tulsa Saturday, Aug. 26 (See pg. 4).

Tristan Huffman / Daily Lobo

Librarians advocate for alternative to textbooks

By Maddie Pukite @ maddogpukite

An alternative to requiring students to purchase textbooks, University Libraries have begun to develop programs and offer grants to help professors integrate Open Educational Resources into their curriculum. All resources on an OER are licensed as Creative Commons - free to use.

Three librarians at the University of New Mexico – Holly Surbaugh, Jennifer Jordan and Leo Lo – conducted a study in July of 2023 on the impact of textbook cost at a Hispanic-serving institution UNM.

70% of the 315 UNM undergrad-

REVIEW: Snoop Dogg’s Highschool Reunion tour brings volume to ABQ

By BillyJack Davidson @ BillyJackDL

It brought a bustle of positive energy, great music and a wide arrangement of entertainment;

Snoop Dogg’s Highschool Reunion tour began this past June. On Tuesday, Aug. 21, he came to the Land of Enchantment.

The tour has a hit line-up of artists including Wiz Khalifa, Warren G, DJ Drama, Berner, Too $hort and headliner Snoop Dogg. It had been six years since Snoop Dogg was last in Albuquerque, but the crowd made sure to show him love with constant dancing, singing and hol-

lering. It was an electric feeling that was impossible to ignore.

The Isleta Amphitheater is Albuquerque’s largest concert venue, capable of holding 15,000 people at a time and was pushed to its limits with Snoop Dogg on stage. The amphitheater has yet to release the recorded attendance of the show, but as shown by the picture, it was a sea on the lawn.

All six artists on the stage encouraged the crowd, whether in song lyrics or in crowd work, to smoke cannabis. Of course, the crowd needed no convincing as the air was filled with a thick layer of smoke above their heads – essential to any Snoop Dogg show.

DJ Drama, Berner, Too $hort and

Warren G all came in and out within the first three hours and brought a continuous flow of booming bass and tight verses. As they warmed up the crowd and got everyone buzzing, it drove away those who only wanted to see the main attractions. For those who stayed, the anticipation was running high, making Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dogg’s performance even better.

The waiting game was a classic strategy to play with the audience’s mind and make everyone crave their performance; it was a success. When each artist hit the stage, the entire crowd erupted. While it wasn’t necessarily a big finale when Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dogg

uate students in the study reported the amount they spent on textbooks was “somewhat or extremely unreasonable,” and 102 said the cost of materials impacted their ability to purchase basic needs such as housing, food and transportation.

“A lot of students aren’t buying their textbooks, which can affect their grades in class,” Jordan said. “We did a survey at UNM and we found that because students didn’t have access to the books, some dropped their classes and some didn’t get as good of a grade. A few students even changed their major because they couldn’t afford the books.”

Yet to buy textbooks for this semester, UNM student Tavin Brogan said he normally spends about $400 dollars on textbooks a semes-

ter. While some books can be fairly priced individually, he said they add up.

“I feel like there’s a lot of things that professors could do such as online textbooks or other online sources that aren’t necessarily books that you won’t have to pay for … There’s been points where I can’t afford textbooks. If (a professor’s) not mandatory with their books, I won’t always buy them,” Brogan said.

OER is a part of the solution, Jordan said. Now starting Oct. 1, faculty at UNM can apply for a grant to use OER in their courses. Librarians will work with professors to help find content that is applicable to the class. That initial work, Jordan

see Textbooks page 5

see Review page 5

Jessica Baca / @Jessica_Baca_ / Daily Lobo Second floor of Zimmerman library on Sunday, Aug. 27.

BillyJack Davidson / Daily Lobo / @BillyJackDL Wiz Khalifa singing “Don’t Know” to a sea of people at the Isleta Amphitheater on Monday, Aug. 21.

Conference

class,” Woods wrote.

UNM Women’s Basketball alumni Kathelijne van Bennekom said traveling for athletics often caused time management and mental health challenges.

“Most of the student athletes experienced signs of exhaustion and were just overall stressed out about the workload that was waiting for them as soon as they got back from travel,” van Bennekom wrote.

The total RPSP request for Athletics is just short of $12 million, more than double FY 2022’s $4,436,200 and almost double FY

Cancer from page 1

2023’s $6,188,600. At the most recent Board of Regents meeting on Aug. 10, Regent Jack Fortner called the amount of travel that could take place with realignment “crazy” when posing a question to Stokes.

“I just wonder how flying from Oregon to the East Coast prioritizes, student priorities as you look at these conference realignments. It is just unheard of to travel across the country (at this rate). Normally it happens once, but it will happen four or five times to these students,” Fortner said.

Stokes responded to Fortner, speaking about the revenue - based decisions from schools.

“It is remarkable the impact of revenue on some of the decisions that institutions are making. I am proud to have the University of New Mexico be a member of the Mountain West Conference with our focus on student welfare,” Stokes said.

Expansion of the MWC could mean further traveling for studentathletes, which would mean missing more classes. Professor of history, Paul Hutton, said he works to support the student-athletes he teaches.

“They always need accommodations because of travel,” Hutton said. “I’ll have my teacher assistants give them notes for the classes they missed and if we need to help them with review sessions, we do.”

Football brings in 80% of the MWC revenue, according to Frank Mercogliano, Assistant Athletic Director of Communications. Football only has one game a week, unlike lower revenue-generating sports like baseball or golf which play weekend-long series.

Many student-athletes began their athletic careers in high school, Hutton said, in hopes of gaining college scholarships. UNM’s projected athletic scholarship cost for 2023-24 was $6.7 million, according to the Lobo Scholarship Fund.

“We are trying to understand the context of our solar system. How similar are we to other planetary systems? Why not?” Dragomir said. “They are just harder to find. For that reason, we don’t have great answers to these questions.”

“Academically, the athletic department is really on these kids and forces them — in a way that the rest of the student body isn’t forced — to work on their schoolwork,” Hutton said.

The MWC has a Student-Athlete Advisory Committee whose mission is to “enhance the quality of life for student-athletes and to promote a positive student-athlete image both on and off campus.” The committee includes three student-athlete members from different schools, playing gymnastics, cross-country and track and field. Currently, none of these members are UNM students.

Media networks like FOX and ESPN have played a big role in the addition of teams to the Big 10 and Southeastern conferences. When joining a new conference, teams receive funds from their respective networks as payment for broadcasting rights. While MWC does have media rights agreements with CBS and FOX to stream basketball and football games, they also have their own television network, The Mtn.

The MWC’s contract with CBS and FOX gives members $4 million each year, according to Sports Pro Media. The combined revenue for the Southeastern conferencewhich had a media rights deal with CBS in 2021-22 that totaled almost $50 million per school.

“Suffice it to say that at the pres-

and how planets form, and if our solar system is common or not.”

ent time - the Mountain West is a stable 12 team conference which has media rights agreements with CBS and FOX until 2026,” The MWC Deputy Commissioner Bret Gilliland said.

The UNM Athletics Department Director Eddie Nuñez did not comment directly upon the future of the MWC. At this stage, Nuñez also did not respond to questions about the potential impact on student-athletes.

“As always, we as a department will strive to be the very best we can be and do things the right way on the field and in the classroom in order to always put the University in the best possible position for success,” Mercogliano said.

The future of conference realignment could be decided at any time, but would not impact this year’s schedule as schools need to finish their current contracts.

Lily Alexander is a freelance reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo. com or on Twitter @llilyalexander Maddie Pukite is the editor-inchief at the Daily Lobo. They can be contacted at editorinchief@dailylobo. com on Twitter @maddogpukite

Sept. 9. “I’ve been with Dr. Muller since 2004,” Mather said. “My mom is a cancer survivor, thanks to this lady (Muller). So it means a lot to be able to do this. We have built a strong team and we’re going for it.”

The “G.O. Ovary Achievers” will all be participating in the 5K walk, Sanchez said. The last day to register for the Lobo Cancer Challenge event is on Sept. 8.

“If you raise the money to get one of these research studies off

the ground, then you were part of the cure. You were a part of that discovery. You are a part of our team,” Sanchez said.

Sydney Walker is a freelance reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @squidneywrites.

Alongside the $750,000 from NASA, the grant also provided the team access to NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite which works in tandem with original data to find longer orbit exoplanets, Dragomir said.

Dragomir believes that this funding and the access to the TESS telescope data will allow them to find exoplanets easier.

“By counting those planets and counting them in more detail, we hope to better understand if other planets are like our solar system planets,” Dragomir said. “We hope to have answers to the general public in terms of where we come from

Dragomir’s history with NASA started before she came to UNM. In 2016, she started her work as a NASA Hubble Fellow which supports postdoctoral students’ research while pursuing her post-doc research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“It happened to be with data from the TESS telescope, actually,” she said. “I guess I’ve got funding with NASA for a while now. It’s fun working with NASA. A lot of my colleagues worked with NASA.”

As for why UNM specifically was granted this money for exoplanets, Dragomir said she and her team are spearheading the research on exoplanets.

“It’s not just me, it’s my entire group. My group has established itself as able to work with this data, ” Dragomir said.

This group Dragomir mentioned

is a team of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers brought together to find exoplanets, including post-doc Zahra Essack.

“With this grant, I was able to hire a postdoctoral researcher,” Dragomir said. “We will probably hire some undergraduate students next summer to help with research as well. We also want to organize a workshop – sort of a mini-conference – to explain the grants and our research at some point.”

Previously, Dragomir said her team was funded by smaller grants that were vital to their research. Now, with this larger grant and access to TESS, the sky’s the limit. Or more accurately, space is.

Danielle Knox is a freelance reporter with the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com.

Jessica Baca / @Jessica_Baca_ / Daily Lobo Kaitlynn Biassou spiked a ball past the opposing team’s defense at Johnson Gym on Saturday, Oct. 29.

Sky from page 1

Courtesy Photo

Even the rain couldn’t stop United’s heat

By BillyJack Davidson @ BillyJackDL

The Tulsa Football Club Roughnecks came to town this past Saturday, Aug. 26, playing against our boys in black and gold and were sent home after a 2-1 loss. Not even the rain in the first half could stop United from bringing the heat.

Dark clouds and a light rain started off the match at the Rio Grande Credit Union, but thankfully for United, the game would go on no matter what. By the second minute, #33 Harry Swartz was immediately able to take control of the ball and sink it into the net, causing Isotopes Stadium to erupt, and the game was off with a bang.

“The first half was probably one

of our best first halves we’ve played with ball domination, chance creation and overall keeping them at bay,” Coach Eric Quill said after the match.

In his first match, United’s Zico Bailey immediately made an impact. He earned an assist on the first goal for Swartz. Bailey was officially announced on Aug. 22 as United’s newest defender.

The first half of the game had United intense and aggressive with attitude, keeping possession of the ball constantly. The Roughnecks were barely able to hold a string of passes together, making Tulsa antsy to get the ball back and lead to a couple of yellow cards to be called.

Both United and the Roughnecks would begin trading corner kicks, free kicks and yellow cards before the 45th minute. But just before the stoppage time of two minutes was

Volume 128

Issue 3

added to the clock, United’s #7 Sergio Rivas secured the second goal of the night.

The first half began and ended with the two United goals, which led to a dominant feeling for the boys in black and gold, and going back into the second half, they wanted to keep it that way.

The Tulsa Roughnecks, on the other hand, did not take kindly to the goals thus far, and by the time the clock began for the second half, the Roughnecks started to pick up the pace. While the first 25 minutes of the half were highly competitive for both teams, #10 Amando Moreno was subbed in for United, cementing their stamina for the match.

Three yellow cards were given out to United within this time, but they kept the pace up and kept Tul-

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UNM Land Acknowledgement statement

sa’s #7 Marcus Epps in check, mainly due to United’s #22 Kalen Ryden who played an exceptional game.

That is until the 77th minute came along where Epps broke away from United’s defense and scored a beautiful goal.

After United subbed two different midfielders to tighten up the defense, the Roughnecks did the same. A yellow card was again given to United, granting Tulsa a free kick. Unluckily for the Roughnecks, the power went out in the lights above the pitch. This caused a slight delay and the kick achieved nothing just before the 90th minute.

The game would go on for an additional six minutes of stoppage time in the second half where both teams received a yellow card, but the scores could not be touched. New Mexico’s United ended the night

off with a 2-1 victory, promptly breaking their five match winless streak.

Saturday’s game saw a turn out of 10,130 people.

“I’ve heard about the crowd, and I won’t lie, it kinda surprised me. The numbers – they came in and how loud they were. It was fun,” Bailey said about his first experience at a home game.

United will play again on Aug. 30 against the Las Vegas Lights FC once again at Isotopes stadium.

BillyJack Davidson is a freelance reporter at the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo. com or on Twitter @BillyJackDL

Founded in 1889, the University of New Mexico sits on the traditional homelands of the Pueblo of Sandia. The original peoples of New Mexico – Pueblo, Navajo, and Apache – since time immemorial, have deep connections to the land and have made significant contributions to the broader community statewide. We honor

Jessica Baca / @Jessica_Baca_ / Daily Lobo Defender and midfielder Harry Swartz #33 signs fans’ jerseys after winning the game against FC Tulsa on Saturday, Aug. 26.

Zacaria Adonicam / @ZAdonicam / Daily Lobo Harry Swartz #33 and Phillip Goodrum #10 getting into a scuffle during the Tulsa versus United game at Isotopes Field on Saturday, Aug. 26.

Jessica Baca / @Jessica_Baca_ / Daily Lobo Forward Greg Hurst #17 has interactions with fans after their win against FC Tulsa on Saturday, Aug. 26.

Textbooks from page 2

said, could be a deterrent for some professors.

“There’s a lot of work at the outset, designing the material for your class. But once that big push is done, it gets easier, but it is a lot of work at first,” Jordan said.

Compared to teaching off a textbook, Jordan said using OER gives

Review from page 2

ended the show, the energy surged to an even higher level.

The performance was filled with backdrops displaying Californian views and backup dancers. Snoop Dogg himself even brought a set of his own wheels, literally driving

faculty more liberty in the decision-making process of what texts or resources are used in the class, rather than being bound to a single book.

According to Jordan, the amount of resources available has grown significantly since she worked on an OER in 2015 – a trend she anticipates will continue.

a car stage alongside exceptional pole dancing. I was struck with awe and shock, but it cemented that this was, in fact, a Snoop Dogg concert.

The show ran for over six hours by the end of the encore. The entire time, the volume was beyond loud,

Corrections from 8/21/23

“It does take more work to adopt or adapt the material. But it also gives faculty more control over their content. So, for example, you decide when you want to revise the materials for your course,” Jordan said.

Brogan said he hadn’t heard of the OER program specifically in any of his classes, but would like to

whether it was the music or the roar of the audience at the start and end of every song. The high octane energy of the crowd was infectious and kept everyone buzzing with joy for hours afterwards.

Then, Snoop Dogg’s car was

see how the program develops.

“That would definitely help out education as a whole for people that can’t afford things like textbooks. That’s the first time I’ve heard of this program. I’d be happy to see what comes up as it matures,” Brogan said.

Maddie Pukite is the editor-in-

slowly rolled off the stage through a door as the lights dimmed, the artists left and the fans piled into their cars happily shouting all the way home.

BillyJack Davidson is a freelance reporter at the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture@dailylobo.

chief at the Daily Lobo. They can be contacted at editorinchief@dailylobo.com on Twitter @maddogpukite

com or on Twitter @BillyJackDL

EDITOR'S NOTE: 8/21/2023: In last week’s version of “Chistoph Wagner makes the strings sing”, Christoph was misspelled in the headline, alongside Sinfonia in the article.

A Wonderful World: Adding Fuel

By Christopher Tran

Mark Diehl

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Rooms for Rent

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For Sale

PIMENTEL & SONS 2022 W-1 Concert Classical Guitar. Included with purchase: Guitar, Pimentel hard shell case, original purchase receipt, and lifetime workmanship warranty. Original price was $4315.00. One owner- mint condition. Barely used. Asking $3,000. Text 505-918-2501.

HEY STUDENTS! YOU can place FREE ads in this classifieds category? Ads must be 25 words or less. To get your free ad, email classifieds@ dailylobo.com from your UNM email or come by Marron Hall room 107 and show your UNM ID.

Photo

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Jobs Off Campus

LAW OFFICE LEGAL ASSISTANT: P/T

Job Opening (Mon – Fri. 8:00 am – 12:30 pm or 12:30 – 5:00): Medium – sized law firm working in the areas of natural resource law seeking personable, detail – oriented professional to assist with general office duties. Great work environment. Competitive pay scale DOE; start immediately;