DAILY LOBO new mexico
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The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
September 01, 2010
Students appeal grant denials
IT’S NOT EASY BEING GREEN ... CHILE
by Laurel Brishel Prichard lbrishel@unm.edu
GPSA held an appeal review meeting Tuesday to determine several applicants’ futures for summer 2010 grant applications that were denied. Three graduate students who applied for the Student Research Allocation Committee grants and Specialized Training grants presented their cases in front of a four-member graduate panel. Megan McRobert, who serves as the GPSA council chair and a specialized travel grant reader, said one appeal was approved but others were denied. “We fund 30 percent of applications, so it’s a very competitive process, and I think that’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” she said. “I would really encourage people not to get discouraged, but to take it as a learning opportunity because that’s really the spirit in which it is meant.” In the next two weeks, trained graduate students will be re-read the accepted appeal. Katie Richardson, grant chair and SRAC reader, said readers are required to attend an hour-and-a-half seminar where they practice application scores, go over the score sheet and focus on issues that may come up during the review process. “New for the fall, our Equity and Inclusion director here at GPSA will sit down with the readers and talk about issues surrounding the applications,” she said. If all options are exhausted, students can forward their requests to the GPSA Council, the legislative branch of the GPSA, and it will take the concerns into consideration. “No one is cut off from applying,” McRobert said. “Even if an appeal is denied, people can apply the next
by Ruben Hamming-Green rhamminggreen@gmail.com
Donatella Davanzo / Daily Lobo Fausto Luna dumps raw green chile into a roaster Tuesday morning at the Uptown Growers’ Market. The market takes place every Tuesday and Saturday from 7 a.m.-noon.
cycle for retroactive funding. There is a lot of support in place, and, ultimately, it is about making the application the best that it can be.” The appeal review committee is also developing a granted requests archive, which can aid students in building an appeal argument should they be denied. “It helps you for the next time you apply for money to write a
better application,” said Sue Taylor, a Ph.D. candidate and SRAC reader. To apply for the SRAC, grant applicants must use the funds for research, research-associated travel or for applicants to attend conferences at which to present research. In contrast, the ST grants can only be used if funds go directly to further a student’s professional career.
GRANT DEADLINES FOR SRAC, ST; Sept. 24 at noon Ranges from $3,000- $5,000 www.unm.edu/~gpsa/
MRN to post research more frequently by Andrew Lyman alyman@unm.edu
Research done by the Mind Research Network is having such an impact that it now has to be published online more than once a year. Lisa Breeden, MRN communications director, said MRN was supposed to only publish an annual report of its findings online, but substantial research results warranted the report to be published intermittently at the conclusion of studies. She said this year’s report includes studies on topics like schizophrenia, autism and memory retention. “There are about 200 people that I contacted to inform about the report, and I’ve only heard rave reviews about publishing it online,” Breeden said, adding that the report marks advancements in learning about psychological disorders
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Daily Lobo volume 115
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Class studies modern native works
and addiction. Mike Dougher, MRN’s chief research officer, aided in compiling research performed by a number of researchers. He said this year’s report focused on drug addiction, and that there are now ways to determine if drug abusers are more likely to relapse after stopping use. “Researchers are performing genetic and neurological tests to determine if there is a higher chance of relapse after stopping cocaine abuse,” Dougher said. He said other studies include possible ways to help enhance learning and memory retention. Neurosystems for National Security, for example, is a study dedicated to how the human brain stores information and how fast it stores it, according to the report. Dougher said this could be a huge breakthrough in studying the human brain and how it learns new information.
MRN’S 2010 RESEARCH REPORT Those who prefer a printed copy of the report should contact Erika Anaya at 505-272-5028 or eanaya@mrn.org. “It’s like something out of a sci-fi novel,” Dougher said. Vince Clark, a psychology professor at UNM, studied how the brain reacts to a small electric current and how that may help the brain to learn more. Clark said studying how the brain learns could benefit addicts in overcoming habits. “Addiction is learned, so you have to basically unlearn addiction,” Clark said. “This can also possibly help people with learning disabilities or brain damage.”
Say cheese
We doin’ numbers like sudoku
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The room was packed, as a large contingent of architecture and planning students, along with others not attending UNM, listened intently to Duane Blue Spruce speak Monday evening in the Pearl Hall Auditorium. People sat on the descending stair walkways, notebooks in hand, hoping to learn about a relatively unexplored subject: modern Native American architecture. Blue Spruce, who is Laguna/Ohkay Owingeh, spoke about coming from a native standpoint and how it affected him while he helped design the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. “To me, (indigenous) architecture is created by both native architects and non-native architects,” he told the crowd. “Those traditional architectural methodologies and forms can be the inspiration for contemporary works of architecture.” Blue Spruce’s speech was part of a series held by the Contemporary Indigenous Architecture class. Every Monday, the class will have practicing Native American architects as guest speakers. Talks are open to the public. “This is an area that has never seen the spotlight before,” said Eleni Bastea, who is one of three professors teaching the class. “It is a field that is very much in the beginning. I think we were able to get four books (on the subject) out of the library.” The field is in infancy, Bastea said, so no one is exactly sure what even qualifies as Native American architecture. “It is a discipline in the making. ... One of the questions that comes up is ‘What do you include under Native American architecture?’” she said. “We agreed not to decide on that and leave it up to the students.” Since the curriculum is still being developed, Bastea said teaching the class is unusual. Right now, the majority of classes consists of the weekly guest lecturers, who are coming from all over (two are traveling from Canada) to speak about what Native American architecture means to them. Lynn Paxson, another instructor for the class, has been teaching on the subject for 15 years in Iowa. Paxson said Native American architecture is an important, and underappreciated, subject. “Most of the stuff we think is new for sustainable purposes today, you can find all of those kind of things
see Native works page 3
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