DAILY LOBO new mexico
Practice makes perfect
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The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
September 14, 2009
Paying tribute to 9/11, one flag at a time
UNM Foundation keeps even keel in rough waters by Kristian Macaron Daily Lobo
Junfu Han / Daily Lobo Students Mark Kunzman, left, and Cory Eden were among six people who placed flags at the Duck Pond on Friday in commemoration of 9/11. Lobo Conservatives and College Republicans planted 3,000 flags to represent every person who died in the attack in 2001, said Lobo Conservatives President Stephen Dinkel.
Regents OK West Side health clinic by Andrew Beale Daily Lobo
The UNM Finance and Facilities Committee approved a $5.5 million health clinic on Albuquerque’s West Side during their meeting Friday. The committee, chaired by Don Chalmers, also approved funding requests for several major additions to the UNM Hospital. The committee discussed the need for a new health care facility at Central Avenue and Unser Boulevard to
accommodate the residents in the nearby neighborhood. It will cost $5.5 million and have 21 exam rooms. Paul Roth, committee member and executive vice president for the Health Sciences Center, said UNM hospital needs additional facilities, because there is a shortage of health care providers in the area. “We are always on top of the supply side of the equation. We know that — we get into the topic of work-force shortage,” he said. “We have a shortage in literally
UNM Finance and Facilities Committee approved: Critical-care wing renovation: $880,000 Student family housing maintenance: $750,000 Orthopedic clinic additions: $856,000 West Side clinic: $5.5 million every area of health care and nursing and pharmacy … We are at least
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Missing student’s body found in wall by David Collins
The Associated Press NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Police on Sunday said they found what they believe is the body of a Yale University graduate student and brideto-be, hidden inside the wall of the university building where she was last seen five days before. New Haven Assistant Police Chief Peter Reichard said officials are presuming the body was that of doctoral student Annie Le, who has been the focus of a massive police search since Tuesday. “It hasn’t been positively identified as of this time,” Reichard told reporters Sunday night. “However,
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we are assuming it is her … so we are treating it as a homicide.” State police found the body at about 5 p.m. Sunday in an area of the building that houses utility cables that run between floors. The building is in the Ivy League school’s medical complex, about a mile from the main campus. Reichard said police also recovered “a large amount” of physical evidence, but he would not discuss what that included. Yale President Richard Levin offered support to Le’s family and her fiance, Columbia University graduate student Jonathan Widawsky. The couple was to marry Sunday in Syosset, N.Y., on Long Island’s
The UNM Foundation has stabilized the funding the University receives annually, despite trouble from the recession, say representatives of the school’s independent nonprofit financial arm. The University received more than $90 million in gifts over the 2008-09 fiscal year, plus $15.2 million from the combined endowment of the University and the Foundation. While the endowment suffered in the economic downturn, it has been able to remain in the top quartile of its peer institutions, said Foundation President John Stropp. “Traditionally, we have been in the top quartile with these results for institutions of our size and the current return,” he said. “For the year (that) just ended, we were down 20.5 percent, but on a relative basis it beat the market, which was down 35 percent to 40 percent.” Foundation spokeswoman Jill Zack said the endowment return as calculated from January through August of this year was about 9 percent. Fundraising efforts have also felt the crunch. “Our development officers have had to work hard. They’ve had to knock on 10 times as many doors as they have in the past,” Zack said. Stropp said the funds raised this year were $5 million shy of last year’s original goal. “We chose that $95 million goal just after the $85.5 million euphoria, which is significantly over the previous FY 06 figure of $72.5 million,” he said. “When we came out at $90 million plus a little change, we were very proud, considering the economy in general and the state economy, that everyone responded as they did.” Stropp said that this year’s goal is $90 million. “We think it’s going to be just as hard if not harder to raise $90 million in this environment coming up,” he said. “I think this is the consensus around the country, that everybody is going to have to work harder just to hold their own.”
Zack said the UNM Foundation works with 35 development officers in colleges and departments across campus. The officers collaborate with deans to compile lists of their needs. The lists are presented to donors so they can see how their gifts will benefit students and faculty. “The University is sort of a mecca for excitement, for donors to come in and make an impact with whatever interest they have,” she said. “There is increased student enrollment right now and that just increases our demands. As long as we have development officers to make a case, it’s an easy case to make.” One of the primary programs funded by the Foundation is the UNM Presidential Scholarship Program. This program provides scholarships to hundreds of students at UNM. Scholarship supervisor Bill Bloom said that the Foundation’s stability has allowed the University to increase the number of scholarships offered to incoming freshmen. “It ensures that the scholarships are at or exceed prior numbers,” Bloom said. “We’ve seen an increase in enrollment and we haven’t had to decrease — based on economic conditions — the number of scholarships offered. We’ve been able to maintain that based on their being able to maintain their numbers.” Bloom said the scholarship office was able to offer 120 presidential scholarships to incoming freshmen this year, but the funds raised this year won’t affect the University for a few years. “These record-setting numbers and goals that they have met and exceeded — we don’t really see the bump on that for several funding cycles,” Bloom said. Stropp said the Foundation has been able to counter the recessiondriven economy by using a payout system that distributes funding over a period of three years and 12 quarters. This helps counteract market fluctuations, he said. “This payout out of the endowment is $15 million this year. It was $14 million last year,” he said “We use a trailing 12-quarter average.
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north shore. “The family and fiance and friends now must suffer the additional ordeal of waiting for the body to be positively identified,” Levin said. “I met earlier this evening with Annie’s family, with her fiance and his family, and I conveyed to them all the deeply felt support of the entire university community.” Police on Sunday would not say if they have any suspects. They previously have said Widawsky is not a suspect and is assisting with the investigation. Le, 24, was last seen Tuesday morning in the five-story
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Opinion: smoke and mirrors
Crooks’ guide to Naples
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