DAILY LOBO new mexico
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thursday The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
September 17, 2009
UNM offers Committee considers changes to smoking ban more funds for more scholars by Andrew Beale Daily Lobo
by Mario Trujillo Daily Lobo
The number of national scholars at UNM has more than doubled each year since 2007, according to the UNM Admissions Office. There are 77 national scholars enrolled at UNM, which is up from 38 in 2008 and 14 in 2007. “National scholars” is an umbrella term that covers National Merit Scholars, National Hispanic Recognition Scholars, National Achievement Scholars and National American Indian Scholars. These scholarships are awarded based on a combination of the practice SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test score and high school academic performance. The National American Indian Scholars use the ACT as their standardized test. In fall of 2008, the UNM President’s Office set up the National Scholars Scholarship, which gives $13,875 per year to national scholars. For in-state students, the average cost of attendance is almost $13,000, and it’s almost $24,000 for non-residents. On top of offering the scholarship, UNM follows “an aggressive communication plan that includes professional graphics and targeted messages in e-mail, letters and post cards (to recruit national scholars),” said Corine Gonzales, associate director of Admissions. UNM President David Schmidly and his administration have said national scholars are coveted students for the University. “UNM’s goals for enrollment management — recruiting greater numbers of National Scholars and graduate students — are important ones, not only in meeting state funding formulas but also in fulfilling our unique role as part of a higher educational system,” Schmidly wrote in a June 6 guest column in the Albuquerque Journal. The credit hours that national scholars take are factored into UNM’s state funding calculations. National scholars also tend to bring higher participation in classrooms, Gonzales said. Zach Gillooly, a freshman and National Merit Scholar, said UNM’s recruiting campaign showed him that the University values students who worked hard in high school. “UNM was also the only school that corresponded frequently with me about scholarships and reasons to attend,” Gillooly said. “The scholarship office worked diligently to get me to come to UNM.” Though the campaign got the
Stephen Wills is not pleased with UNM’s anti-smoking policy, and he let the UNM Smoke-Free Environment Committee know it at their meeting on Wednesday. “My grades dropped because of this,” he told the committee at an emergency meeting. The meeting was organized to discuss the Northrop Hall smoking area, which faculty say is sending smoke into the building itself. The committee will meet again on Oct. 7. Wills said he loses study time to walk to and from the designated smoking areas. He lives on campus and studies outside the Student Residence Commons halls, which makes it difficult to access the smoking areas quickly, he said. “What I would like to see — and I know this has happened in the past — is an exemption,” Wills said. He said that when smoking was banned inside the buildings
on campus, the residence halls remained smoking areas for two years. He wants to see a similar policy to allow students to smoke outside the residence halls for a period of time. He said it would also work to create more smoking areas close to the residence halls. Pug Burge, head of the committee, said she had a reason for not creating a lot of smoking areas. “We were very cautious about creating too many smoking areas, because we knew that if we gave out too many designated areas, it would be difficult to take them back,” she said. Wills said he feels he should be allowed to smoke close to his home, since he pays rent to live in the residence halls. “The problem is ... to me, this committee and this school are pushing their beliefs and their rights onto me,” he said. The committee thanked Wills for his feedback but did not commit to making any specific changes in the policy regarding residence halls.
The committee met to finetune several contested aspects of UNM’s smoke-free campus policy. They also discussed moving the smoking area at Northrop Hall, creating a designated smoking area for patrons of events at Popejoy Hall and creating an exemption allowing people to smoke at tailgate parties. John Geissman, earth and planetary sciences department chairman, came to the meeting to advocate moving the Northrop smoking location. He presented a petition with close to 100 signatures from people who feel the smoking area should be moved. Geissman walked with the committee to spots around campus to pick a new location. The committee did not make a final decision on where the smoking area from Northrop would go, but they did identify several possibilities. Their preferred location is on the north side of Popejoy Hall, across from the SUB. The other spots are on the walkway south of Northrop and across from Woodward Hall.
The committee also talked about creating an exemption from the normal smoking rules for performers and patrons of Popejoy Hall during special events. Jerry Davis, representing Popejoy at the meeting, said it would show respect for the performers to allow them to smoke. “We’re dealing with, in many cases, foreign cultures,” he said. “Like, I’ll throw the example out of Russian ballet dancers, who smoke fiendishly, you might say.” The committee did not reach a decision on whether to create a new smoking area for Popejoy. Another topic of discussion was the possibility of allowing smoking at tailgating events, which would allow smoking at the entire tailgate area instead of having a separate smoking area at the events. The committee did not decide whether to create the area or not. The committee is planning to remove all smoking areas on campus within five years. Burge said she hopes that by then students will be prepared for the change.
Government will ration vaccine for H1N1 virus by Linda A. Johnson The Associated Press
TRENTON, N.J. — Plan on getting your swine flu shot at work? Don’t count on it. The new vaccine will be rationed initially to groups most at risk of contracting the virus or
developing complications — children and young adults, pregnant women, health care workers and the chronically ill. People caring for infants will also receive priority. Businesses may have to wait months to offer the shot, if they get it at all. The regular seasonal flu vaccine is available a bit earlier than usual,
and federal health officials recommend most people get that shot. Some employees are already lining up for it. But the strain that’s already a national fixture is swine flu. And for healthy adults, the vaccine will not be readily available. “I would prefer to have it done at work. Everything’s easier,” said Tom
Barclay, a 24-year employee of drug and chemical maker Bayer Corp. in Pittsburgh. “It’s very convenient.” The first swine flu vaccine should be available in the U.S. sometime around the first week of October. About 90,000 sites — mainly hospitals, clinics, doctors’ offices,
see Swine Flu page 5
Round and round and round we go
Philippe LeGault and Teresa Baer-Davis ride the Orbiter at the State Fair on Tuesday. The fair offers rides like these and shopping, galleries, concerts and food. Gary Alderete/ Daily Lobo
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