DAILY LOBO new mexico
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September 29, 2010
The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Officials Locals chat up Obama at South Valley farm map out e-mail problems by Shaun Griswold shaun24@unm.edu
by Chelsea Erven cerven@unm.edu
Representatives from the Office of the Chief Information Officer discussed University-wide e-mail problems and proposed solutions to these problems in a Faculty Senate meeting held Tuesday. Moira Gerety, UNM’s deputy CIO, proposed two solutions to the Faculty Senate — to work to connect the multiple e-mail systems spread between the Health Sciences Center and main campus, and to move to a uniform e-mail system throughout the University. Gerety’s office recommended the second, she said, because UNM units would be more efficient. “It’s like this: Do we want UNM to be a big strip mall of e-mail options that are all connected or one institution?” she said. Faculty Senate President Richard Wood asked senate representatives to discuss e-mail options with their departments. Mike Campbell, director of PC Systems and Support for UNMH, said a University-wide “internal scan” was taken that included forums, surveys and conversations with faculty members and students to identify e-mail problem solutions. He said 2,606 students, 421 faculty and 764 staff members responded to the survey. UNM’s 40 different e-mail systems use multiple user IDs and passwords, are inconsistent and force users to use external e-mail accounts, survey results said. Campbell said the survey showed that 95 percent of students use their UNM WebMail, but only one third of them forward their UNM WebMail to personal e-mail accounts. The survey said 97 percent of students and faculty are satisfied with their personal e-mail accounts, but only 53 percent of students and 59 percent of faculty are satisfied with their UNM WebMail. Gerety said cost is also an issue, with $900,000 spent each year on e-mail and calendar services, totaling $15 each for the 60,000 NetIDs used in the UNM system. Student Miranda Lee said she doesn’t like UNM e-mail’s layout. She said using the UNM’s e-mail interface is problematic because it’s not always compatible with her Mac computer, something 30 percent of the faculty said is a problem. “I don’t want all my e-mail to go to the UNM e-mail, but now I have to make sure I check both of my email accounts because when an email comes from UNM, it’s usually important,” she said.
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Daily Lobo volume 115
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President Barack Obama discussed education initiatives that will help college students, answered questions about veterans’ benefits and his religious faith, and attacked Republicans for supporting tax cuts that benefit the top 2 percent of Americans during a “backyard chat” in Bernalillo County Tuesday. “(Republicans’) No. 1 economic priority is retaining $700 billion tax breaks to the wealthiest 2 percent of the country — millionaires and billionaires mostly,” Obama said. “We’ve got these deficits and debt. So we’d have to borrow the $700 billion from China or the Saudis or whoever is buying our debt.” Speaking to a crowd of 40 local residents at the farm of Andy and Etta Cavalier in the South Valley, Obama highlighted three programs that his administration created to assist schools and students in overcoming their achievement problems. Obama praised New Mexico’s Lottery Scholarship program, but he said many college students still rely on Pell Grants to pay for school. “Tens of billions of dollars were going to banks and financial intermediaries who were essentially acting as middlemen for the student loan program, even though it was federally guaranteed,” he said. “So they weren’t taking any risks, but it was passing through them, and they would take — they would skim off tens of billions of dollars of profit.” His solution: a loan program that distributes money directly from the government to students, which he said has saved $60 billion. “More young people across the country are able to get the student loans and the Pell Grants that they need. And starting in 2014, we’re actually going to be able to say to young people that you will never have to pay more than 10 percent of your income in repaying your student loan,” he said. Students who graduate with degrees that lead them into public service careers will be excused of loan debt after 10 years, Obama said in a conference call with student journalists Monday. He also discussed a program called Race to the Top that provides additional funds, about $4 billion, for schools that show exemplary performance. “We’ve ended up seeing 32 states change their laws to reform the system so that the whole education structure works better for our kids and makes it more accountable,” he said. The education conversation was well-received by Etta Cavalier, who has been a New Mexico educator for 36 years. When the White House called her Thursday to inform her that the president was going to stop by her home, she was ecstatic. Her enthusiasm grew when her family had a private conversation with Obama before the event in their kitchen. “We talked about education,” she said.
Junfu Han/ Daily Lobo President Barack Obama discussed his education plan to help U.S. college students during a backyard chat in Albuquerque on Tuesday. The event was part of a national tour that began in New Mexico and ended in Wisconsin. Yet questions during the open session focused on financial concerns. Fredo Chavez and his pregnant partner, Tanya Fitjerrell, own a restaurant in the South Valley. The couple expressed concerns about receiving federal loans from the Small Business Association. But the response Obama gave — tax breaks and lending programs to help small businesses invest in themselves — left the pair satisfied. “It was awesome to see he knows the importance of small business,” Chavez said. Another Albuquerque resident asked the president what he would do to prevent homelessness among veterans, and another thanked Obama for supporting a mortgage modification program that helped save the man’s house from
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Junfu Han / Daily Lobo Obama, right, speaks to gubernatorial candidate Diane Denish after his speech Tuesday in Albuquerque. Denish was among several politicos present at the event.
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