DAILY LOBO new mexico
The price of ambition see page 4
thursday
September 29, 2011
The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Tutoring service gets mixed reviews by Felipe Medina-Marquez news@dailylobo.com
Each semester, the Center for Academic Program Support (CAPS) provides tutoring assistance to more than 4,000 students in several areas of study. While many students are satisfied with the outcomes of these sessions, some students, like Miguel Aragon, said they aren’t getting the help that they’re looking for. On a scale from one to 10, Aragon said he rates CAPS a five. “I wouldn’t go there unless I absolutely had to,” he said. “There’d be situations where I needed help, but I didn’t think I would get any help, so I just kind of do it on my own.” Although no official statistical evidence exists concerning UNM students’ level of satisfaction with CAPS, anecdotal evidence suggests students aren’t happy with their CAPS experiences. After a few bad experiences at CAPS, Aragon said he became weary of the peer-tutoring service. He said he once sought help on an English assignment, but a tutor told him to ask someone else because she was working on a homework assignment. Daniel Sanford, interim senior program manager at CAPS, said the incident Aragon described was a direct violation of the policies for CAPS employees. “That’s exactly the type of situation I would very much like people to bring to my attention,” Sanford said. “That’s a situation that I can use as a discussion point in training the tutors.” Other students said the ratio of tutors to students is too low, making it difficult for students to get adequate help. “Before the exams it is really hard to get help,” student Artem Kuskov said. “There are 200 students and only like three or four tutors. Everybody needs help.” Student Fatima Tannagda said on Tuesday she had to wait for half an hour to get help because tutors were
busy with other students. Emma Mathews, another student, said she tries to keep her time with tutors short so others have a chance to get their questions answered. “It just sucks when there’s a lot of students here and there’s only like two people helping, and you’re raising your hand for a long time, and then you feel rushed because you don’t want to take away from other people’s time with them, either,” she said. “You want more people to help you, I guess.” Sanford said students who have issues with CAPS or with tutors should drop a comment in the comment box located in the CAPS lobby on the third floor of Zimmerman Library. They can also fill out the Contact CAPS form on the website. “We really do pay close attention to those things,” Sanford said. “There’s nothing that arrives in either of those channels that we don’t pay attention to.” Still, Sanford acknowledges that students and tutors don’t always have perfect relationships. “With so many interactions between tutors and between students in a semester, there are bound to be some number of interactions that don’t go the way that either the student wanted them to go or the tutor wanted them to go,” he said. “When those disconnects happen, we see it as something we can address in training or in individualized talks.” CAPS physics tutor Matthew Capo said he does his best to do more than just answer questions. “We try to work through a problem, but if we can’t work through a whole problem, we usually consult each other,” he said. Still, some students, like Robert Stone, are more than satisfied with CAPS’ service. “I was able to get my questions answered, and because I was studying language, they were able to help me with pronunciation of words that I couldn’t do on my own,” Stone said. “It was really worth the time and effort. It’s very convenient.”
ZINE SCENE
Dylan Smith/ Daily Lobo A suitcase full of zines, or self-published literature, lies open at RB Winning Coffee Co. during the spelling bee Tuesday night. The zines pictured here were written and published by various authors. See the story on page 6.
GOP stars skirt 2012 details by Beth Fouhy
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Chris Christie isn’t running for president, but he says he’s listening to those who want him to. Donald Trump opted out of a bid for the Republican nomination, but hasn’t ruled out running as an independent. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s aides are courting New Hampshire activists. Sarah Palin says she’ll decide soon whether to join the field, even as she worries the White House bid might be “too shackling.” Welcome to The Big Tease, when political stars stoke the hopes of supporters by hinting they just might join the presidential fray. A few do succumb to the temptation — most recently Texas
Gov. Rick Perry, who joined the GOP field in August after months of insisting he had absolutely no interest. Others milk their moment in the spotlight, boosting their national stature, broadening their fundraising base and laying the foundation for a possible future run. It happens in many presidential years. Democrats swooned, for a while, for New York Gov. Mario Cuomo in 1992; there was a Gen. Wesley Clark boomlet in 2004 and a drumbeat around former Republican Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee in 2008. Cuomo stayed out, but his prolonged indecision earned him the nickname ‘Hamlet on the Hudson.’ Clark and Thompson both jumped in late, only to burn out quickly. Perry, for his part, has already
learned the perils of a late entry. After joining the race with great fanfare and rocketing to the top of the polls, Perry’s shaky performance in two nationally televised debates have left many GOP activists worried he isn’t prepared to be the party’s standard bearer against President Barack Obama. But many also remain skeptical of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. He’s had a relatively smooth run this time after losing the nomination in 2008, but he still hasn’t fired up much passionate support. All of which explains why Christie-mania was at full boil Tuesday, when the New Jersey governor delivered a longplanned speech at the Reagan Presidential Library in California.
see Candidates PAGE 3
Prosecution puts F. Chris Garcia case on hold by Elizabeth Cleary and Chelsea Erven news@dailylobo.com
Mugshot of Garcia courtesy of the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 116
issue 29
Charges of promoting prostitution, conspiracy and tampering with evidence, brought against former UNM president and professor emeritus F. Chris Garcia in July, were dropped until further notice. According to an Albuquerque Police Department investigation, Garcia was involved in an online prostitution ring called Southwest Companions and used the Internet handle “Burque Pops.” According to Bernalillo County Court records, the findings for each of the charges were, as of
Aug. 24, “nolle prosequi,” meaning “do not prosecute,” which refers to a prosecutor’s application to drop criminal charges before a trial. Garcia’s defense attorney, David Serna, said the District Attorney’s office will most likely re-file charges at a later date. Garcia is not in police custody and has no conditions of release, he said. “Once the (District Attorney)’s office files a nolle prosequi, then there’s no pending case against him, and if there’s no pending case against him, then there’s no conditions of release or restrictions or anything like that,” Serna said. Serna said the move is a
Dance for the planet
It’s a bird, it’s a plane...
See page 2
See page 10
common one. “They do that in just about every felony case because they have a big backlog of cases and they (can’t) get to them all,” he said.
“There’s no conditions of release or restrictions or anything like that.” ~David Serna defense attorney Garcia’s hearing before a grand jury was also canceled on
short notice, something Serna said is less common than filing a nolle prosequi. He said there are any number of reasons a hearing can be canceled, and that he is unsure whether this particular case was canceled because of anything having to do with the case itself. “It can be for reasons that have nothing to do with the strength of the case, but it can also be for reasons like the prosecution has thought, ‘You know, these are not exactly the strongest charges. Maybe we’ll go back to the drawing board and dream up another way to charge him with
see Chris
Garcia PAGE 3
TODAY
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