DAILY LOBO new mexico
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thursday The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
October 22, 2009
UNM to upgrade degree audit program by Tricia Remark If you’ve ever been frustrated trying to understand your degree audit online, help is on the way, according to the Office of Enrollment Management. The LOBO Trax degree audit is an upgraded version of the current E-Progress report, said Annette Torres, Enrollment Management senior degree audit analyst. She said EProgress and Lobo Trax are made by the same company. Students have used E-Progress for 15 years to keep track of their classes. The program, which costs the University $5,000, shows credits needed to graduate, credits already taken, and GPA, along with other information. Torres said E-Progress should help students plan for graduation, but it’s too hard for students to understand – advisers usually have to interpret it. “Probably the biggest complaint that we would have about E-Progress was that it’s really hard to read,” Torres said. “It’s black and white, it’s very static and it can be a very lengthy report.” Junior Jesus “J” Valdez said he used the E-Progress report when he switched from University College to the College of Arts and Sciences. He said his adviser asked him to bring a copy of the report to plan for his
future classes. “My adviser kind of helped me with E-Progress — she showed me the page with the prerequisites and all the classes you need for that and she showed me how to read the report,” Valdez said. Valdez said he used E-Progress to plan his classes for the next few years but would like to plan his schedule without making a special trip to advisement. He said E-Progress looks outdated and is hard to read. A clearer degree audit would help, he said. “I’d definitely use an easier to read E-Progress report,” Valdez said. “The one that we have right now seems like it’s the way the old computers print things out. It looks like you’re reading a program on a command screen — it’s just all squished together.” LOBO Trax will be available to students in March 2010. Torres said the LOBO Trax degree audit will be a major improvement over the E-Progress report. She said it’s colorful, organized and easy to read. “LOBO Trax actually is going to have graphs and charts at the top that you can click on,” Torres said. “If you just want to see requirements for your major, you click on it, open it up, and it’s all in color.” LOBO Trax will help students plan classes and graduate on time, she said. The “Course Planner” is
woman of UNM NMYO, said the group has organized the fruit stand twice and plans to open it again on Friday. “We sell organic and local fruit and we’re trying to have that available for students on campus,” she said. “If all they have is just fast food, or something quick and easy like chips at the convenience store, we want them to have another option and show them that local food is important.”
Beardsley said the group gets fruit from La Montañita Co-op on Central. She said they buy the fruit in bulk from the Co-op and then sell individual pieces of fruit for $0.50 to $1. “We got wholesale from them for the first fruit stand, and we got kind of a little bit too much, so we gave the rest to Food Not Bombs,” she said. “We sell apples and pears, peaches, plums and nectarines.” Beardsley said the group got the
money to purchase fruit from the off-campus chapter of New Mexico Youth Organized. The group is trying to educate students about the benefits of locally grown food, Beardsley said. “Along with the fruit stand, we’re passing out information about different food issues,” she said. “We had stuff about food security and the importance of local food. If people want to come get fruit, they can get information, too. We want it to
extracted more specifics about the proposed changes, as a commenter asked for clarification about the increased number of college preparatory units. The comments are posted anonymously. “The proposal is vague about the incremental changes that will be activated over a three-year period,” one commenter said. “The year one adjustments are presented, but there is no presentation which college preparatory units will be added in years two and three.” Representatives from Enrollment Management — also anonymous — responded. “Year one will be the extra social science. Year two extra lab science,” they said. “Year three would ideally be the fourth math.” In a Sept. 23 interview, Terry Babbit, associate director of the Office
of Enrollment Management, said data from the last three years indicates students who took more college preparatory courses were more likely to complete their degrees. Student Lawrence Alderete said universities pushing students to work harder in high school will benefit America as a whole. “I think we need to raise the academic standards of all public universities in this country,” he said. “It will make us a little bit more competitive and able to sustain the American way of life in the next 50 to 100 years.” At the Sept. 23 Board of Regents Student Affairs meeting, Regent Carolyn Abeita said the public’s suggestions for admissions changes are valued.
Daily Lobo
Joey Trisolini / Daily Lobo Phil Tonne plays fetch with his dog Oscar outside the Art Building on Wednesday. Tonne, a botanist, took a break from his work in Marron Hall for some bonding time with man’s best friend.
one new feature of LOBO Trax that lets students plan to take classes two years in advance. Torres said this feature will work well with newly implemented multi-term registration, which will be available in fall 2010. “What this program is going to have that we’ve never had before with the degree audit is a course planner,” she said. “Students will have the ability to see what classes they need to take to complete their degree. Then they can click on it and add it into their course planner and it will show up in the audit as what they’re planning to take in the future.” Torres said the Office of Enrollment Management will use the LOBO Trax Course Planner to determine the popularity of future classes. This will help them ensure that these classes are available for students. Henry Gonzalez, Title-V Educational Initiatives program specialist, said students need to be careful and recognize that using the course planner and registering for classes is not the same thing. “The course planner is only for planning, not for registration,” Gonzalez said. “Students will have to realize that just because you planned classes in LOBO Trax, it doesn’t mean you registered for them. It’s just a tool to help students and administration.”
Student group sells local, organic fruit at Duck Pond stand by Andrew Beale Daily Lobo
A group of UNM students is offering a healthy alternative to the snack options of chips and candy available at the SUB. The UNM chapter of New Mexico Youth Organized has a fruit stand, stocked with local and organic fruit, near the duck pond. Cheyenne Beardsley, co-chair-
Forum created to discuss new standards by Kallie Red-Horse Daily Lobo
UNM community members can give input on proposed admissions standards changes and get responses to their concerns by e-mailing the Office of Enrollment Management. The e-mails are posted on an online forum linked to the main page of the UNM Web site. There have been 33 comments on the forum since it opened Oct. 1. To keep the discussion going, students, faculty, staff and community members can comment until Nov. 15. Implemented over a three-year period, the new standards would raise the GPA required for admission from 2.25 to 2.5 and raise the number of college preparatory units from 13 to 16. The online forum has already
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Daily Lobo volume 114
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be educational as well.” Bruce Milne, program director of the Sustainability Studies Program, is the adviser for UNM NMYO. Milne said he helped the students to get the stand up and running. Milne said the Sustainability Studies Program connected the students with the Co-op. “When they approached us, I thought it was just a really fantastic
see Fruit stand page 3
Courtesy of NMYO Cheyenne Beardsley, co-chairwoman of UNM’s chapter of New Mexico Youth Organized, stands behind the group’s fruit stand near the Duck Pond. The stand offers locally grown fruit for $1 or less.
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