DAILY LOBO new mexico
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The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
October 23, 2009
Shop talk: Grease An original multimedia series
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Student race car team loses University funds by Nicole Raz Daily Lobo
Ryan Garcia/ Daily Lobo Trent Schara rides his custom Harley down Highway 317. Schara builds bikes at Atomic Custom, his shop. Check out the Multimedia page at DailyLobo.com to watch ‘Grease,’ the second episode in the ‘Shop talk’ series by Joey Trisolini.
The checkered flag might wave early for a team of race car-building students. The Formula Society of Automotive Engineers is an annual international collegiate engineering competition where students design and build their own race cars. The School of Engineering plans to cut funding to the program that sends a UNM team to the competition. It’s supported the group since 1998. It costs $55,000 to run the program. Students raise $25,000 of the funds primarily through donations from Sandia National Labs and the Unser Racing Museum. Last week Arup Maji, interim dean of the School of Engineering, guaranteed to pay UNM’s summer portion — $30,000 — for the next two years. But in 2011, the team will have to fend for itself over the summer, or possibly shut down, Maji said. “I am saddened that enthusiastic students might not have this opportunity, because some students certainly look forward to and are very energized by it,” Maji said. “Because I am interim dean and the financial challenges that we face, I am not in a position right now to commit summer salary for 2011.”
The team’s project manager, Joseph Conroy, and deputy project manager, Niki Naber, started two petitions to voice concern for the future of the program. The petitions have received at least 40 signatures, Conroy said. Of the $30,000 provided by the School of Engineering, $25,000 goes to the summer salary of the team’s director, John Russell. According to the UNM salary book, Russell makes $117,513 a year. Russell said 15 students participate in UNM’s FSAE, and 220 students have completed the program since it started. The program lasts a full year, including the summer term. If the program is not funded in the summer, Russell said the success of the program will suffer. “One year of not conducting the program kills all the continuity necessary for a successful program,” Russell said. “Would an interim university president think of canceling football for a year while he waited for a new university president to be appointed?” Steven Carpenter, a junior in the School of Mechanical Engineering, was going to start FSAE program in the spring, but the program has been taken off of LoboWeb.
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Growers market features live music, local fare by Andrew Beale Daily Lobo
A growers market, complete with a solar-powered band, a balloonist and more than a dozen local food vendors, will take over Johnson field on Saturday. Sustainability Studies Program Coordinator Terry Horger, who organized the event, said the growers market emphasizes environmental consciousness and local produce. She said the market is aimed at students because there are other growers markets that target the wider
community. “We really are trying to attract the people from campus, as opposed to, let’s say, the rest of the city,” she said. “We’re really trying to focus on the students, staff and faculty on campus.” Horger said this will be the only growers market for the fall, but the Sustainability Studies Program plans to make it a weekly event next semester. “Even though this is a small growers market, and unfortunately it’s the only one we’re having this semester, we’re hoping that by the
spring we’ll be having them on a more regular basis,” she said. The Sustainability Studies Program will partner with La Montañita Co-op to raise funds for future growers markets. “The thought is that we will sell Co-op memberships, and so for those members … whatever money they spend at the Co-op, 1 percent of their sales will come back to us,” she said. Bruce Milne, program director of the Sustainability Studies Program, said Sustainability Studies worked for about a month to set up this
UNM hosts free e-waste recycling Staff Report Daily Lobo
UNM community members can get their electronic waste recycled free of charge on campus this Saturday. UNM Recycling, NetImpact and the Staff Council Environs Committee teamed up to host the third annual UNM E-waste Recycling Event, where students, faculty and staff can recycle old cell phones, radios, microwaves, VCRs, DVD Players and more for free. Recycling old televisions, however, will cost $10. Linda McCormick, president of UNM Recycling, said electronic waste can hurt the environment.
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“If they’re not recycled, then they can have a profound negative impact on the environment, because they typically contain heavy metals like lead or copper in the solder, tin — things like that,” she said. McCormick said Albuquerque hosts two similar e-waste events each year for the general public. Also, there are two companies in the city that accept e-waste throughout the year — Albuquerque Recycling and Enchantment Recycling. All of the e-waste collected Saturday will be given to Albuquerque Recycling, McCormick said. She said the company makes a profit on the items. “The reason that it’s free for everything is that there’s enough
growers market. He said the program needs additional staff before they can run the market on a weekly basis. “We’ve had seven of these events so far,” he said. “But to do it on a regular basis means we would have to have a dedicated staff person, so that’s been difficult for us to put together from existing funds.” He said the funds from the Coop program will go to hire a staff member to coordinate the growers markets. Madeline Hastings, who runs Duke’s Raspberry Ranch, will sell
Lobo Growers Market Johnson Field 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. Saturday raspberries at the growers market Saturday. Hastings will share a booth at the event with her son, who owns Chillz Frozen Custard. “We combined our products. I grow raspberries, so what we do is use his custard and my raspberries and we make sundaes,” she said. Horger said the Squash Blossom
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E-waste recycling Saturday 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. ‘A’ Lot value in the recycled materials of a CD player or something like that so that they don’t have to charge us,” she said. Televisions don’t have enough valuable components, which is why it costs $10 to recycle them, McCormick said. McCormick said the e-waste event helps consumers understand the environmental implications of everyday products. Photo illustration “There’s no environmental-free lunch,” she said. “There’s a dark side to everything.”
Question of the week
More spook for your buck
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