DAILY LOBO new mexico
High cost of higher ed. see page 4
monday
October 24, 2011
The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Day of awareness encourages cooperation, trust by Stephanie Hoover
stephchoover@gmail.com
Juan Labreche / Daily Lobo Kipp Watson (left) was diagnosed with polio at age 1 and has been in a wheelchair his entire life. Here he instructs UNM student Jordan Ezeanyim (right) in the fundamentals of wheelchair basketball.
Roybal enumerates goals by Luke Holmen holmen@unm.edu
The Daily Lobo spoke with ASUNM President Jaymie Roybal about ASUNM’s plans for this year. Roybal outlined both long- and short-term goals for the University.
Juan Labreche / Daily Lobo ASUNM president Jamie Roybal Short-Term Goals ASUNM Website — More than half of the semester has already passed and ASUNM’s website still isn’t up and running. The site displays spring election results and reads “Have a good summer” on the main page. Roybal said the site isn’t up yet because it is being completely revamped. “Previously the website had to be redesigned each year, with each new webmaster,” she said. “We are looking for something permanent that is easy to amend. My vice president
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and I made the decision to have the University build the website.” ASUNM signed a contract with University Web Communication Services for 67 hours of work on the site, estimated to cost $3,350. “Most likely it will cost less, but we budgeted for this amount to ensure everything could be completed,” Roybal said. Student Participation naming new Residence Halls — ASUNM passed a resolution requesting Administration allows students to take part in naming new residence halls, after the Casas Del Rio project was named without consulting students. “It’s a student resident hall, students should name the buildings,” Roybal said. “The administration has been supportive and is going to allow students to name them.” Roybal said she also hopes to work with American Campus Communities and University Administration on design features of the new buildings. She said ACC sent representatives to ASUNM meetings earlier last year and showed them a number of possible designs for the residence halls. UNM day at the Legislature and Tuition Credit — On Jan. 30, students can present proposals and requests before the State Legislature during the Legislature’s annual UNM day in Santa Fe. Roybal said ASUNM’s focus for this year is to persuade legislators to permanently remove UNM’s tuition credit. “The tuition credit basically says that the state will take a portion of UNM’s tuition and will allocate it to any other agency they wish,” she said. “It’s basically a tax on students. You are being taxed for
attending higher education. Students shouldn’t be used to balance the state budget.” ASUNM will provide free lunch at Tomasitas Mexican Restaurant in Santa Fe and a free Railrunner ticket to participating students.
Students participated in activities like wheelchair basketball and a blindfolded obstacle course to experience what it might be like to live with a disability as a part of UNM’s Disability Awareness Day on Friday. Advocates for Universal Design, a student organization, hosted the event along with UNM’s Accessibility Resource Center, the Office of Equal Opportunity and the Office of Equity and Inclusion. AUD President Randy Holley said the goal of the event was to raise awareness about challenges people with disabilities face, and educate students with disabilities about resources that can help them. “We want people to take our wheelchair obstacle course challenge to see how hard it is to go down that ramp (by the SUB) to the library, go in the library, pick up some study materials and come back the same way they went and go back up that ramp,” she said. “That ramp is horrible; it’s definitely not a pleasant trip.” Student Amanda Youngblood, who is blind and a member of UNM’s division of the National Federation of the Blind, helped lead the “blind challenge.” She blindfolded challenge
participants who were asked to maneuver using a cane while being led by a person who is blind. Youngblood said she thinks Disability Awareness Day is an effective way to help students understand disabilities. “I think it’s just really about educating the public and spreading awareness about various disabilities and getting the word out there,” she said. “I think they’ll learn that we’re people just like everyone else and we just have to do things a little differently and it’s not scary.” The Albuquerque Kings, a wheelchair basketball team, was also at the event encouraging students to try playing wheelchair basketball. Team member and student Dominique Rogers said students need to realize people with disabilities are just like anyone else. “I think people notice people with disabilities, but don’t always feel comfortable with approaching them,” Rogers said. “Events like this allow them to feel comfortable about approaching them and asking questions. Student Jaime Astorga tried playing wheelchair basketball and said it was a challenge. “You’re really not aware of what people with disabilities do with sports,” she said.
GRAND OPENING
Long-Term Goals Improved Lighting on Campus — Roybal said ASUNM plans to improve on-campus lighting as part of a safety initiative. “We are requesting capital funds from the state to improve lighting on campus,” she said. “It’s a work in progress and we can’t guarantee it, but we’ve had some issues with safety before and that is one of my main priorities. We are working on getting a proposal put together to figure out how much this costs.” Bike Share — Roybal said her primary long-term goal is creating a campus bike-share program. The proposed program would allow students to rent bicycles from various electronic pay kiosks on campus. “That is my number one right now,” she said. “We always talked about being alternative transportation-friendly, but I don’t see a lot of evidence of that and I think this is a good proactive way to do something about it. A student could rent a bike from a resident hall and go to Nob Hill … then return it at a different location if they wanted.” Roybal said the project is in its early development stages, so cost estimates and locations are not
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Juan Labreche / Daily Lobo Bernalillo County Commissioner Michelle Lujan Grisham takes the inaugural ride at the North Valley Bike Park at its grand opening on Saturday. About 100 riders showed up for the ribbon cutting ceremony.
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