DAILY LOBO new mexico
Falling short see page 8
October 26, 2009
Eco-Reps advocate recycling on campus by Sean Gardner Daily Lobo
A group of environmentally-conscious students have organized to promote recycling in the For more info dorms. about Eco-Reps, Eco-Reps — e-mail lobosust@ a collaborative unm.edu effort between UNM Recycling, Residence Life and Student Housing and a service learning class — is a group of students who want more recycling opportunities on campus, said Elyse Jalbert, the group’s president. “Eco-Reps are elected student leaders who basically encourage sustainable living and recycling in the dorm,” Jalbert said. Since 2004, UNM Recycling has attempted to install permanent recycling bins near the residence halls — including a 30-yard bin between lower Johnson and Santa Ana residence halls — but they have been placed sporadically and are removed without notice, said Linda McCormick, president of UNM Recycling. McCormick said the bins were moved to south campus and there are no plans to return them closer to the dorms. “They were moved out of there for a variety of reasons and they are now located on the south side of the
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monday The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Student-to-adviser ratio at UNM and peer institutions Univ. of New Mexico
770:1
Univ. of Washington
Univ. of Colorado Boulder
NACADA National Average (2003)
550:1
300:1
Univ. of Arizona
Key
= 100 students to one adviser
700:1
300:1
*Representatives from each institution Note: Of the 16 UNM peer institutions listed by the Higher Education Department, 13 did not have student to adviser data available.
UNM’s advising ratio twice the national average by Pat Lohmann Daily Lobo
UNM and its peer institutions are finding themselves with an influx of students who need advisement, but the universities don’t have the money to hire more advisers. UNM’s University College student-to-adviser ratio of 770-to-1 is the highest of 16 peer institutions that had data readily available, and it
is more than twice the last recorded national average. “We have a higher student-adviser ratio than most. That’s a given. We know that,” said Vanessa Harris, University College Advisement Center director. “The University is working toward decreasing that ratio for students.” Harris said UCAC, which has 10 advisers, is struggling to advise the college’s 7,700 students. She said the
center is also allocating new money from the Board of Regents to hire more advisers. Charlie Nutt, executive director of the National Academic Advising Association, said that because UCAC does not offer online advising, has limited phone and e-mail advising, and requires advisement every semester, 770-to-1 is a high ratio. “Seven hundred-to-one is a large ratio, especially with the limited
other avenues of advice and experience open to the students in the University College,” he said. However, Nutt said such ratios are common. “Unfortunately, New Mexico is not unique in those high ratio numbers for a university of your size,” he said. “That doesn’t make you (at UNM) feel any better.” Nutt said NACADA asked
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Fraternity repairs bikes for charity by Ryan Tomari Daily Lobo
UNM’s chapter of the Lambda Theta Phi Latin fraternity spent the weekend giving bicycles to children who need them. About 15 members of the fraternity volunteered to help the Community Bike Recycling Program. They put together bikes and distributed them to Albuquerque elementary school students. Alejandro Elias, president of Lambda Theta Phi Latin fraternity, said the fraternity volunteers with the program once a semester. “I think it’s kind of neat because some of the kids have never had bikes,” Elias said. “It is a gift for them and that is something we focus on in our fraternity. It’s to give back to the community.” The volunteer-only program, which began in 2004, accepts donations of working or broken bicycles.
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Daily Lobo volume 114
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The bikes are then given to needy families, said program director Richard Rivas. Apart from the fraternity, four volunteers work twice a week to fix up and distribute bicycles. The program distributes about 30 to 40 bikes to a different Albuquerque elementary school every month, Rivas said. The group keeps up to 400 bikes in its warehouse at all times. Rivas and his volunteers choose bike recipients with the help of the elementary schools’ counselors, who identify students whose families have financial hardships, Rivas said. Through the program, Rivas and his volunteers educate bike recipients on bike safety and tout the health benefits of riding bicycles. “It’s an all-volunteer group and we don’t get paid for any of the services,” he said. “I don’t have the volunteers to do all the repairs on the bikes. I have established organizations to give them bikes (and) have them (repair) the bikes. As president, I try to get other groups
Community Bike Recycling Program CommunityBikeRecycling.org throughout the city to help the kids in the community.” Gian Chaves, community service chair for the fraternity, said he stumbled on Rivas’ program a couple of years ago. Chaves said he and his fraternity brothers volunteer because it benefits all of Albuquerque. “One of the reasons I like to do this kind of community service is because we can get our hands dirty,” Chaves said. “It’s fun, but it’s fulfilling whenever you get to see the faces on these kids when they get a bike.” Rivas said he’s looking to expand the Community Bike Recycling Program. “We haven’t expanded out to the rest of the Bernalillo County area just yet,” he said. “But we could go outside to Santa Fe, Los Lunas and every where else if we got the help.”
Uniting for a common goal
Emptyhanded
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Miko Serna, member of the Lambda Theta Phi Latin fraternity, tightens down a pink bicycle’s front wheel at Esperanza Branch Library Saturday. The fraternity spent four hours on Saturday fixing bicycles to be distributed to Albuquerque’s needy children. Zach Gould / Daily Lobo
Today’s weather
63° / 32°