DAILY LOBO new mexico
Making a statement
wednesday
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The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
November 11, 2009
Taking steps toward shared governance Group aims by Kallie Red-Horse Daily Lobo
The Provost’s Office is trying to discern faculty members’ opinions on their stake in University governance. Provost Suzanne Ortega announced at the regents’ meeting Tuesday that her office would conduct a survey among faculty — many of whom are concerned about their role in UNM’s shared governance — to collect baseline data on faculty’s views on decision-making roles at the University before any changes are made.
The Provost’s Office expects to distribute the 35-question survey to faculty before Thanksgiving break, Ortega said. “In January 2011, a comprehensive report on the progress we have made in improving shared governance and communication will be released,” Ortega said. “An essential element in that report is the survey to document the progress that we have made over the years.” Regents President Raymond Sanchez said shared governance would increase the influence of the faculty in the Board’s affairs, but not vice versa.
“The faculty is saying they want to have a say in the regents’ business, so the regents need to have something to do with what has been the faculty’s business,” he said. The goal of shared governance is to increase the cooperation between faculty and the Board of Regents, Ortega said, but ultimate authority will remain with the Board of Regents. “I prefer to think of it as collaborative decision making where different points of view are fully represented, though a decision needs to be made by a designated individual,” she said. Faculty Senate President-Elect
Richard Wood — who attended the regents’ meeting on behalf of Faculty Senate President Doug Fields — did not offer an opinion on the matter during the regents’ discussion. “This is a unique opportunity to actually develop a clear understanding of where our tension points are,” Ortega said. “The survey will reflect the interests of all its stakeholders, because it provides data that is useful in identifying the most strategic changes we can make to make very important progress.”
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Suspicious Rose
Emma Difani / Daily Lobo Student Anne Ray speaks with UNMPD Officer Timothy King outside Marron Hall on Tuesday after a stranger left a dead rose on Ray’s car. Ray interpreted the rose as a death threat and called UNMPD. The officer disposed of the flower.
to engage students in community by Mario Trujillo Daily Lobo
Students erected a Wall of Burning Issues on Monday in the SUB, and student Travis McKenzie recited a poem encouraging the UNM community to participate in the event. “Coming with the people, we are making the choice to stand up united — fight with our minds. Our words are our swords, and our thoughts are our knives,” he said. About 50 students and organization representatives scribbled their concerns about UNM on the Wall of Burning Issues. Their comments related to problems with student advisement, sustainability and the smoking ban. The wall acted as a backdrop Monday to the student town hall, which turned into a meet and greet between different organizations. The Student Action Network, a newly chartered organization that acts as a networking aid for organizations and students to get involved in the UNM community, put the event together, said McKenzie, who co-founded the group. McKenzie said SAN is still useful for networking, even with Web sites like Facebook and Myspace. “It’s the feeling,” he said. “Hopefully if you came, you felt welcome, you felt like you can be part of it, like you can participate. Hopefully, you didn’t feel isolated, and that is what we are trying to support.” SAN was born out of Service Action Network, an organization that withered away a year ago. McKenzie and Daniel Marzec revived the Student Action Network this semester. Since SAN is a young organization, the details of its mission have not been clearly fleshed out, and the two co-founders have different ideas about how SAN will evolve. “SAN is absent of an ego,” McKenzie said. “It is not like SAN is going to make an official decision for an issue,
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Student Health Center faces expected H1N1 vaccine shortage by Tricia Remark Daily Lobo
The Student Health and Counseling center only has 50 H1N1 vaccinations to ration between about 25,000 students. Vaccinations for the entire student body of UNM were expected to arrive in early October, but there’s already a month delay and still no clear distribution date in sight, said Beverly Kloeppel, director of SHAC. The H1N1 vaccine shortages are nationwide, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Inside the
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Web site, and New Mexico has received only 0.48 percent of vaccines made in the U.S. All states receive vaccines based on population size, according to the site. Kloeppel said manufacturing problems are to blame for vaccine shortages. “It’s speed of manufacturing,” she said. “It’s still kind of a cumbersome process to make a vaccine.” Kloeppel said shortages were expected because the virus is so new. “H1N1 just came on the scene as a virus in May, so they had to identify the virus, develop the vaccine, get it
approved, then get mass manufacturing done all since then,” she said. Byron Piatt, UNM emergency manager, said the University was prepared for vaccine shortages. “As far as H1N1 — again thinking that we probably wouldn’t have the vaccine — that’s why we’ve really been trying to encourage social mitigation,” Piatt said. “Stay home if you’re sick, cover your cough and sneeze, wash your hands diligently, and get the vaccine when it’s available.” The federal government took charge of the entire vaccine production process, Piatt said, so the shot is
free to UNM students. Kloeppel said that, as a result of the vaccine shortage, vaccines are only being distributed to students who meet specific CDC guidelines. “Currently, what we’re dong is giving it only to students who are pregnant, live in a household with an infant less than three months old, 17and 18-year-old students who have chronic health problems and health care workers,” Kloeppel said. Kloeppel said there’s no telling when UNM will have enough vaccines for all students, but she plans to have vaccination clinics on campus before
Where are we?
Home again
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students leave for the holidays. The seasonal flu usually has the largest number of cases in January, Kloeppel said, but no one knows when the peak in H1N1 cases will be because it is such a new virus. Kloeppel said she hopes the H1N1 vaccine will be widely available before the seasonal flu hits. “Since we don’t know when H1N1 season really is — for example we saw a peak in May, and we’ve seen a peak here on campus in early October — I certainly would recommend the vaccine whenever it is available,” she said.
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