Daily Lobo 04/05/18

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Thursday, April 5, 2018 | Vo l u m e 1 2 2 | I s s u e 5 6

UNM celebrates Dr. MLK, Jr.’s legacy By Catherine Stringam @cathey_stringam While it has been 50 years since his passing, the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. lives on today with students and faculty at the University of New Mexico. On the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination, UNM’s Africana, Chicana and Chicano and Native American Studies came together to hold a vigil honoring King. Students and community members of all ages gathered outside Mesa Vista Hall Wednesday afternoon to share stories and inspiration. “The dream is still alive,” Rev. Charles Becknell, Sr. said to the crowd. UNM President Garnett Stokes also spoke at the event. “50 years ago Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was struck down in the prime of his life,” she said. “However, his words and deeds remain as relevant today as during his lifetime.” King grew up in Georgia and eventually became a pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. He quickly became an influential leader in the civil rights movement, participating in many

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Danielle Prokop/ New Mexico Daily Lobo/ @ProkopDani

UNM President Garnett S. Stokes walks with faculty and other attendees for the vigil commemorating the 50-year anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 2018.

UNM moves to sustain its press How student evals affect instructors BRIEF

By Madison Spratto @Madi_Spratto

The next step in saving the University of New Mexico’s publishing house, UNM Press, was approved by the Board of Regents on March 12. The press will outsource their warehouse and distribution functions to Longleaf Service Inc., which works with several other academic presses, according to Richard Schuetz, the interim director of UNM Press. UNM Press has been operating with a deficit for decades, according to Interim Senior Vice Provost Richard Wood, and after efforts to reduce operation cost by downsizing employees, the regents approved to outsource the warehouse to Tennessee. Schuetz said the Press was publishing 75 to 85 publications annually but cut down to 50 this year in order to save more on costs. “We’ve gotten smaller, and now this piece will be to help us be a little more efficient,” he said. Wood said UNM Press has run deficits around several hundred thousand dollars a year for a few years, and this decision to outsource the warehouse was a financial one. UNM Press currently has a fixed

By Danielle Prokop @ ProkopDani

Anthony Jackson / New Mexico Daily Lobo / @TonyAnJackson

An empty forklift sits in the University of New Mexico Press warehouse as workers take their lunch break.

cost, which means no matter how well or poorly the press is doing, it pays the same amount for warehouse functions and operations, Schuetz said. Longleaf will charge the press based on the amount of sales — if sales go up, fees go up, but if sales go down, the cost does as well. Wood said he believes the University should have an academic press, but because of the fiscal pressure faced by the University since the Great Recession in 2007, funding to support students and the academic mission has been trimmed gradually.

On the Daily Lobo website CABANILLAS: Well-known author visits UNM

By restructuring UNM Press’ finances and alloting them a fixed subsidy of $350,000 a year, Wood said it will give the press a viable business model for the future and save students and taxpayers money. He said rethinking the business model included more efficiency in completing tasks, and a big part of it is outsourcing the warehouse. By making this move, he said the press will save money without losing intellectual functions, adding that the editorial functions

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The end of the semester is near, which means it’s time for student evaluations at the University of New Mexico. Student evaluation averages are a factor in determining promotion and tenure for faculty or rehiring lecturers, according to the College for Arts and Sciences handbook. Professors who are on track for tenure have their performance assessed based on their teaching evaluations, service on committees and their research, the handbook said. Non-tenure instructors and lecturers are only evaluated for rehiring the next semester by two criteria — teaching and their service on committees. Therefore, student evaluations hold more weight in their reviews. Aeron Haynie is the director at the Center for Teaching and Learning, which aims to further undergraduate learning. The center encompasses student tutoring and support for faculty and graduate teachers at the University. “It is our position that student

evaluations can provide important insight for professors, as they sit in the classes day in and day out,” Haynie said. “However, they have to be viewed in their full context.” Haynie said student evaluations, at their best, can provide constructive criticism and valid insights to improve professors’ performances. However, the ugly side can be negative reviews that are personal attacks on a professor. Student evaluations have moved off of paper and are now, for the most part, completed online across campus. Haynie said that the results are more polarized, as only students who really enjoy or hate a course complete the surveys. Her concern regarding lower student participation in surveys means the results are more likely to be skewed. “The significant lowering of evaluations that get completed every year makes them statistically less valid in my mind,” Haynie said. Danielle Prokop is a freelance reporter with the Daily Lobo. She can contacted at news@dailylobo. com or on Twitter @ProkopDani.

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Daily Lobo 04/05/18 by UNM Student Publications - Issuu