DAILY LOBO new mexico
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November 18, 2013
UNM sees protest bonanza as vote nears by Ardee Napolitano news@dailylobo.com @ArdeeTheJourno
With the citywide abortion ban vote set for Tuesday, UNM has become a battleground for abortion activists, both from in and out of state. Following last week’s string of abortion protests, StopPatriarchy. org, a national pro-abortion choice organization, protested in front of the UNM Bookstore Saturday afternoon. About 50 people attended the event. Alex Petersburg, an organizer for StopPatriarchy, said her organization arrived in town last week to gear up for Albuquerque’s abortion vote. “We just came from Mississippi, which has one abortion clinic left in the entire state,” she said. “The antiabortion movement has a large push to shut down that clinic … We were there to defend the clinic.” Tomorrow, Albuquerque residents will be able to vote on the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance, which is on the ballot for the city’s runoff elections. If passed, the ordinance would ban all abortions in the city after 20 weeks, with exceptions for physical conditions that endanger the life of the mother. If approved, the ban would undermine women’s freedom, Petersburg said.
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Natalia Jácquez / Daily Lobo Alex Petersburg chanted among a crowd in front of the UNM Bookstore on Saturday afternoon. Petersburg and other members of StopPatriarchy.org protested against the proposed abortion ordinance banning late-term abortion in Albuquerque. The group chanted, “Abortion on demand without apology” to passers-by and handed out fliers and stickers.
HSC funding up but still dicey Petition: Frank can OK in-state tuition by Stephanie Hoover news@dailylobo.com @StephCHoover
While sequestration and funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health have heavily affected scientific research across the U.S., the UNM Health Sciences Center has seen an increase in NIH research funding and in additional extramural funding overall. The amount of money the NIH receives from the federal government has dropped over the past year. NIH funds were $29.15 billion in 2013 compared to $30.7 billion in 2012, a cut of five percent. This has since forced the NIH to dispense less money to universities via grants. However, Richard Larson, the executive vice chancellor at the HSC, said that despite NIH cuts, grant funding from all sources has been on the rise at the HSC, with a record high of $149.7 million in fiscal year 2013 up from $148.3 million in 2012. “We have been very fortunate that due to a number of very strategic initiatives over the past few years, we’ve been able to increase our research funding from other federal agencies,” he said. “That’s unique among universities.” Funding from NIH to the HSC has also been on the rise the past three years, amounting to $43.3 million in 2013, which is up from $28.3 million in 2012, according to the NIH website. Though the amount of funding overall is up, it is the amount granted
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that has increased, meaning fewer grants are available for researchers, Larson said. According to the NIH website, about 640 fewer grants to the HSC were available this year compared to 2012. Larson said HSC has received a record number of grants from outside sources, such as the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute and the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality to subsidize this problem. However, the non-NIH funding does not support the same type of research projects as NIH, he said. “Nonetheless it’s very important to reinstate NIH funding since the type of research they fund is not always supported by other federal agencies,” he said. “And as a result, if it is not reinstated we will see significant declines at this institution and nationally in many areas of basic discovery, as well as clinical research that NIH would have historically funded.” Nancy Kanagy is one UNM researcher who has suffered from the lower number of research grants provided by the NIH. Her research is on sleep apnea, a disorder that causes breathing pauses during sleep, and its relation to changes in the human body’s cardiovascular system. When she started researching the effects in 2008, there was merely an association between sleep apnea and high blood pressure, she said. She set out to find out if there was a direct connection, and discovered there was.
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But since 2010, she has seen both of her NIH grants run out. She is now running on the HSC’s Bridge Funding, an HSC initiative that started five years ago. This funding allows researchers to get a stipend to continue their research for one year and continue to apply for grants. “Once a lab shuts down completely, it’s very hard to get it up and running again,” Kanagy said. “So it’s allowing me to continue to run my lab. I have four grants pending right now, so I’m generating data, I’m publishing papers to try to get grant funding.” The $60,000 she receives in Bridge Funding is a stark contrast compared to the $250,000 she was receiving from NIH grants, she said. Bridge Funding is only for one year, while NIH grants can last anywhere from two to five. She said researchers normally receive a portion of their salary from grants, and Bridge Funding can only cover supplies and the salaries of students and fellows who work in her lab. She currently has one technician in the lab who works only 30 hours a week to save on funds and one postdoctoral fellow who has her own American Heart Association grant to fund her fellowship. She previously had six students total, but cuts mean she can’t replace them. Kanagy plans to apply for at least two more grants by February, she said. Each grant proposal must have its own set of unique objectives as
Group seeking lower tuition for DACA students by Ardee Napolitano news@dailylobo.com @ArdeeTheJourno
A group of undocumented student supporters continues its push for affordable education for students who qualify under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals memorandum. Last Wednesday, the UNM Dream Team created an online petition addressed to UNM President Robert Frank, asking him “to use his power to provide instate tuition to undocumented immigrant students who attended high school out-of-state” but qualify under DACA and have lived for at least one year in New Mexico, fulfilling state residency requirements. The petition was filed on Change.org. Christopher Ramirez, a student organizer with the Dream Team, said enacting this policy would not require any legal alteration. “No laws need to be changed at the university, state or federal level,” he said. “It’s just that the president needs to say, ‘Make it happen.’ That’s now a possibility. These students have a Social
Security number, they have lawful presence and they should be eligible for in-state tuition.” The petition has 120 signatures as of press time. As it stands now, undocumented students from out of state who qualify for DACA still cannot get in-state tuition despite living in New Mexico for one year. Ramirez said that because DACA provides undocumented students “lawful presence” in the country for two years, it permits them to qualify for New Mexico residency and, consequently, instate tuition. In addition, Ramirez said that some students are already getting this kind of benefit from the University. International graduate students who take fewer than six hours qualify for in-state tuition, he said. He said graduate assistants as well as recipients of merit-based scholarships also pay in-state rates. “There are already groups of students who qualify for in-state tuition but shouldn’t,” he said. “So that’s why we’re saying that the president has the ability to do that.” Some out-of-state undocumented students also already qualify for instate tuition, Ramirez said. He said that by enacting the rule they’re
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