Daily Lobo new mexico
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
tuesday March 3, 2015 | Vo l u m e 1 1 9 | I s s u e 1 1 4
Aaron Anglin / Daily Lobo / @ComicKidPhoto
Former State Rep. Rick Miera, left, discusses New Mexico’s legislative process during a Thursday workshop sponsored by the Peace and Justice Studies Program. The event focused around bills currently being voted on in the ongoing New Mexico legislative session.
Workshop shines light on legislative efforts By David Lynch
At a legislative workshop held at UNM on Thursday, former state Rep. Rick Miera gave a piece of advice that seemed so simple on the surface, yet made a profound effect on legislators when advocating for an issue. “Send a letter, but don’t send it typewritten. The most important and effective letters you can send are handwritten,” he said. The workshop, hosted by the UNM Peace and Justice Studies
Program in collaboration with ActionNM, a local community action network, was held to educate those in attendance about the legislative process, as well as how they can get involved. Miera, who served in the House for 23 years, led the workshop along with community legislative trainer Kim Zamarin. She said because of the way the state’s Legislature is structured, their relationship with their constituents is mutually beneficial.
“The impact of not having full-time legislators, and those legislators not having full-time staff, really makes a difference in terms of the ability to listen to community members’ issues and concerns and act on it,” Zamarin said. Although the current legislative session ends on March 21, Miera said the period of several months between sessions is essential for those who want to voice their opinions to their legislators. While the session is where bills
are presented and voted on, their origins actually stretch back to the summer months. That is when legislators begin thinking about the bills they might want to propose, and more often than not it is a result of the feedback they get from the public, Miera said. “That’s why you want to get involved in the very, very beginning. Because we’re listening to your comments,” he said Miera also said one thing that makes New Mexico’s legislature
unique is how accessible its members are. It is normal, Miera said, for him to take two hours just to pick up a few groceries, because he takes the time to talk to his constituents who want to advocate on certain issues. “The chances of that happening in any place other than New Mexico is probably pretty rare,” Miera said. “If you’re in California, if you’re in New York, they say ‘you can’t talk to your legislator.’”
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Raza service offers support C&J program promotes By Lena Guidi
When Rosa Isela Cervantes was a senior at Bernalillo High School, her friend brought her to El Centro de la Raza at UNM — known as Hispanic Student Services at the time — to meet with an advisor and get scholarship information. At the time, El Centro consisted of the director, an administrator and three work-study students. Several months later, after her first week as a freshman at UNM, Cervantes said she returned to El Centro because she wanted to get more out of her college experience in addition to attending classes. “I went from a small school to this big university,” she said. “I was very involved in high school, and then I came to UNM and I didn’t really know anybody. I thought I would go check that place out again, and the next thing I knew, I found myself with a work-study position.” She became active at El Centro, where she joined a group of students to advocate for increased funding for staff and programs at the state Legislature. She said it was this involvement that inspired her to pursue a career in student services.
Rosa Isela Cervantes
Now, Cervantes is director of El Centro de la Raza, which has expanded to include more than 22 services aimed primarily at UNM’s 11,000 Hispanic and Latino students. These services include mentoring, advisement, cultural programs, scholarships, research opportunities, community events and facilities such as a library and free printing. While it mainly focuses on support for undergraduate and graduate students at UNM, El Centro works with high schools throughout the city to schedule campus visits and advisement opportunities, such as the meeting Cervantes attended when she was a
senior. She said that in many cases, just setting foot on a campus can inspire students to attend college after they graduate. “We’ve learned a lot about motivating students and how important it is for them just to be on this campus, so that they can see themselves here,” she said. “A lot of them don’t ever understand that this is a place where they can belong, and we’re trying to change that.” El Centro can be a valuable resource for students who want to earn a degree but need help with navigating the language of the institution. El Centro gives them the opportunity to meet with faculty mentors to help guide them towards their academic and professional goals, she said. “Not all students have gone through the same educational opportunities, or have been given the same training or the same tools,” Cervantes said. While El Centro offers support for students from all circumstances, she said it is especially valuable for students who have been marginalized due to their immigration or economic status.
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intercultural engagement By Sayyed Shah
UNM’s Department of Communication and Journalism will host 16 students from Denmark and India during spring break as part of an exchange program. The students will attend a course titled “Intercultural Engagement” and will visit different cities of New Mexico, said Lillian Kelly, professor and coordinator of the exchange program. Intercultural Engagement is a student-instructor-arranged intercultural immersion experience featuring grounded learning, collaborative research and service, or similar meaningful interactions with people from a culture or subculture different from one’s own, according the C&J’s website. “We have eight students and two faculty members coming from India and eight students and one faculty coming from Denmark. We are adding that to five of our own graduate students and several of our faculty,” Kelly said.
Lilian Kelly
Since 2008, C&J has had a graduate exchange program with the University of South Denmark in Odense, which engages students and faculty from both universities in an intense one-week, three credit hours course, according to a pamphlet provided by C&J officials. The Department of Communication and Journalism and the University of South Denmark added Mudra Institute of Communication, India, into this program two years back, she said. “Two years ago we went to India
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International page 2