Daily Lobo new mexico
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Growing Chicano program gets votes By David Lynch UNM’s Chicana and Chicano studies program recently continued to gain recognition when the faculty senate voted for departmentalization of the program, allowing for more structure and opportunities for students interested in the field. Irene Vasquez, director of the program, said that growing the program has been an ongoing process since 2011. In 2013 a bachelor’s degree was installed, and in the fall it will get even bigger. Departmentalization allows for better infrastructure, something that Vasquez said was a huge obstacle for success when developing the plan for a major. Vasquez said the faculty senate’s vote was an event she’ll never forget. “It was a wonderful moment that I will cherish in my memory. We had a very large turnout of students and community members and staff and faculty who were there with the most positive intentions to be able to celebrate what we anticipated would be a positive vote for departmentalization,” she said. Most of the faculty in the program is either joint appointment, meaning instructors are primarily with other departments like American studies or history, or they are hired on a year-by-year basis. “So you can imagine that doesn’t give the program the stability it needs,” Vasquez said. “It makes a world of difference to be a department because we can attract our faculty who are rooted in the field and then we can promote and
tenure them.” Now Vasquez said she has her sights on developing a graduate program for Chicana and Chicano studies, a goal which has been a part of her master plan since the beginning. “When we established the major, what we began to do was structure the whole degree around offering high impact practices, [which are] strategies and approaches in teaching and learning that are more likely to retain graduate students,” she said. Vasquez said it is all about creating a support system for students in the program, giving them the resources they need for when they go on to graduate or professional school, something that is a common target for her students. She would like to have a master’s program within two years, and a doctorate program within four. That timetable, Vasquez said, is for the benefit of her students. “I can say with absolute certainty that we have cohorts of students that are interested in studying Chicana and Chicano studies at the graduate level,” she said. Departmentalization of her program, Vasquez said, will help UNM fulfill the promise of diversity and multiculturalism. She said the program will play an important role in leading the forefront to assure that those students who move on to graduate programs are a diverse group. “When we look at who is graduating with graduate degrees, we are falling short,” she said. “Our program will really
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tuesday March 24, 2015 | Vo l u m e 1 1 9 | I s s u e 1 2 4
New level of clean
Researchers looking at better ways to eliminate bacteria from surfaces
Diana Cervantes / Daily Lobo / @dee_sea
Harry Pappas holds a black light over his laboratory experiment at the Centennial Engineering Lab on March 12. Pappas and a team of researchers are finding a new method of combating bacteria by creating a substance that keeps surfaces clean for hours.
By Sayyed Shah A team of researchers at UNM are developing new wipes for killing bacteria on different surfaces. The wipes aim to keep different surfaces cleaner for longer than usual with the help of compounds developed by the researchers, said David Whitten, associate director at the Center for Biomedical Engineering. “We have developed a library of unique compounds that are really effective at killing nasty pathogenic bacteria,” he said.
“We are at a point in our research where we think it is the time to develop some applications and we have tried to incorporate our compounds into wipes that people use.” Whitten and his students think their compounds can be useful in cleaning medical tools in the hospitals, he said. “You read all the time about antibiotic resistance strains in hospitals, we think that our compounds can kind of circumvent that problem and kill bacteria on variety of surfaces.
It is something we are doing right now; we are trying to kill bacteria on counter-tops, fabrics or plastics,” said Harry Pappas, a research assistant at the Center for Biomedical Engineering. Whitten and his students claim they can kill 999 out of 1,000 bacteria with the help of their compounds in about half-an-hour, he said. The wipes developed by Pappas and his colleagues have few advantages of doing things that the products in the stores cannot do, he said.
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Science page 3
Lobos’ run in postseason play comes to an close UNM women fall to Oral Roberts in Women’s Basketball Invitational, ending season with 21-13 mark By Liam Cary-Eaves
Kanan Mammadli / Daily Lobo / @kenan_mammadly
New Mexican guard Kenya Pye falls to the court trying to collect a loose ball during Monday’s Women’s Basketball Invitational game against Oral Robert Monday night at the Johnson Gym. Lobos lost 63-61.
Poor shooting from the field and the free throw line ends the Lobos’ season in a 63-61 loss to Oral Roberts in the second round of the Women’s Basketball Invitational. Despite a late push, New Mexico couldn’t overcome a 20 of 70 shooting performance from the field to advance to the WBI semifinals. Head coach Yvonne Sanchez said her squad came out of the gates without a lot of confidence, which cost the Lobos another home win in postseason play. The Lobos conclude their season with a 21-13 overall record. “I thought we came out timid, for whatever reason,” Sanchez said. “We missed shots we wouldn’t normally miss. We missed assignments on defense… It’s a tough way to go out.” Sanchez said she was proud of the way her team fought back despite being down by as many as nine points in the second half. Freshman Cherise Beynon, in particular had a standout game, collecting career highs with
16 points and 13 boards in the guard’s first double-double. “Cherise is just a stud. That kid is just good,” Sanchez said. “She’s going to be good for a very long time.” Sanchez said Beynon’s performance was the best she’s seen from the young guard. Although the freshman said she would have preferred an alternate outcome, the guard said she felt good from the floor on Monday night. “I tried to give it all I had because I wanted to keep the season going,” Beynon said. “Nobody wants it to end, of course. But as long as I played my hardest and gave it all I had, then that’s the outcome I am going to have to live with.” Beynon said the team’s performance from the free throw line was the most disappointing stat of the night. Despite shooting 31 attempts from the charity stripe, the Lobos only converted 19 times.
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