Columns

Opinion

Green Issue — Column: Plant ownership can have many benefits

Madison Spratto | April 19

I don’t have the famous green thumb that usually coincides with being a good plant owner — in fact it’s fair to say I have quite the opposite. Despite my terrible track record of killing plant after plant, a friend gave me the final push to try one more time, but this time, with plants I can actually keep alive. Although owning cacti and succulents is a fairly new hobby of mine, it’s in step with a wide-spread trend. Owning plants is definitely “in” right now, but so is plant-themed decor. I can’t put my finger on why this trend has emerged, but I’m certainly not complaining.

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Opinion

Green Issue — Column: Five ways to make cash on the side

Catherine Stringam | April 19

In today’s world, finding a job can be difficult. As a college student, balancing the demands of a job and school can be complicated, but necessary to pay for college, which is why students are always trying to find extra ways to earn money. When you think of side hustling, you often think of bugging all your Facebook friends trying to sell them cosmetics or something they don’t really need. But there are other options for students to make a little extra money on the side — here are five.

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Opinion

Green Issue — Column: Where to eat while stoned

Matthew Narvaiz | April 18

For many, smoking weed and food are synonymous with one another. With 4/20 getting closer, there are plenty of places to get your eat on when the munchies hit, especially near campus. As a self-proclaimed food savant, I will take you through the five best places to eat while stoned. But first...

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Opinion

Guest Column: BioBlog — Coral reefs: The ocean’s rainforests

Kacie Coffey | April 18

Undergraduate Kacie Coffey explores how coral reefs contribute to the ocean’s diversity in a recent UNM BioBlog. Ranging from how a fish’s imprecise eating habits contribute to soft, sandy beaches to the formation of attols, Kacie discusses how undersea coral reefs contribute to the world’s biodiversity.

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Opinion

Column: Facebook may be to blame for strong political divide

Nichole Harwood | April 13

Waking up and browsing Facebook is a common, often daily activity for the average individual in this day and age. Just as common is the barrage of memes and graphics plastered across the screen when logging in. These memes and graphics vary in accuracy, with some ranging from insanely inaccurate to strangely true. One graphic circulating on the site can be filed under the strangely true category.

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Opinion

International Issue: Column — Esperanto : The universal international language / Kolumno — Esperanto: la universala internacia lingvo

Aaron Cowan and Arono Kovano | April 9

Esperanto is sometimes referred to as “the International Language,” according to esperanto.net. Unlike traditional languages, such as English, Spanish or Chinese, which have naturally emerged over many hundreds or even thousands of years, Esperanto was intentionally invented by one person. Esperanto estas foje nomata "Internacia Lingvo" laŭ esperanto.net. Kontraste al tradiciaj lingvoj, kiel ekzemple la angla, hispana aŭ ĉina, kiuj nature evoluis dum multaj centoj aŭ eĉ miloj da jaroj, Esperanton intence inventis unu persono.

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Opinion

International Issue — Column: My experience as an international student / لم: میرا امریکہ اچ بین الاقوامی طالب علم ہوون دا تجربہ

Tasawar Shah | April 9

I am from Faisalabad, Pakistan and am currently a Ph.D. Language, Literacy & Sociocultural Studies candidate at the University of New Mexico. میں فیصل آباد پاکستان توں تعلق رکھدا آں تےاج کل یونیورسٹی آف نیو میکسیکو(یو این ایم) دے شعبے زبان، خواندگی تے معاشرتی علوم اچ پی ایچ ڈی دا طالب علم آں۔ میرا پہلا واہ یونیورسٹی آف نیو میکسیکو دے نال ٢٠١٤ اچ پیا جدوں ایچ ای سی دے ٩٠ فیصد آلے غیر ملکی وظیفے دے نال میں ایتھے پی ایچ ڈی واسطے درخواست دتی۔ دنیا دیاں بوہھوں ساریاں چنگیاں یونیورسٹیاں دا گھر ہون دی وجہ توں امریکا میرا پہلا انتخاب بنیا۔حالانکہ ایچ ای سی دی فہرست اچ یورپ تے ایشیا دیاں ہور وی یونیورسٹیاں موجود سن ۔ اپریل ٢٣، ٢٠١٥ دی شام نوں اپنی منزل البقرقی، نیو میکسیکو جاندیاں ہویاں میں نیو یارک دے جے ایف کینیڈی ہوائی اڈےاتے آپنا پہلا قدم رکھیا۔

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Opinion

International Issue — Column: Isle of Ré, a gem off the French coast/L’isle de Ré, un joyau de la côte atlantique française

Matthieu Cartron | April 9

“Ce ne sont que des mouches, Matthieu.” “They’re just flies, Matthieu,” my dad said to me. “Ce ne sont que des mouches, Matthieu,” me dit mon père.

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Opinion

International Issue — Column: Xenophobia must be recognized and fought/Columna: La xenofobia debe ser reconocida y combatida

Gabriella Rivera | April 9

It is easy to claim — on behalf of a nation, on behalf of a generation, on behalf of yourself as an individual — a progressive attitude much too advanced for destructive, discriminatory ideologies. It is easy to believe and maintain that you see beyond borders, that a common identity as humans makes differences in nationalities or cultures immaterial and arbitrary. Es fácil reclamar — en nombre de una nación, en nombre de una generación, en nombre de usted como individuo — una actitud progresista demasiada avanzada para ideologías destructivas y discriminatorias. Es fácil creer y mantener que usted ve más allá de las fronteras, que una identidad común como los humanos hace diferencias en nacionalidades o culturas inmateriales y arbitrarias.

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Opinion

International Issue — Column: Tips for studying abroad / コラム：留学のヒント

Anthony Jackson | April 9

The University of New Mexico’s Global Education Office has more than 250 programs held in 52 countries and spoken in 27 different languages. Students can receive credits toward graduation, depending on their program. ニューメキシコ大学（UNM）グローバルエデュケーションオフィス（GEO）には、52ヶ国、27言語での250以上の留学プログラムがあります。プログラムに応じて、卒業所要単位の取得が可能です。

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Opinion

International Issue — Guest Column: Learning Chinese can aid in variety of situations / 客座专栏. 学习中文，沟通文化.

Benjamin Yazza | April 9

In New Mexico, Spanish is a popular second language usually followed by French and German. My advisor told me this was due to its comparison to English. 在新墨西哥州，西班牙语是很流行的第二语言，继而是法语和德语。我的辅导老师告诉我这是因为这些语言跟英语很接近。

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Music

Column: Why contemporary classical music is relevant

Aubrie Powell | April 1

When it comes to the arts, catering to norms can be stifling. Contemporary classical music is a little-known world that brings a variety of approaches to the creation of sound within time and space, and none of these approaches can be described as completely normative. Most notably, composers in this world are alive and able to interact with other intellects and musical voices — something that Mozart and Beethoven simply cannot do. To most, this may not seem like a big deal when compared to popular contemporary musicians like Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran and Kanye West. These artists are alive, if not accessible. However the world of classical concert music is plagued by nostalgia, where new music often slides back to include music from the late 19th century.

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Opinion

Column: New Mexico's amazing women

Megan Holmen | March 21

March is Women’s History Month. Here, in New Mexico, we have a whole host of amazing women working on amazing projects, research and perpetuating change every day. Women’s History Month not only looks to celebrate herstory but also recognizes the continuous hard work of women whose actions create social change and move toward gender equality. Women in New Mexico have done some pretty spectacular and groundbreaking work between last year’s and this year’s International Women’s Day.

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Culture

Column: Some ideas for Spring Break, 2018

Danielle Prokop | March 7

So, you’re stuck in Albuquerque for spring break, whiling away the hours, while your friends are on some beach somewhere. What is there to do in Albuquerque? This list should have you covered on low-budget spring break options in the 505. Outside: Albuquerque is full of outdoor excursions on the cheap. If your idea of going out means lacing up your hiking boots, grabbing your bike helmet or snagging your crash pads, then you’re in the right place.

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Opinion

Sports Issue: Column — How I got into sports reporting

Matthew Narvaiz | February 25

Growing up I was always into sports. Playing them, watching them but, most of all, talking about them. I remember in my younger days watching College Gameday with Lee Corso and always looking forward to waking up at 9 a.m. to hear him and his crew’s predictions on the upcoming college football games. To me, that’s where the real fun was. Growing up, for most of my elementary and middle school years, I had dreams and aspirations of being on Sportscenter and talking about the day’s highlights. But like time, change in myself—and my interests—was always inevitable. I was still just a young boy, learning new things about myself each and every day. Being on Sportcenter, being an anchor on set, wasn’t for me. What was for me, though, was still being involved in sports somehow and someway.

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Opinion

Sports Issue: Column — Let's talk about paying collegiate student-athletes

Danielle Prokop | February 25

First off, I don’t care about college sports, but I do care about college athletes. I don’t have a “team,” and I’ve never been to a game. However, that does not take away from the fact that people are placing themselves into a brutal arena, unpaid for the work they do, for the sake of entertainment. Athletes are working 40 hours a week minimum at their sport — a full-time job on top of classes. They are limited by schedules and practices. Athletes cannot control their image, endorse products or receive payment for autographs unlike other “amateurs." This arbitrary rule is enforced across sports, not just the money-makers like football or basketball.

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Opinion

Sports Issue: Column — College sports should benefit students, not the NCAA

Christian Marquez | February 25

I really don’t care for sports. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Lobos, but hear me out. Student-athletes lay it all on the line for a chance to make professional sports their career. Some of them make it, but most of them do not. If we look to the numbers, it seems that only one party is guaranteed to profit from this relationship: the NCAA and their partners. For example, according to the NCAA’s estimated probability of competing in professional sports, out of the 18,684 student-athletes playing men’s basketball in 2017, 4,152 were draft eligible. There were 60 draft spots open, and only 44 players were drafted — making the probability of being drafted pro from NCAA men's basketball 1.1 percent.