For the mental health special issue, three Daily Lobo editors took a moment to reflect on how we take care of our mental health while working in journalism – a fast-paced and often heavy field.
When discussing mental health at the university level, there is one topic that consistently comes up: test anxiety. Numerous studies have shown that test anxiety negatively affects college students, but how do we combat it? Maybe with the magic of music. About 25-40% of U.S. students suffer from test anxiety and for 10-35% of college students, it impairs their function, according to a study on test anxiety published in Advances in Medical Education and Practice. Music has been proven useful in calming the mind and body in other areas, so why don’t we use it at the University of New Mexico too?
After three years of college, I have discovered ways to destress when life gets overwhelming. I am by no means a professional, but here is what I practice.
“Unionism allows you a track to have your voice heard and to professionally push for the things that you value the most,” Sean Thomas, the executive vice president of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation, said. “Once you feel like you can exercise your voice, you don't feel so much like the world is happening to you, but you have the feeling that what you do matters and that you can change the conditions you're in.” Thomas is a teacher at Eldorado High School. He and fellow ATF member Sonja Kortsch said union involvement has benefited their mental health.
The University of New Mexico’s Mental Health Collaborative (MHC) provides free, short-term counseling through various resource centers on campus. It also functions as an internship program that employs students earning their master’s degree in the mental health field. MHC’s counseling services begin on the first day of classes and run through a semester; students receive between six and 14 sessions per semester. Counselors offer telehealth or in-person sessions, according to their website. These sessions are also accessible for Spanish-speaking students.
On Thursday, April 18, therapy dogs from the Southwest Canine Corps of Volunteers visited the University of New Mexico to help students decompress before finals week. The event encouraged UNM community members to take time out of their days to hang out with each dog and speak with their volunteers, event coordinator Lucia Pierce wrote. “This event really encourages a lot of conversation and so many people leave with a smile on their face. The canine volunteers really seem to enjoy their interactions too,” Pierce wrote.
Being a student-athlete is a full-time job and a demanding status to maintain – student first, athlete second. But often the separation between the two roles can be blurred. The best way to stay on track and not fall behind is to establish a healthy work-life balance. Work-life balance is “equal time or priority to personal and professional activities,” a Forbes article states. For student-athletes, personal and professional activities become one; their sport is their passion but they have to learn to balance it with academics. University of New Mexico senior and catcher for the baseball team, Kyle Smith, said that his work-life balance emphasizes defining time for his personal needs and not getting tunnel vision when it comes to baseball.
Nine University of New Mexico students reported various effects to an anonymous survey conducted by the Daily Lobo on social media use and mental health. Whether these effects are negative or positive could depend on how people use social media, according to a UNM psychology professor. Of nine UNM students who responded to the survey, 100% said they use some type of social media every day. Of those students, seven believe social media has an impact on their mental health. The nature of that impact ranged from somewhat negative (with four respondents) to somewhat positive (with two respondents). Three students rated the impact as neutral.
“These films are not mainstream movies; they are authentic representations that the people want to see,” shiloh burton said. The second annual Film Symposium at the National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC), titled “Power of Our Stories,” took place April 10-13, showcasing a diverse series of films. This included “Unseen” (2023), “Singing our Way to Freedom” (2018) and “Salt of the Earth” (1954), along with eight others. The free event featured themes of labor unity, Chicanx and Indigenous rights and how the influence of music and art has impacted the movement for freedom among marginalized communities.
A 2023 study by a University of New Mexico psychology professor states that women’s environments can have an impact on their self-esteem. The study had a few limitations in the form of its methods and theoretical framework per UNM professor analysis. The study, titled “A Slim Majority: The Influence of Sex Ratio on Women’s Body Dissatisfaction and Weight Loss Motivations,” was published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior by Tania Reynolds and four professors at other universities. Reynolds hypothesized that when women are around more women than men in their environment, they respond with increased competition, which might correlate with more dissatisfaction with their bodies.
The baseball team faced the Fresno State Bulldogs over the weekend. Aside from a win on Sunday, they lost two out of the three games. The team was on an eight-game losing streak prior to Sunday. Friday, April 12, the Lobos lost 10-5. The Bulldogs had a balanced offense with everyone in the lineup earning a hit. For the Lobos, Konner Kinkade led the team with three hits.
Home to a hockey team in the desert, the Outpost Ice Arena is where the New Mexico Ice Wolves reside – a Tier II junior ice hockey team in the North American Hockey League (NAHL) in the South Division. The team was founded in 2019, and since then they have been getting down and dirty competing against nine other teams across the South Division from Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Colorado. The organization has recruited players from all over, including defenseman Luca Ricci from Montreal, Canada who is amazed at the amount of support the team received when he first arrived in New Mexico.
The United Graduate Workers of the University of New Mexico and UNM administration have begun another round of bargaining sessions. This the first time the sessions will be in conjunction with state and University budget schedules, as decided upon by the amended collective bargaining agreement last fall. The union seeks to increase wages for all graduate students to attain “just compensation and living wages,” according to their website. The first bargaining session this round took place April 8, followed by an April 10 session. This is the first time UGW and the University has held negotiations in the spring – the same time in which the University and the state of New Mexico set their budgets, according to Wilber Dominguez, union steward for the physics department.
The City of Albuquerque hosted a celebration for the recently crowned champions of the Mountain West men’s basketball tournament this past Thursday, April 11. Mayor Tim Keller and the men’s basketball team came out to greet and spend time with the fans. Keller presented two trophies to the Lobos: a golden Lobo hand and the official winning basketball. Keller spoke about what the accomplishment meant, not only to the fans, but to the city itself.
This Tax Day, we all have much to be thankful for as we consider the bounty of public goods and services that are made possible with our tax dollars. These include a school system that offers a free education to every child, the roads and other transportation infrastructure that make it possible for us to move about our cities and state, the first responders who keep our communities safe, no or low-cost health care coverage for a majority of New Mexicans, our plentiful parks, libraries, museums and so much more.
The University of New Mexico is entering its Taylor Swift era as the Honors College introduces a new class in the fall, “Taylor Swift: Honors Version.” Under the guidance of lecturer Maria Szasz, a self-proclaimed "Swiftie" and seasoned educator, the full semester course will explore various jukebox musicals and Swift songs. It will culminate in the class creation of a jukebox musical featuring Swift's songs. “The goal of the class is to study Taylor Swift's music, lyrics, philanthropy, economic impact and everything she's doing for women and artists,” Szasz said. “And the class will then create their own jukebox musical based on the life, song lyrics (and) eras of Taylor Swift.”
Stores like Walmart and Target have been placing more products, from toothpaste to deodorant, behind locked display cases. This has prompted customer concern, per six survey respondents. These cases, often used for products like electronics, spray paint or alcohol, are now used for various basic necessities, according to USA Today. The cases can only be opened by an employee, according to Forbes. A tube of Crest toothpaste, locked up at the Target location on Montgomery Blvd, costs $3.99. Dandelion Springer, a second-year psychology student at the University of New Mexico who frequents Target stores, said he is unsettled by the practice.
Fiestas, an event organized by the Associated Students at the University of New Mexico, took place on Johnson Field on Saturday, April 6. The event featured many talented artists in the lineup and closed with headliner, B.o.B. Albuquerque local band “Slums of Harvard” took the stage, busting out some of their most popular songs and giving the crowd their renditions of songs by other artists, such as Goodbye Forever and covers of “Holiday” by Green Day, “Dirty Little Secret” by The All-American Rejects and “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down” by Fall Out Boy.
“My parents survived the genocide that happened in Bangladesh. My dad was two years old when it happened. He has scars on his body from being beaten by Pakistani soldiers,” University of New Mexico College Democrats President Rakin Faruk said. On Jan. 26, the International Court of Justice deemed it “plausible” that Israel committed genocide against Gaza in some cases after Oct. 7, 2023. As of Apr. 7, at least 33,137 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army, according to Aljazeera. For Faruk, the genocide has affected her entire life, she said. The brutality inflicted upon her own family is why she has been so involved with the protests for Palestine, she said.
Many Americans are exhausted from our two political giants, Democrats and Republicans. Their divisiveness inflames and divides us every four years. A substantial 63% of Americans believe “a third party is needed” because the Republican and Democratic parties do “such a poor job,” according to a September 2023 Gallup Poll. While party diversity within our government would be ideal as it gives greater representation to those with differing opinions, Americans must treat third-parties with the same seriousness as our major parties and must not vote for third-party candidates based solely on their outsider status.
Solutions by The State News
