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UNM’s homeless seek food, relief

Luke Holmen | September 7

The homeless population in the UNM area has led some students, faculty and staff to feel unsafe, but City and University officials said policies and programs exist to keep the campus secure and take care of those in need. UNM student Joshua Niforatos sent the Daily Lobo a picture on Aug. 29 of a homeless man, whom he said was drunk, urinating on the side of the Communication and Journalism building that faces the bus stop.

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Athletics: make do with two

Charlie Shipley | September 7

ASUNM heard a proposal last Wednesday that encourages reducing the number of Lobo Basketball tickets available to each student. Kim Goodson, business manager for UNM Ticketing Services, said each year students can pick up tickets on scheduled distribution dates. Each student is allowed four tickets, provided he or she has a valid student ID and can verify he or she is enrolled in at least six credit hours. UNM Associate Director Brad Hutchins said the measure, which would reduce the number of sales to two per student, would ensure more students have a chance to get tickets.

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Art Building sinks into a depression

Luke Holmen | September 6

The UNM Art Building is slowly sinking. The three-story building, which is home to the art department’s faculty, staff, labs and classrooms, has experienced worsening structural problems for nearly two years, according to art professor Adrienne Salinger. “The Art Building doesn’t appear to be structurally sound,” she said. “Several of the workers who insisted on anonymity were shocked that we are still occupying the building in this condition when I spoke with them over the last couple weeks.” Salinger said the building is dangerous to students and staff.

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Students query national experts

Michael Howland-Davis | September 6

Las Cruces — Experts in economics, health care, national security, technology and education converged at the fourth annual Domenici Conference where they painted a bleak future for America.They worked with students from UNM and three other state schools to explore critical problems facing the nation and ways to fix them.

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NMSU students protest Hayden

Michael Howland-Davis | September 6

Las Cruces — Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the National Security Agency and the CIA, spoke about issues related to cybersecurity and the rapidly changing face of the Internet during the Domenici conference last week, but a group of New Mexico State University students said he had no right to be on campus. NMSU Aggie Solidarity is a new student organization that seeks to raise the level of progressive political consciousness at the university.

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PATS responds to customers’ worries

Chelsea Erven and Luke Holmen | September 2

UNM Parking and Transportation Services (PATS) said they will respond to complaints about new credit card parking machines by getting machines that accept cash. Daily Lobo readers wrote comments and letters voicing their frustration on the inconvenience of credit card parking machines. “These parking kiosks might be convenient for Parking and Transportation Services but they suck for us,” UNM staff employee Glenda Wyndorf wrote in a letter to the editor Wednesday. Robert Nelson, Interim director of PATS responded to complaints in a letter today. “PATS is aware that some customers have been inconvenienced by this transition,”

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Opener game first with alcohol

Chelsea Erven | September 2

The Lobos play the Colorado State Rams Saturday in the first official game of the season while some fans will be enjoying University Stadium’s recently-received liquor license. UNM received its liquor license for the PIT and the University Stadium in early July and will now allow alcohol in certain suites that cost up to $40,000 a season and $1,000-per-game seats. “It’s not like booze is going to be flowing down the mezzanine,” University spokeswoman Susan McKinsey said in July.

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Mineral named for UNM professor

Chelsea Erven | September 1

The Commission on New Minerals and several universities named a recently-discovered mineral after a distinguished UNM professor. Researchers at the California Institution of Technology named a mineral discovered in 2003 “Brearleyite,” after professor Adrian Brearley, chair of the UNM Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, for his research in meteorite mineralogy.

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Search committee disputes document

Charlie Shipley | September 1

During the first meeting of UNM’s presidential search committee Tuesday, members argued over a document shown to potential presidential candidates.

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Abdallah names associate provosts

Chelsea Erven | September 1

When Interim Provost Chaouki Abdallah acquired his position in July, he promised he would work to change the structure and faculty of the Provost’s office.

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‘Kill classes’ test students’ resolve

Luke Holmen | August 31

Ever wonder why campus is jam-packed with students in the first couple weeks of classes but comparatively quiet toward the middle of the semester? “It may seem like there are more people in the first few weeks,” said Mark Chisholm, director of institutional research, “but it is probably just that they are on campus more, buying books, registering for classes and figuring out their financial aid and scholarships,” he said.

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ROTC: We’re not all guns and bullets

April Gutierrez | August 31

Recruiters say UNM’s Army Reserve Officer Training Corp (Army ROTC) offers a unique opportunity for students to serve their community, get their degree and get paid for going to college, but war protesters told another story. Answer Coalition and Food Not Bombs, both nonprofit organizations, protested near the ROTC’s welcome-back booth last week hoping to counteract on-campus recruitment.

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Vandals target new buildings and maps

Kevin Forte | August 30

The first week of classes at UNM saw an unprecedented spike in the amount of vandalism on campus, University maintenance officials said. They said windows were broken and more than four UNM buildings and 10 new campus maps were tagged.The College of Education building was tagged with graffiti every day last week, said Gary Smith, associate director for environmental services, maintenance and operations at UNM.

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IT: SafeConnect glitch-free, don’t uninstall

Chelsea Erven | August 30

Two members of UNM’s Computer science department wrote a letter to the Daily Lobo claiming to have found a security glitch in UNM’s network, but UNM IT said the problem has been fixed. Research assistant Jeffrey Knockel and assistant professor Jed Crandall said the problem lies in SafeConnect, a software UNM requires to be installed on both Windows and Macintosh operating systems before they can connect to University networks, including the LoboWifi network.

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Staff health care costs on the rise

Lorena Saenz | August 29

In July, UNM’s Division of Human Resources issued a sudden change to the staff health care plan, requiring members to pay hefty out-of-pocket charges.UNM employee Tom Rolland said the changes will move UNM’s health care to a “consumerism model,” which is really just a cost-shifting measure. “To do this they have added in co-insurance, this is on top of co-pays,” he said. “It’s a new way to get more money out of the people who actually get sick or injured.”

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Mock trial no laughing matter

Lorena Saenz | August 29

UNM has its first competitive undergraduate mock trial team thanks to two comparative politics students. In last winter’s comparative politics intercession class, senior Hannah Russell and junior Terri Harwood hatched the idea of a mock trial team, which recently registered with the American Mock Trial Association to begin regional competition by February 2012. “Terri essentially brought it up to me, and I loved the idea, since I hadn’t heard of any mock trial teams on campus,” Russel said.

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UNM intent on faster internet

Charlie Shipley | August 29

UNM joined 29 universities and colleges across the country taking part in Gig.U, a high-speed online infrastructure program designed to create network speeds several hundred times faster than current capabilities permit.The project’s goal is to attract new technology-driven companies in high-tech industries such as engineering, physics, health care, computer science and mass media to UNM and other participating universities by creating a community fostered by an advanced infrastructure.

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College students prone to DWI

Hunter Riley | August 26

According to a New Mexico Department of Transportation study, college-aged drivers made up about 24 percent of total DWI citations in 2010.Robert Archuleta, the enforcement bureau chief for the New Mexico Department of Transportation traffic safety bureau, said college-aged drivers are the target audience for anti-DWI campaigns because of their frequent risky behavior, like drinking and driving.

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Lobo Village halts Party Trolley

Hunter Riley | August 26

Last Friday and Saturday, Lobo Village officials barred the Party Trolley from entering its gates to pick up customers who had made a reservation for transportation from Lobo Village. Party Trolley’s founder Paul Aitken said he was driving the bus on Saturday night when a security guard told him he could not enter the facility. “I told him ‘I am turning around.’ I told him, ‘I’m sorry there was a problem.’” Aitken said.

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Elderly driver steers car through Smith Plaza

Kevin Forte | August 26

An elderly driver took a “wrong turn” in his car Thursday. The wrong turn caused the car to go down a staircase east of Zimmerman Library and onto the plaza, police said.Lieutenant Robert Haarhues said the man, 83, got lost while trying to find the Heart Hospital. Students who witnessed the incident said he drove through Smith Plaza and ran into a dead-end.