The New Mexico House of Representatives narrowly approved a $5.4 billion budget bill, 35-34, on Tuesday evening. The spending bill includes appropriations of $742 million for higher education, $1.5 billion for health, hospitals and human services, $2.4 billion for public schools and $362 million for public safety.
The UNM women’s basketball team said goodbye to its two seniors — Amanda Best and Jessica Kielpinski — who played in their final home game Tuesday. Best scored 10 points and Kielpinski chipped in seven, but it wasn’t enough to beat league-leading Brigham Young.
The Lead and Coal Improvement Project threw a wrench in residents and business owners’ lives when it tore up part of Yale Boulevard last month. Yale Boulevard closed between Avenida Cesar Chavez and Lead Avenue on Feb.
The oil and gas industry in New Mexico contributes a major chunk of money to fund construction projects at public schools and universities around the state — but not quite as much as it claims, according to the chief financial officer of the Public School Facilities Authority. The oil and gas industry “provides over 90 percent of all school capital investment through the Permanent Fund,” according to information on the New Mexico Oil & Gas Association’s website and pamphlets handed out at the Roundhouse during legislative sessions.
Fireworks are a lot less impressive when they’re incinerating car seats, as three UNM students found out over the weekend.
GPSA tabled a proposal at Saturday’s meeting to co-sponsor a program aimed at providing students with free copies of the New York Times. ASUNM representative Greg Golden, who presented the co-sponsorship opportunity Feb.
There was no shortage of guttural grunting over the weekend at Battle of the Bands, but in the end, intelligible lyrics won out. The bands played in order of how many tickets they sold, with the groups that sold the fewest tickets taking the stage first. Highest-ticket-earner Croyal took the $500 grand prize, a label contract and 20 hours of free studio time.
Flames and fireworks shoot from an unidentified car on Redondo Drive on Friday night, in this screen shot taken from a YouTube video. Student David Bjorklund said at 9:30 p.m. Friday he saw fire trucks and a flaming car near Redondo Drive. Five minutes later, he said green fireworks flew out of the car’s window, and later the trunk exploded with flames and fireworks. “It was ridiculous. It was like a whole car on fire,” said student Ethan Kellogg. Student George White recorded the incident and uploaded it to YouTube. The video had 308 hits as of 6 p.m. Sunday, and it can be accessed by searching for “UNM car fire” on YouTube.com
The Student Fee Review Board is recommending that students keep their pocket change. The board recommended a 31-cent decrease over last year’s fees of $486.80 and will submit those recommendations to President David Schmidly on March 1. At Thursday’s meeting, the board voted to fund the nine recurring organizations with the same amount they received last year.
Gov. Susana Martinez witnessed another one of her legislative priorities fail Saturday in committee. House Bill 49, designed to prosecute individuals arrested for driving under the influence of a controlled substance such as cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin, would have allocated more funding for law enforcement officials to draw blood samples from those suspected of being under the influence of drugs.
The Lottery Scholarship fund could run dry, and if the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee’s prediction is correct, funds will dry up by 2014. The Lottery Fund continues to finance more students and pay more for each student because of tuition hikes.
One state senator wants to outlaw synthetic marijuana in New Mexico. Sen. Sue Wilson Beffort (R-Sandia Park) introduced a bill that would ban synthetic cannabinoids and fine anyone caught using or selling it. Beffort said children’s safety is at stake. “(Parents) might not know that their children are getting high on harmless-sounding products like incense, potpourri and bath salts,” she said.
The Faculty Senate unanimously approved a proposal to create a dental medicine department at UNM. UNM’s dental medicine programs are under the Health Science Center’s Department of Surgery but have grown large enough to need their own department, the proposal said. Most University Health Science Centers already have a dentistry department, UNM Chief of Dental Services Gary Cuttrell said. “We’re just bringing UNM’s health sciences up to the standard of most health science centers with a department of dentistry,” he said. Faculty Senate President-elect Tim Ross said UNM should have a dentistry department because dental hygiene programs don’t belong under a surgery department. “There’s already a dentistry sciences program, and for years it’s existed under the Department of Surgery at UNM …,” he said.
Huwaida Arraf, an activist onboard one of the ships seized by the Israeli Defense Force in the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid, spoke at the SUB on Tuesday.
Student veterans have the chance to reduce their stress one pinprick at a time. The Veterans Acupuncture Clinic, a free service for UNM and CNM student veterans and their loved ones, holds sessions Tuesdays at 4 p.m.
A group of about 70 students, faculty and staff came together Wednesday to plan ways to force UNM’s administration to “focus on the University’s core academic mission.” Graduate Employees Together, or G.E.T., organized the meeting, which featured information on the University’s funding. The University’s tuition revenue has doubled in the last decade, because of tuition increases and a rise in enrollment, according to G.E.T.
Students at Monday’s Student Fee Review Board town-hall meeting chatted with board members about how they want their fees allocated. SFRB member Heidi Overton said rising student fees are a cause for concern.
If all goes according to plan, UNM’s Board of Regents will have two new members. On Tuesday, Gov.
New Mexico’s animal shelters launched a spay-and-neuter initiative Tuesday to help combat animal overpopulation and euthanasia. Every day, 66 pets enter New Mexico shelters, Public Safety Director Darren White said during the Spay Day event at Albuquerque’s Eastside Shelter.
UNM will soon have a new member on the Board of Regents. Gov. Susana Martinez appointed Jacob Wellman to the student regent post Monday.
Solutions by The State News
