DAILY LOBO new mexico
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May 29-June 3 2012
The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
UNM publishes salary book online
CONTEMPORARY WEST
by Avicra Luckey
avicraluckey@gmail.com
Adria Malcolm / Daily Lobo Dancers Natali Radelic and Vladimir Conde Reche rehearse for their performances in “The Tale of Natali,” which is part of Wild Dancing West 2012. The festival runs for three weekends, and features modern dance from choreographers living in the western region of the United States. See the full story on page 6.
More than a year and a half after students asked UNM to provide a more accessible version of its salary book, the book is available online. Director of University Communication and Marketing Cinnamon Blair said the Sunshine Portal launched May 25. The portal contains information on UNM’s purchasing information for contracts over $20,000, as well as UNM employee salaries. Before the online version launched, the salary book was only available to the public in hard copy at Zimmerman Library for two hours at a time, and could not be removed from the building. Former Daily Lobo editor-in-chief Pat Lohmann and GPSA each requested an online version of the book in the fall of 2010, but the administration denied repeated requests. The GPSA resolution “encourage(d) the Human Resources Department, the UNM administration and University Counsel to create and update a digital spreadsheet document of the UNM Salary Book.” ASUNM also passed a resolution in the fall of 2010 in favor of putting the book online. The following semester, GPSA passed a second resolution for an online salary database. In February 2011, the Albuquerque Journal compiled the information into an online database for its website. And in May 2011, Lohmann, along with other Daily Lobo representatives, uploaded a version to the Daily Lobo website by scanning every page of the book. In November 2011, the administration began developing the Sunshine Portal, a database that would include employee salary information, but student government and the administration grappled over how much the database should include. The hard-copy version originally included student salaries, but UNM legal counsel recommended that student information be removed to comply with the Federal Education Right to Privacy Act (FERPA). In February 2012, GPSA submitted
a third resolution, requesting the salary book include student employee and graduate assistantship information, but the administration chose to take the legal counsel’s advice. Last semester, then-GPSA President Katie Richardson told the Daily Lobo that the administration could consider listing student employee and graduate assistantship information by department or position rather than by student name. But Blair said students may still be identifiable if the position they hold is in a smaller department. She said the law restricts access to student information by a third party unless the student gives written permission. Blair said the University won’t include student salary information so long as the law remains the same. “We had to make sure that we weren’t going to compromise any student information, but we wanted to make sure that we were being transparent about our accounting and the information for which people were asking and what it’s going to include,” she said. Blair said the portal was put together by several entities on campus, including IT, Human Resources, the budget office and the Purchasing and Procurement Office. “We weren’t mandated to put this up,” she said. “This is something that Dr. Schmidly thought we needed to do. It was just the right thing to do, but we needed to go through and make sure we weren’t going compromise any information.” Blair said the Sunshine Portal’s first phase is complete. The second phase will include additional financial information and increased search capabilities and will be completed in June. To access the UNM Sunshine Portal, visit sunshine.unm.edu or follow the QR code:
AIDS clinic to move, provide more services by Avicra Luckey
avicraluckey@gmail.com
The UNM HIV/AIDS clinic will soon be able to offer more services to more patients after its relocation and expansion. The clinic, Truman Street Health Services, will relocate in July. According to a press release, the clinic will move from 625 Truman N.E. to 801 Encino Place N.E. The clinic will be renamed UNM Truman Health Services after the relocation. The clinic specializes in treating uninsured and underinsured patients with HIV/AIDS. HIV Program Manager Jamie Finkelstein said the new location
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is about 8,500 square feet, almost double the size of the clinic on Truman Street. He said the new space will allow for the clinic to serve more patients and provide more comprehensive care. “We’ll be able to expand our services to include things like nutrition services, a pharmacy, and add more mental health and substance-abuse services, as well as additional HIV testing and screening,” he said. The Albuquerque Journal reported the new clinic will include more staff and doctor’s offices, as well as nine additional exam rooms. According to the Journal, rent for the new space will cost about $165,000 annually. The old
The clinic has estimated that about 402 people in the Albuquerque area are unaware they are HIV-positive
building was 4,500 square feet and cost about $65,000. The Centers for Disease Control reported that 2,252 people had been diagnosed with HIV in New Mexico by the end of 2008. Finkelstein said he moved to
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Albuquerque last year from Florida, where he worked as a HIV/AIDS patient-care advocate for seven years, and has noted some specific challenges in New Mexico. “The huge stigma of HIV here and the reluctance of both the general public as well as health care providers to do HIV testing is a challenge,” he said. “There is a huge estimated number of people living with HIV that are not in care and don’t even know they’re HIV positive, here in New Mexico.” Finkelstein said the clinic has estimated that about 402 people in the Albuquerque area are unaware they are HIV-positive, and an additional 593 people are aware that they carry HIV but are
not receiving medical attention. Finkelstein said most of the patients at the clinic are have low income. He said it is important to provide them with access to one location that provides health care services for all areas of concern, including nutrition services and mental health services. He said the services the clinic provides are supported through state and federal government funding. “I believe in being able to provide everything that’s needed,” he said. “A lot of the people that we serve are low income, so they may not necessarily have the resources to get other services in the community, so we can hopefully provide and meet all of their needs.”
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