NM Daily Lobo 08262014

Page 1

DAILY LOBO new mexico

TUESDAY August 26, 2014 | Volume 119 | Issue 8

The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895

Magazine gives UNM high marks C&J By Daniel Montaño

UNM has been crowned the “king of graduate schools” for Hispanics in the United States, according to a recent ranking by Hispanic Business magazine. The publication ranked UNM fourth in business, sixth in engineering and 10th in both law and medicine in its annual list released this week. UNM was the only school to be ranked in the top 10 in all four categories. Rosa Cervantes, director of El Centro de la Raza, said she was not surprised that UNM made top marks, but was delighted that the University is receiving positive attention. “I think it’s absolutely fantastic,” she said. “I think it’s amazing that we’re able to highlight the things UNM is doing on a national level.” El Centro is a UNM organization committed to helping the Hispanic student community succeed by providing resources and assistance, Cervantes said. El Centro has only six employees, but provides support to the more than 11,000 Hispanic students, she said. A key to providing those resources — which include mentorship, advisement, scholarship opportunities and more — comes from networking and building relationships with the community in and around UNM, she said. “Through that we’re trying to scale up the program so we’re serving a larger number of students,” she said. Provost Chaouki Abdallah said in a statement that UNM prides itself on providing a learning community to a diverse student population, and the fact that UNM is the only school that ranked in the top 10 on all four lists is a testament to the University’s ability to foster learning among all groups. “I am always happy to hear news like this,” he said. “It is a reminder that we can accomplish great

things when we connect promising students and faculty with the resources of a flagship university.” Cervantes said that although El Centro is focused on supporting the Hispanic community, the doors are open to any students who would like help or guidance. In the report on the listing from HispanicBusiness.com, Michael Caplinger reports that the 40 schools that made it into the rankings this year “represent the cream of the crop” when it comes to Hispanic postgraduate enrollment and faculty numbers. According to the article, UNM has an average of 31.6 percent Hispanic enrollment in the four disciplines by which the rankings are judged, and has one of the highest Hispanic faculty rates in the country. Although UNM has made the list several years running, the article did mention that there was some close competition this year, as the University of Miami and the University of Texas, Austin, both ranked in the top 10 in three of the four lists. Cervantes said that El Centro will be working to expand student resources in upcoming years by bringing on more staff and reaching out to more local organizations for partnership in order to keep UNM at the top of the rankings. More importantly, they will be building on their work in order to help students, and Cervantes is extending an open invitation to those who would like to learn more, she said. “More than anything I want to invite you to come and take a tour of the facility,” she said. “We have a home away from home for students.” Daniel Montaño is a news editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com, or on Twitter @DailyLobo.

Top 10 business schools: 1 - University of Texas at El Paso 2 - New York University 3 - University of Texas at Austin

4 - University of New Mexico 5 - Stanford University 6 - University of California, Berkeley 7 - University of Virginia 8 - University of Miami 9 - Yale University 10 - University of Texas at San Antonio

Top 10 engineering schools: 1 - Georgia Institute of Technology 2 - University of Texas at Austin 3 - Purdue University 4 - University of Texas at El Paso 5 - University of Texas at San Antonio

6 - University of New Mexico

7 - University of Central Florida 8 - Massachusetts Institute of Technology 9 - Cal Poly Pomona 10 - University of Florida

Top 10 Medical Schools: 1 - University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio 2 - University of Miami 3 - University of Texas 4 - University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston 5 - Baylor College of Medicine 6 - University of Texas Medical Branch 7 - Stanford University 8 - Florida State University 9 - Florida International University

10 - University of New Mexico

Top 10 Law Schools: 1 - Florida International University 2 - Florida State University 3 - University of Miami 4 - American University 5 - Nova Southeastern University 6 - University of Texas at Austin 7 - University of Southern California 8 - University of San Francisco 9 - University of California at Los Angeles

10 - University of New Mexico

Source:HispanicBusiness.com Image courtesy Caitlin Cano | UNM Newsroom

New KUNM open to on-air chats By Moriah Carty

Radio Free America is trying to change the face of radio by encouraging listeners to join the conversation and air their opinions live through KUNM’s new interactive website. Kenneth Pushkin, the creator of Radio Free America, saw his program operational on the KUNM website, and he said it was rewarding to see his hard work pay off. “It’s been eight years, and today is the day we are finally on the air with Radio Free America,” he said. Pushkin said he feels optimistic about the program. He worked with host Marilyn Pitman at KUNM to help start different variations of the program, and unfortunately had no success. “We came up with the idea ‘New Music the Alternative 10,’ which we drew the top-ten alternative college music hits from a group out of New York called College Media Journal,” Pushkin said. “We made 23 shows and it was on disc … and we wound up, in a few months, we were sending them around to 600 college radio stations.”

William Aranda / Daily Lobo / @_WilliamAranda

KUNM host Melanie Sanchez, also known as DJ Mello, is on the air during the Afternoon Free-form music segment on Monday afternoon. KUNM has launched a new platform, created by Radio Free America, which has features that will allow listeners to chat live with on-air DJs and Program Hosts.

This effort took place over the course of three years, he said. The program helped introduce bands from the college circuit that people were not aware of.

“It didn’t ultimately work because there were no searches for terrestrial radio, there was no internet,” Pushkin said. “So in ’84 we put it away, and everybody went their own ways.”

In 2004 Pushkin said he attempted another module of a community program and called it Radio Free America. “We didn’t know what we wanted to be then, and we had all these ideas, it was like everything for everybody,” Pushkin said. “Let’s focus on what I wanted to do all along, which was college radio and noncommercial radio.” Over the past five years, the program went through three or four iterations, he said. Last year they came up with finalized widget that was implemented yesterday, he said. The program works to bridge between the community of DJs and the listeners, he said. Students as well as the older demographics that listen to KUNM can benefit from the online widget. “You can also chat live with any DJ that’s on the air that wants to switch ‘on air’ on their dashboard,” Pushkin said. KUNM Program Director Tristan Clum said the Radio Free America widget is an extension of the station’s archive that it has had.

see

KUNM page 2

platform buoyed by grant By Sayyed Shah UNM’s Communication and Journalism department, in partnership with local media outlets, is using a $35,000 grant to create a platform where students can get their schoolwork published and read by thousands across the state. The department has established an online news portal called New Mexico News Port with the help of the grant. Michael Marcotte, visiting associate professor of practice at the department of Communication and Journalism, is heading the project. “The thinking behind the New Mexico News Port was to serve as a platform where students can learn and practice journalism,” Marcotte said. “But more than that, it’s a collaboration hub. We wanted to have a project where everybody interested in collaboration with the school has a point of contact.” The grant was distributed by the Online News Association, which claims to be the world’s largest online journalists’ association, as part of their Innovation in Journalism Education challenge. Out of more than a hundred applicants, UNM was one of a dozen winners. According to the website of Online News Association, the organization’s mission is to inspire innovation and excellence among journalists to better serve the public. They and the five funders of the grant were looking for a project that promised to have a significant impact. The New Mexico News Port will help students learn and practice public service journalism, Marcotte said. “This fall we will be covering the New Mexico elections,” Marcotte said. “In the Journalism department, in order to make a difference, we needed digital journalism space. We needed a laboratory where we can experiment with the tools of journalism of the future.” The school was already predisposed toward that kind of innovation, he said. A couple of years ago it took down its print, broadcast and public relations sequences and brought them under the multimedia journalism sequence. “Anticipating which way the industry is heading, the school is already positioning itself,” Marcotte said. “I just added one more piece to that puzzle.” Karen Foss, chair of the department of Communication and Journalism, said she is excited about the project, and that she hopes students in the department will benefit from getting published in real media outlets. Marcotte said he wants to involve as many students as possible. “It is scalable. We can involve many students as long as we have professionals who can work with them and guide them,” he said. “For starters, this semester we are taking two classes [C&J 375 and C&J 475]. All of the students

see

C&J page 2


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
NM Daily Lobo 08262014 by UNM Student Publications - Issuu