Daily Lobo new mexico
thursdsay September 11, 2014 | Volume 119 | Issue 19
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
Student PR group getting a revival
risky business — See pages 8 & 9
Professor hopes to restore UNM’s chapter of PRSSA By Ryan Lotz
Sergio Jiménez / Daily Lobo / @SXfoto
Miranda Zook, a senior signed language interpreting major, steps onto the racetrack at The Downs Racetrack & Casino with her Casino Marketing and Management class on Tuesday. The American studies class takes field trips to casinos around Albuquerque to observe how they work first-hand.
A new generation of generation By Tomas Lujan
UNM is investing in a sustainable future by installing new technologies to cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the cost of keeping the lights on by about a million dollars a year. The latest batch of green technologies on campus includes the cogeneration unit, located in the Ford Utility Center. The unit is a superefficient generator that uses natural gas to power the campus, according to Larry Schuster, a utilities engineer. Shuster, who is the project manager for the cogeneration project, said the unit is more than twice as efficient as a traditional operation, and is capable of meeting up to 90 percent of the electricity, heating and cooling demand throughout campus. “With one fuel source, we make electricity and we make steam,” Schuster said. “We heat the buildings with it, we have processes that allow us to cool with it, but the primary benefit is that we create it all right here.” The unit is essentially a jet engine stuck on the ground, he said. Instead of being used to create thrust, the hot gasses from the engine are used to drive an electrical generator. However, as in any traditional combustion engine, the majority of the potential energy available dissipates in the form of heat. The cogeneration unit is different in that it harnesses the majority of the waste heat from the engine to make steam, which is used to drive other mechanisms around campus, he said. “The average efficiency of a traditional power plant is around 30 percent,” Schuster said. “Ours is 75 percent. This is very significant; this is power that we don’t buy.” Mary Clark, UNM’s sustainability manager, said the cogeneration project is another step toward the University’s goal of reducing carbon emissions.
William Aranda / Daily Lobo / @_WilliamAranda
Cogeneration engines, which produce both electricity and useful heat, operate inside the Ford Utility Center on Wednesday morning. These turbines provide power to much of the UNM area.
“According to our climate action plan, we’re pushing UNM to be 80 percent carbon neutral by 2030,” Clark said. “By 2050 we want to be carbon neutral.” Jeff Zumwalt, director of utilities, said this is the third cogeneration unit at the Ford Utility Center. The first unit went operational in 1988 but has since been retired. The second was installed 2005 and the latest addition went online in January. “In general, the cogeneration project should reduce our carbon emissions by 8000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent,” he said. “That cuts five to six percent of the total university emissions.” However, Zumwalt said the new tech doesn’t come cheap. It will be
eight years before the University sees a return on the investment. The return, he said, will come from environmental benefits and savings from offsetting the energy purchased from PNM. In total, the new cogeneration unit represents $11 million of investment into energy conservation to reduce the university’s energy needs, he said. The project was financed through bank loans, but eventually the savings from increased energy efficiency will more than repay the debt, he said. “We’ll save about a million to a million and a half dollars a year compared to traditional systems,” Zumwalt said. Zumwalt said solar panels are also being installed throughout campus,
with the latest additions on top of the Science, Math and Learning Center. The parking structure on Yale, the Electrical and Computer Engineering building and several other University structures already have solar power installations. Plans for additional solar systems are in the works for UNM West and other facilities, representing an additional $1.7 million dollars of investment into renewable energy, he said. Tomas Lujan is a freelance writer for The Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @TomasVLujan.
Public relations hopefuls may soon get the chance to practice their craft in a professional setting. Dirk Gibson, associate professor of communication and journalism, is looking to resurrect a chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America, a program the University did away with more than three years ago, he said. The PRSSA allows students to work with public relations organizations to hone their skills and network with professionals. “You get to meet people who you look to get jobs with,” Gibson said. “They love students, and they especially love Lobos.” Before the UNM chapter disbanded, the University saw a fair amount of success with the PRSSA. Two Lobos went on to become vice presidents of the national program, and the team even won a casestudy competition at the Southwest Regional Championships during the 2005 academic year, he said. Students involved in the program also get the chance to work with the Public Relations Society of America, the professional organization that the PRSSA is modeled after, which gives students important experience, he said. “Even in the best programs, you can’t cover everything in the classroom,” Gibson said. “Students will have a co-curricular program to enrich their experiences.” Erica Krause, the new professionals committee chair for the New Mexico PRSA and a copywriter at Presbyterian Health Plan, was president of the UNM chapter of the PRSSA for the 2010 academic year. She said the program gave her a lot of real-world experience in the field of public relations, and even sparked an interest in the world of public relations in the medical field, such as the American Heart Association and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “I got a lot of experience and I made a lot of connections to people in the PR world,” said Krause. “Being able to work with real clients really helped me after graduation”. The program is a great way to learn about the PR profession without going through the trouble of trying to get an internship or job, she said. The program will be open to anyone who is interested in public relations, and an initial fee of $50 will be collected upon joining. Both Gibson and Krause said they hope to have the first official meeting by the last week of September,
see
PR Club page 2