Celebrate Children as our future world citizens!

April 5th is Children Day in China and I think it is also in Japan. Ana at UNM Taos Library told me it is the same in Mexico. How wonderful it is to celebrate the young in spring when all is renewed and fresh.
As a child growing up in China I had to travel with my family a lot due to the war and political reasons. I learned many different dialects and got used to changes and new surroundings. English was the compulsory foreign language taught at my schools. I remember being very proud of my language skills when I came to study in United States.
Taking UNM Taos students to study in China the last few years have also made it very clear to me how important multicultural education and world travel can be for the young. In 2007 during our travels along the Silk Road, we encountered lovely children in Dunhuang who giggled and called to us practicing their English. In Qin Hai, Tibetan children loved seeing their own images in our digital cameras. But recently in a western part of the world, we saw lovely children getting in line for class in a school yard and poised our cameras to take a photo, we were stopped harshly by a nervous teacher who hustled the kids away from us. We realized that she was afraid for the children and we felt very sad and sorry. How can we erase the divisions and fear and misunderstanding that deprive us of our wish to appreciate and capture beauty and innocence?
Perhaps the answer lies in our united efforts to bring better understanding of other culture and languages in our education for our students; and let the children be our peace ambassadors.
So, let us gather to share our culture and stories, ideas to create more global classrooms for our future world citizens.
Come join us at UNM Taos Library and Student Lounge for this celebration on April 17th, 2009. For more information:737-6242, 776-5126

The UNM-Taos Report

NEW ENERGY ON THE SCHOOL BOARD

Stella Gallegos is from Arroyo Seco, and she now lives in El Salto. She is a graduate of Taos High School. She recently won a seat on the Taos area School Board.

I heard that she was also a graduate of UNM-Taos, so I asked her if she had gone to college right out of high school. She laughed.

“Oh, no,” she said. “I think it took me nearly ten years to start attending Northern. Back then we only had Northern. My son was in second or third grade and I started taking classes one or two at a time, and it took a long time to get my Associate’s Degree in Human Services. In ’93 I was ready to graduate but I had just one class I still had to take, and I was able to take it here at UNM-Taos, because they had just arrived. Then I was able to transfer that credit over to Northern, and I was able to graduate.

“I have always been deeply involved with my son’s schooling—he has a physical disability—and that kept me on the go. He was very involved in extracurricular activities; the chess team, going to basketball games, so I was on the go all the time. But I was able to get my Bachelor’s Degree in University Studies at UNM-Taos.

“Some students think that higher education is just for other people, not them. That’s not true. I could have been one of those people who said no, that’s not for me. I’ll tell you what, it wasn’t that easy for me, having to start way later. And to tell you the truth, in junior high I was serious about my studies, but once you get to high school…it’s tough.

“But by the time I went back to school I told my son I’m going to finish. There were times I wouldn’t sleep at night, but I did it.

“We’ve got to find ways to help kids stay motivated. We’re living in a time so different from when I went to school. Students need a lot of support from their teachers, the administration, and we need to listen to them and work with them. Things have changed so much in one generation. We need to expand broadband technology, and develop skills for those who feel that college is not right for them. I was one of those students that liked to ditch quite a bit, and I learned how to do it quite well,” she laughed.

“Extra curricular activities are a way to give students a sense of self esteem. Everyone needs that, and it saddened me to find out that stipends were being taken away from teachers. I know we’re facing shortfalls, but I don’t think we should cut from the students or the teachers. If we have to cut it shouldn’t be from the bottom. It has to be from above. A lot of people don’t want to hear that. A lot of people want change but a lot of people have fear, also. It’s not going to be an easy job; we’re not going to be able to make everybody happy. But we all have to stick together: the board, the administration, teachers, students, community if we are going to get through these hardships.”

STIMULATING READING

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, better known as the economic stimulus package, is a boat anchor of a book. Think three ring binder three inches thick. It’s heavy and hard to haul around, and the writing style can and will induce short term memory loss, nervous tics and bouts of narcolepsy.

But consider this: at face value, each one of its 647 pages represents well over a billion dollars.

That alone makes it interesting reading; it puts a certain perspective on the size of our economic troubles, and what it’s going to take to fix them. You would do well to have a look at it, whether simply out of morbid curiosity or because the opportunities in those pages could very well have a profound impact on our lives and livelihoods right here at home in the months and years to come.

That’s why we have a copy on reserve at the UNM-Taos Library. And because we are a public library funded by public money (remember the general obligation bond for libraries last November?) you don’t have to be a UNM-Taos student or member of the faculty to use the library; all you have to do is walk in and ask to see H. R. 1, the stimulus package. The library is behind the administration building on Civic Plaza Drive.

The money will be allocated state by state, so that New Mexico municipalities, school districts and other interested parties must contact state and local representatives to have input in the disbursement. In the case of UNM-Taos, we report to the Department of Higher Education. Of utmost interest to the college, of course, are the sections on investing in education for the 21st century and helping workers retrain who have lost their jobs, but also sections on green construction and solar and wind technology, modernizing infrastructure and improving public transportation.

You can also get a great deal of information from their website, recovery.gov, but you should still thumb through the actual document. It’s like going to see a moon rock: uninteresting until you find out where it came from and how much it cost.

COMING SOON! A New Nursing Program for UNM-Taos

The application for UNM-Taos to start an Associate Degree in Science Nursing Program (ADN-RN) in the fall of 2009 has been approved by the New Mexico Board of Nursing. Coming soon will be a new nursing program website with information on the application, program requirements, TEAS testing and CPR certification.

Currently, a program information sheet listing pre-requisites and course content is available from:

Kathy Falkenhagen MSN, RN, Director of Nursing 575-741-1367

Mario Suazo, Nursing Advisor 575-737-6200

Damon Montclare Nursing Advisor 575-737-6290

The goal of the UNM-Taos ADN-RN nursing program is to assist individuals in Northern New Mexico to be able to stay in the community. This will be accomplished by students attending all classes on UNM-Taos campus, participating in clinical experiences in the area, graduating and having the opportunity to stay in the area to work.

UNM-Taos has a complete nursing educational facility located at the UNM-Taos Med Center location (across the street from Holy Cross Hospital) containing a classroom, clinical lab and office space for faculty. These facilities will be utilized by the UNM-Taos ADN-RN program

The curriculum will extend over a consecutive 4 semester time frame. Many of the pre-requisites can be taken as dual credit courses in the Taos high schools .Students with previous college degrees will be evaluated individually. The curriculum shall provide instruction in the discipline of nursing, appropriate to the RN level, across the lifespan and include content relevant to national and local health care needs.

Clinical experience shall provide opportunities for application of theory client care setting, and shall include clinical learning experience to develop nursing skills required for safe practice. Holy Cross Hospital will be used as the primary site, along with the numerous clinics, Mountain Home Health Care, the Taos Living Center and outpatient facilities.

In collaboration with Holy Cross Hospital, UNM-Taos is excited to begin this new era in providing a high quality ADN-RN Nursing Program which will serve the nursing needs of the Northern New Mexico region.

The Year in Review

In that busy period right before Christmas when everything around you is slowing down yet there aren’t enough hours in the day or pages in the appointment calendar to cover all the things you need to accomplish, I met with UNM-Taos Executive Director Dr. Kate O’Neill to get her overall impression of the year rapidly coming to a close. On a day when the campus was closed due to snow and she was waiting for tire chains to be installed on her truck, she had just enough time for a quick cup of coffee and a summary of some of the major events that shaped community college’s progress in 2008. “2008 was another banner year for UNM-Taos. We got construction under way on two new buildings: the Career Tech Center with its three computer classrooms, and Phase One of the Kids’ Campus. “We also completed the Klauer infrastructure, primarily water, sewer and fire suppression. That was huge. “We succeeded in getting the largest amount ever through the state legislature in a 30 day session. We got 3.3 million in the General Obligation Bond, and fortunately, with the support of citizens throughout New Mexico, that bond passed in November. That will help us complete Pueblo Hall, the 18,000 square foot multi purpose classroom building which will make it possible to consolidate the eleven locations currently serving our students. “We are also hoping to get telecom wireless capacity out there, and we’ve got a new computer IT coordinator, Joachin Cantu, who is helping us with a strategic plan for the whole campus. “We succeeded in hiring Spears Architects to review our campus master plan. That was just completed in December, so we are really excited about that. “We have also succeeded in getting several grants. We got a big federal Title V STEM grant, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Title V is a two year grant for Hispanic serving institutions. We will have about $400,000.00 a year to help set up the UNM-Taos Water Institute---a neutral academic water resource clearing house for all sorts of water information. We will have 18 interns and equipment that will allow us to go out and scan maps, photographs and documents so that we can document oral history and preserve materials in the area without actually having to physically possess those materials. “Another grant that we got was the second HUD grant for the Kids’ Campus. We got $600,000.00 which will allow us to begin Phase Two, an expansion of the facility just completed in ’08. We also received $47,000.00 from the Daniels Fund, which will help us with training for the Kids’ Campus. “Another big, big success is that we got state employment funding for our nursing program. We got $337,000.00 per year for two years that will allow us to start a program in collaboration with Holy Cross Hospital leading to an Associate’s Degree in Nursing. It will qualify people to sit for their RN exam, and then they can complete their Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing online if they choose to. That program was just approved by the State Board of Nursing, and because we had the BSN program and we have the faculty in place, the curriculum all set up and the relationship with Holy Cross established, we can begin the program as early as September, ’09. “We are still waiting for the installation of the five acre solar array that will provide 500 kilowatts of power to the Klauer campus, and we will keep people posted in 2009 as that proceeds. “We are happy to say that starting July 1 we hired Mildred Young from Taos Pueblo. She is an Associate’s and BUS graduate from UNM-Taos and Extended University, and we are thrilled to have her as our first Native American advisor. She has become a very wonderful addition to the advising team. We also had in-person advising down at the Klauer campus this fall for the first time, and students, faculty and staff all seem to think that that has been a really positive change. We are trying to make the whole process more user friendly for students, and we think that this on-site advising is really helping. “This fall we became the first UNM branch to be able to electronically send as well as receive courses. We now have five interactive classrooms that Jack Vigil and his company Harmonix helped us set up, and he even contributed about $30,000.00 worth of equipment. Jack is from Penasco, and he knows how important these state of the art facilities are to students in northern New Mexico. “We now have legislation in dual enrollment that allows 9th and 10th graders to sign up for dual enrollment classes, so we’re continuing to offer college credit classes at all six area high schools. “Looking to the future, as most folks know, the state budget has been squeezed a bit because the price of oil and gas has gone down, and we have been asked to cut about five percent from our ING funding---that’s not grant funding, or General Obligation Bond funding; it’s operational funds. We can continue to provide the same level of services to our students and still reduce costs with a combination of some basic restructuring, some people voluntarily going to three quarter time, eliminating a UNM-Taos vehicle---those kinds of changes. For the moment we’re not looking at any personnel cuts, and we are going to try to keep it that way. “We recently had about 21 people from as far away as Los Angeles and Colorado on our campus to receive requests for proposal for the Library Learning Resource Center, the Water Institute, and the Southwest Research Center. We expect to have a couple of dozen firms bidding on these projects as we continue to move forward with the campus. “We are looking at a water catchment system that will allow us to xeriscape and irrigate the campus and possibly even put in a demonstration acequia with solar pumps. “We will have our comprehensive strategic master plan completed during 2009 which will include a marketing plan, campus buildout master plan, fundraising and IT master plans. We are ready to move forward on the strategic level, now that we’ve completed the basic infrastructure of our campus. “This coming year we are looking forward to collaborating with the new director of Holy Cross Hospital and the newly reconstituted Town Council. We congratulate Darren Cordova in becoming the newly appointed mayor. We appreciate the continuing support of the town and county and our state legislators. We look forward to working with everybody on continuing to grow this campus, especially during this pivotal time in our economy.” Dr. O’Neill finished her coffee and hurried off to see if her tire chains were ready. A reminder that the lifelong pursuit of higher education begins at the end of your own driveway. On January 19, when spring semester begins, try not to be snowed in.