No solution

As a student one thing that is always on my mind is money. I never feel like I have as much as I would like. The whole reason I’m going to school is to increase my future earnings. Now one thing that has taken a toll on my budget for the past couple of years is gas prices.

The price of crude oil has hit an all-time high for the fifth time in six trading sessions. The high oil price is making gas and energy costs more expensive around the world, putting a financial strain on businesses and household budgets. This means that the American public is now spending more of their annual incomes to keep their vehicles on the road. At the current trend the price for gas will soon reach four dollars a gallon.

But these strains are not going to just be felt at the gas pumps. Most of all goods that are bought in the United States are shipped by truck. To compensate the trucking industry for the higher price of diesel, the price of goods are going to climb. As a student that spends a good deal of money on education I’m not pleased by this fact. I have been increasingly interested in finding ways to off-set this hit to my pocketbook.

With this gas price increase I have been very tempted to find a cheaper mode of transportation. I have been looking at everything from a hybrid car that gets better gas mileage to even bicycles. But living in a city that does not have a great public transportation system, and a sprawling landscape I find it necessary to have a vehicle.

There are two solutions that could solve our gas dependency problem. First the American people need to demand cars with better gas economy. It is a fact that American car manufactures cannot sell cars in foreign markets because their gas mileage is not up to foreign standards. Even in China, their mileage standards are twice what they are in the United States. Second, we need to use the technology that has already been developed. BMW produced a car that ran on water, but the idea never caught on because there is no money in water.

I also have an “American” attitude, being that I love my car. It is fast and loud and I don’t want to ride a bike all the time. I realize that I am being hypocritical because I'm suggesting that we need to make a change but I’m almost not willing to change myself. But I find this attribute to be in many of the people I talk to about this issue. So until people are ready to change maybe we shouldn’t talk about this subject anymore.

Mike Wilcox

Smoke free zones on The UNM Campus = a compromise

Okay, picture if you will someone (me) bicycling to campus. Heart is beating and pumping strong, lungs are expanding and taking in oxygen, mind is clear, and feeling pretty good. Only until I get to The UNM Campus and want to secure my bicycle to bicycle rack and then Blah!! As I have to pass through a cloud of cigarette smoke. And I think okay let me end my work-out by second-hand smoking a pack of “Fine Turkish Blends.”

I wanted to avoid the whole parking situation, help the environment and get some cardio, but every time I arrive on campus on my bicycle I have to maneuver through clouds of cigarette smoke. So I would like to embellish on Reyna’s blog about setting-up nonsmoking areas and designated smoking areas around The UNM campus.

I am a nonsmoker and to be honest I can not even conceive why someone would even want to smoke. Cigarette smoking can be a direct cause:
· Lung disease
· Heart attack
· Heart disease
· Hypertension
· Stroke
· Oral cancer
· Bladder cancer
· Pancreatic cancer
· Cervical cancer
· Pregnancy complications
· Low birth weight babies
And more… this is just the short-list. Cigarette smoking also turns a smoker’s hands yellow with stains and their face into a nasty craggy ugly fugly mess. Then there is the cost why someone would want to spend so much money cigarettes I will never understand. But if someone wants to understand how much they spend on cigarettes all they have do is multiply them amount they spend per day by 365 (days in a year) and that will tell them how much they spend per year. Then take that number and multiply it by 10 and that is a good estimate of how much one would spend on cigarettes in ten years.

And finally, as a matter of opinion, people who smoke just plain look stupid doing it.

But for those who do want to smoke cigarettes on The UNM Campus there is a need to establish specifically designated areas for them to go. That way people who want to avoid the smoke can avoid it, and for those people who love smoke, well they will know where to go.

Setting specific smoking and nonsmoking areas on campus would be a means to a compromise. And, this is something that UNM does have the resources to do. Additionally, UNM should offer resources to help smokers who want to quit to do so. If UNM does already have or offer these resources then UNM should do more to make people aware of what resources are available.

Once the boundaries are established students, faculty, and staff should be encouraged to and be at liberty to politely remind people of the smoking and nonsmoking boundaries. As previously noted in Reyna’s blog the area around the Student Union Building (SUB) where people are trying to enjoy their meal is one of the areas which needs to be a smoke free zone. As such, someone who is trying to enjoy their meal should not feel bad if he or she were to politely remind a smoker that they are in a smoke free area. If this is done with do care, tact, and politeness then the smoker should not be offended and the nonsmoker should not feel guilty.

The American Lung Association has a website: http://www.lungusa.org with information on smoking and smoking cessation; likewise, does the American Cancer Society at http://www.cancer.org/

For more information specific to establishing smoke free zones and designated smoking areas on The UNM Campus information is available from The UNM Smoke-Free Campus Coalition (COSAP). Contact information for COSAP includes:

UNM Campus Office of Substance Abuse Prevention (COSAP) - www.unm.edu/~cosap/
UNM Student Health Center (SHC) www.unm.edu/~shc1/ (505) 277-3136New Mexico Department of Health Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Program (TUPAC) - www
COSAP meets once a month and the next meeting will be April 24, 2008 at 2 p.m. in the Dean of Students Conference Room.

Establishing smoking and nonsmoking areas may not be perfect solution, but it is a good means of compromise for both parties.

Greg
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SPAM for Breakfast

While enjoying a cup of coffee at home early one morning, you sit down in front of your computer. You have a long day of classes and work ahead of you, and want to make sure no important emails will affect your daily schedule. You open your UNM email account only to find that your inbox has been completely overtaken by spam. It’s everywhere. As you stare at the screen in awe at the hundreds of spam messages, even more messages are still coming in. What’s even more frustrating is these messages are not typical spam messages -- most of them are from Mailer-Daemon stating that your message could not be delivered, or was blocked from the recipient. This insinuates that your email address has been sending out spam to other users.

Just two weeks ago ITS locked you out of your account as you forgot to change your NetID’s password (a nuisance all of its own). The constraints for creating your new password were so difficult to abide by (and equally difficult to remember), surely no one could have compromised your extremely secure password already? But alas, here you sit at your computer screen with hundreds, possibly thousands, of apparently undeliverable spam emails from the Mailer-Daemon for messages that you did not send.

This issue is one that many deal with at the University of New Mexico; the ITS Support Center receives calls from UNM individuals every day who believe that their account has been compromised due to these spam messages. The reality is that the “spammers” are not actually gaining access to your account, nor is this issue related to the integrity of UNM’s email system.

Spam messages can be sent using various applications that make the return address “appear” to be any address the spammer chooses – therefore messages they send use headers that look as though your account is spamming others, when actually it is not. Replying to the sender and requesting to stop sending you spam will only verify to the spammer that you are a human – and could actually increase your amount of spam.

Alas, it seems the only way to tackle spam is to stop it at the source. Limit your distribution of your email address by only giving it out to trusted people. Create a free email account online and use it exclusively for signing up on web sites.

Emails that arrive in your UNM email often contain what is called a “subject-tag” which shows a percentage indicating the likelihood that the email is spam in content. If emails ever arrive not subject-tagged to your UNM inbox you can forward them to spamdrop@unm.edu to assist UNM with their spam filtering.

A quick search query for “spam” in UNM’s FastInfo knowledge base (http://fastinfo.unm.edu) found many answers relating to UNM’s policies on spam and what is being done about it. These resources indicate that a number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have reported an estimated 30-50% of all users’ email traffic to be spam. In addition, 80% of people claim that spam is among their top annoyances when using computers.

Of course these statistics provide little comfort to you, and what was intended to be your morning coffee break will now consist of repetitious trashing of spam messages. The question we need to ask is “what can be done to help stomp out SPAM”? I encourage any suggestions or feedback for methods to reduce spam attacks. The Internet is filled with resources for eliminating spam, but most of them do not work. What options do we have as innocent bystanders of the electronic communications, and how can we fight off SPAM? Perhaps one day we will live in a spam free virtual environment, but until then -- looks like you'll be having spam for breakfast.

South Lot Parking

Parking must be a difficult thing to control at the University of New Mexico. It is not the most pleasant thing to deal with every morning. Does anyone here have a South Lot parking permit? If you do, you know exactly what I am talking about. Leaving your house at least an hour before your 9:30 AM class just to make sure you make it there on time, is no fun. If you run even a few minutes after that, the chances that you will be standing out in the wind, under the pathetic protection at the South Lot shuttle are very high right? Students stand in quiet as they watch behind their back for the school shuttle bus to come towards their direction. The quiet students slowly start to push their way to the front to try to ensure a ride on this next coming bus because they have missed the last two. It’s unbelievable how impatient students can be this early in the morning.

Ever since the University took away Zia Lot as an additional parking lot for UNM students, the South Lot has become close to unbearable. It’s hard enough to find a parking spot that isn’t 300 feet away from the bus stop. Then once you do, you look forward to backpacks hitting you in the chest or little heels stepping on your feet.

You have to have some sort of parking permit to park anywhere on the UNM campus. If the parking attendants see your car without a parking permit, or without the correct parking permit for the lot, you will receive a parking ticket. A warning will be placed on your vehicle if this is your first time receiving a parking violation.

Staring March 8, and running through May 10, 2008, vehicles found parked in illegal areas or fire lanes etc., will be ticketed, receive a warning or locked into place with a vehicle boot, depending on the vehicle’s citation history. The punishments are pretty severe. I would be so angry and embarrassed if I came out to my car and found that it was booted because there was no place to park.

They have come up with two new ideas to possibly help with the parking problem. The first idea is having a program where UNM will lend you a bicycle for a year to help you get to and from places without having to deal with your car. This may work but still doesn’t fix the actual parking problem. If you live far from campus you are still going to have to find a parking spot then ride the bike to class. The next idea is a program called ZipCar. ZipCar is a rental car service available to students who do not have a vehicle. You are allowed to rent these by the hour or by the day. It seems like a good concept, but can only help with students who don’t have a car already and once again this would not fix the parking problem.

The University of New Mexico Parking and Transportation Services Department recently did apologize for any inconvenience parking may cause, but they should figure out other ways to help students who go to class every morning and have to deal with these problems.

I think they should have more student parking on or closer to the actual campus. I know that is hard to accomplish. I feel they should have more shuttles running to and from school in the morning so students can get to class at a reasonable time without having to be at the bus stop so early.

-Kyla

Smoking on UNM?

Should UNM become a smoke free campus? I’m sure we all have our own views on what should be done concerning this issue, but here’s my chance to voice (so to speak) my opinion. Sorry to those of you who are tired of hearing about this topic already.

I am not a smoker. For me it is easy to see where individuals who support this ban are coming from. With everything from walking behind some who is smoking to trying to eat outside the SUB while someone is smoking, individuals have a right to be concerned. The risk of secondhand smoke is not something we signed up for while attending UNM. It is known by many that secondhand smoke is a cause of some forms of cancer and diseases. For those of us who have asthma, it is especially difficult when exposed to secondhand smoke. The city of Albuquerque, along with the state of New Mexico, has implemented a smoking ban in 2007. With all this said, it may come to a surprise to many that I do not completely support this ban.

We must take into account those that actually do smoke. Some people smoke, that’s a fact. Most people who do smoke need to do so several times a day. It just so happens that some of these people attend UNM, and smoke on their way to class or after a meal. There is no possible way to stop these individuals from smoking, after all it perfectly legal to smoke (over the age of 18 of course). Many businesses and employers have recognized this need to smoke by some and allow break for those employees who do smoke. So what’s the solution to the smoking ban on campus?
I am not quite sure what, if any, the solution is to this. I do know that a campus wide smoking ban would not solve any problems. Just as we all have a right to clean air, these individuals have a right to smoke. Besides, if a ban was implemented, how would UNM control it? UNM does not have the manpower or the resources to stop every smoker on campus. Even though there is no perfect solution, I do believe some things could come from this awareness.

I believe that smokers should have certain sections on campus where they could smoke whenever they please. I also believe that some areas NEED to be restricted from people smoking. First, the area surrounding the SUB because there is a huge amount of people there trying to enjoy a meal. I also believe that the areas around entrances to buildings. It is a horrible experience to walk out of a building straight into a cloud of smoke.

Although I do not know the perfect solution to this problem, this is what I think could help. A campus wide smoking ban would not work, but that’s just my opinion. What’s yours?

-Reyna

Mitchell Hall--in need of improvement?

Every student at UNM will at one point have at least a handful of classes in Mitchell Hall. Like most buildings on campus, Mitchell Hall is old, or as the University likes to coin it, “historic”. I will be the first to admit, I happen to like the historic ambiance of the building, along the with the traditional small classroom setting. During my time spent at UNM, I know immediately, when I find out one of my classes will be held Mitchell Hall, that the classroom size will be relatively small. Unlike larger lecture classes, like those held in Woodward Hall, Mitchell Hall classrooms guarantee closer student/teacher interactions.

However, my likes of Mitchell Hall are overshadowed by too many dislikes I have accumulated over the years. On any given day, you may walk into Mitchell Hall only to smell the stench of sewer wafting through the hallways and into the classrooms. I have come to my own conclusion that Mitchell Hall’s plumbing may be just as historic as the building itself. This semester, I came to learn, after my Editing class had been complaining about the classroom being too hot, that some of the windows in Mitchell Hall cannot be opened. In fact, they seem to be welded shut, or at least, painted over. Or, maybe the sealed windows could be a form of weather proofing for winter months? During the winter months, you may become distracted by the clinking and clanking of the heaters as well.

Although the sewer stench and the clink clank sound of the heaters could at least be tolerated, along with a good chuckle, I have a hard time tolerating or even finding amusement in Mitchell Hall not being accessible in case of an emergency. In the event of a fire, or another type of emergency that would hinder students from escaping from the two doors, welded windows are not a good sign. Of course, if there were some type of emergency, I’m sure no one would hesitate to break a few windows to escape. After the Virginia Tech shootings last year, many students, me included, began to wonder how we could protect ourselves from a gunman if the door to each Mitchell Hall classroom opens from the outside, not the inside. These doors also do not have any locks. While walking down the crowded hallways, you may need to avoid getting too close to classroom doorways, because you may just get hit. Remember, these doors open from the outside only.

Year after year, someone will write a letter to the Daily Lobo editor about Mitchell Hall’s building conditions. Some letters have suggested knocking down Mitchell Hall and constructing a new building. Other letters have suggested simply renovating the building, which could include new plumbing, a/v equipment and secure doors. I have always been in favor of the latter. So, why is it, year after year, Mitchell Hall still remains the same? And no, the yearly paint job, although nice, isn’t what I call a renovation.

It seems other historic buildings across campus have been kept up in terms of good plumbing, windows that can open and doors that open correctly. In fact, Scholes Hall has received quite the face lift. Glossy tile floors and the heavy cherry wood doors give the building a nice executive ambiance, and rightfully so, because Scholes Hall is where President Schmidly and other UNM top executives and administrators conduct their business.

The mere volume of students passing through Mitchell Hall’s hallways and classrooms on a daily basis is enough to make the building seem haggard and its components, like plumbing and heating run ragged as well. For this reason, UNM should invest more of its money into improving building conditions, so that professors can conduct their classes and students can learn, without having to deal with these distractions or worry about being safe. If this does not change soon, UNM may be sending out the message that executives, not students are their main priority. I’m sure that many of you, as students of this institution would like to be UNM’s main priority.