Press Release 2008 :: UNM Gallup

UNM-GALLUP NEWS RELEASE

For Release - November 3, 2008

The UNM-Gallup Student Senate and area Veteran Services will host the Second Annual Woman Veterans Conference on Thursday, November 6, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Calvin Hall Auditorium.

The conference will offer information on resources to woman veterans in the following areas: VA benefits, health care, state benefits, tribal benefits, entitlements, sister search and service organizations. Woman veterans will also be recognized for their accomplishments.

During this event, the Student Senate will sponsor a special screening of “Lioness”, a documentary following a special unit of women during special operations in Iraq.

For more information, contact Cassandra Morgan, vice president of the UNM-Gallup Student Senate, at cassmorgan1341@yahoo.com or at 505.863.7573.

UNM-GALLUP NEWS RELEASE

For Release - September 3, 2008

UNM-Gallup will celebrate its 40th anniversary on Thursday, October 16, at 9:30 a.m. in the Commons of Gurley Hall. Among the expected guests are UNM President David Schmidly, UNM Provost Suzanne Trager Ortega and Marc Nigliazzo, UNM vice president in charge of Rio Rancho operations and branch academic affairs, as well as several of the founders and original “friends” of the college, previous college directors, community leaders, educators, government officials and many more.

Among the founders to be recognized are the following:

• Ernest Becenti Sr. -- Becenti was responsible for a motion in 1967 by the Gallup-McKinley County Board of Education to hold a district-wide tax levy to support a branch college.

• The late Clair Gurley (represented by grandson Steve Gurley) -- The Gurley family donated four parcels of land, totaling approximately 70 acres, to the UNM-Gallup campus, which allowed the school to expand to its present dimensions today. The main college building, Gurley Hall, built in 1974, was named after the family.

• Louis “Eddie” DePauli -- DePauli was a district judge who also served on the Advisory Board that advocated starting a community college in Gallup.

• The late Ferrel Heady -- The president of the University of New Mexico, Heady met with legislators to request support of the UNM-Gallup Branch as the college was being formed.

• Van Dorn Hooker -- Director of the Architecture and Planning Department of UNM from 1963 to 1987, Hooker was responsible for having the design perspective of the UNM-Gallup campus in place prior to final approval.

• Robert Lalicker -- A UNM employee from 1956 to 1984, Lalicker served as administrative assistant to President-Elect Ferrel Heady and was assigned to assist Gallup in starting a branch campus.

• Bill Lewis – Bill Lewis will represent the Gallup Lions Club, which donated the building in which the first classes on the current site of UNM-Gallup were held. The Lions Club building most recently housed offices and offices for Community Affairs.

• Paul McCollum -- A tireless ambassador of UNM-Gallup in its formative years, McCollum set up a Chamber of Commerce committee to establish a branch college in Gallup. He was a member of the campus’s Building Advisory Committee when it was formed in 1971, and was key in promoting a 1967 feasibility study for a branch college in Gallup.

• The late Eric McCrossen -- Editor of the Gallup Independent in the late 1960’s, McCrossen loaned his editorial support to a publicity campaign in favor of the college.

• Walter Wolf -- A UNM regent from March 1968 to December 1972, Wolf set up procedures so branch students could gain access to duplicate volumes and research materials from UNM’s library through the Gallup High School Library during the first years of the college’s existence.

• The late Harvey Whitehill -- Executive manager of the Gallup Chamber of Commerce, Whitehill was instrumental in promoting the first mill levy election to benefit the college. He traveled throughout the state to promote the school, and rallied citizen support for the college. He also assisted in the 1967 feasibility study.

• The late John Zollinger -- Owner of the Gallup Independent, Zollinger used the newspaper to drum up support for the college. He also met with legislators in Santa Fe and officials at UNM to lobby for support.

Others to be recognized include several “friends” of UNM-Gallup, including Octavia Fellin, Martin Link, Sally Noe, Martha Zollinger, as well as former Advisory Board members Barbara Stanley, J.R. Thompson, Ruby Wolf and Carmelita Sanchez.

Additionally, several individuals who have played a significant role in UNM-Gallup’s history will be recognized, including the late Bob Adamson of the Gallup Lions Club; the late Bob Allen, former Mayor of Gallup and an Advisory Committee member; the late Jack Chapman, former Advisory Board Chair; the late Wayne Lewis of the Gallup Lions Club; the late Jimmy Miller, Gallup Schools administrator and Advisory Committee member; Gilbert Rangel, first graduate of UNM-Gallup; Boyce Russell, first instructor at UNM-Gallup; the late Chester Travelstead, former UNM vice president; the late L.O. Yandel, Gallup High instructor and director of the first college classes at Gallup High.

Also to be recognized will be the past executive directors of UNM-Gallup, including the late Calvin Hall, Dr. Donald A. Gatzke, Dr. John Phillips, Dr. Robert Carlson and Dr. Elizabeth Miller.

The celebration will start with music and dancing by the Fernando Cellicion Dancers of Zuni, followed by introductions and recognition. There will be tours, refreshments, and a presentation of a special UNM-Gallup historical exhibit in the Gurley display case, created by UNM-Gallup adjunct instructor Martin Link.

UNM-GALLUP NEWS RELEASE

For release - September 10, 2008

Holding his nose as he passed the used grease receptacle of the college canteen every day for years, Chris Chavez, an instructor with UNM-Gallup’s Construction Tech program, had a sudden inspiration a few months ago. Why throw away all that used cooking oil, year after year, when he could be converting it into fuel to use in his program?

He and fellow instructor Rick Krouth put their heads together. After studying the surprisingly easy process for turning cooking oil into fuel, they purchased a biodiesel processor – a $2400 system marketed as a “Freedom Fueler.” Nowadays, they’re churning out biodiesel for 50 to 75 cents a gallon in sufficient quantities to run all the machines in their program, including the adobe making machine, a flatbed dump truck, tractors, welders and others. Further, making their own fuel means they don’t have to take time or expend energy going to the gas station for a fill-up.

“There are also fewer emissions with this method,” says Krouth, who has already started giving demonstrations on biodiesel fuel making at the college and around the area. He’s also teaching that you don’t necessarily have to purchase an expensive processor – anyone can make biodiesel fuel right at home, agitating the lye and cooking oil mixture while sitting in front of the television at night. At present, the only hitch in the process is finding enough used cooking oil to convert. The instructors are looking into collecting the oil from local restaurants, and say that even the oil with food particles in it is suitable for processing.

But the biodiesel production is just one facet of what the two instructors see as a brave new effort to help UNM-Gallup –and the surrounding area – go green.

“The trend in construction is green,” Chavez said. “You can’t open a magazine or a newspaper without it saying something about going green, and it’s time for us to offer course work that supports that.”

To that end, the instructors are developing a certificate program in alternative (sustainable) energy. They already have courses in solar adobe construction and building green as part of the approved curriculum.

Krouth is currently teaching a class on building adobe homes, instructing students on the principles of passive solar, much like those employed by the ancient Puebloans: houses of rock and mud facing south, with sun hitting the rock in the morning and the heat radiating into the coolest parts of the building by evening.

Chavez in turn is teaching how to build more sustainably in terms of recycled materials, downsizing living space, energy efficiency and better air quality.

“We’re discussing active energy systems, such as converting sunlight into electricity, heating hot water for geothermal heat rather than blowing hot air into the house, and wind power,” he said. Chavez has already built houses with radiant floors, where the heat radiates three to four feet off the ground, providing sufficient heat for human comfort at about 62 degrees. (If the feet stay warm, the rest of the body doesn’t need higher temperatures to feel comfortable, Chavez explains. That means you can keep the thermostat much lower than with conventional heating.).

The instructors are focusing on the concept of using locally available materials whenever possible. For instance, bamboo flooring is trendy now because it’s a sustainable resource – a fast growing grass. However, it is grown, harvested and processed in China, shipped across the ocean in a container ship, trucked to locations such as Gallup – all these steps resulting in a huge “carbon footprint.” For that reason, said Chavez, it makes more sense for builders in Gallup to look into local materials that are easily available.

“For instance, I dig a hole, and with all that dirt I take out, I can build adobes,” Chavez said. “Unfortunately, adobe building is also labor intensive. You have to consider all these factors. It’s complex.”

One labor-saving building method that Chavez believes shows particular promise for this area is that of using structural insulated panels, made of strand or wafer board and plastic foam – a lightweight material with insulation value almost twice that of fiberglass, and which can cut labor costs as much as two-thirds through cutting out several steps in the building process.

In addition to the ongoing classroom discussion, Chavez hopes his students can learn about building green – and particularly the topic of energy efficiency – by talking to the architects and contractors planning a new building at the college.

Students often enroll in Construction Tech to gain skills they will need in building their own houses. And while the green classes will certainly help them do this in a more efficient way, Chavez also wants to show students things they can do in pre-existing houses, from insulating more efficiently with recycled or biodegradable materials such as ground up newspaper or ground up cellulose, to using paint with low volatile organic compounds that give off less gas emissions than other kinds of paint.

Krouth recently started teaching students about using recycled materials – including what comes from old houses that are being “deconstructed.”

“In the past, contractors would tear down houses and send everything to the landfill,” he says. Now, Krouth is having his students work on deconstructing some houses donated by the city, recycling the materials in their classes for projects.

Next spring, the instructors will be promoting all these concepts at the second annual UNM-Gallup Home and Garden Show, planned for the end of April.

For more information contact Chavez at 979-0204 or Krouth at 863-7560.

UNM-GALLUP NEWS RELEASE

For release - May 27, 2008

Teresa Wilkins was fascinated with weaving from childhood. Born in rural North Carolina, where textiles were a major industry, she picked up scraps of material from her grandfather’s mill and wove them on a small loom. That youthful interest would eventually inspire her to focus on textiles while she earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. From there, she would embark on a course of research, writing and teaching that would lead her into the heart of the weaving world on the Navajo Nation.

Wilkins, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of New Mexico-Gallup, is seeing the fruits of her lifelong interest now that her book, “Patterns of Exchange: Navajo Weavers and Traders,” has been published by the University of Oklahoma Press. That book represents not only ten years’ work on Southwest textiles in general, but a specific focus on Navajo weaving that involved logging many miles driving the back roads of the Nation to record interviews and conduct field research.

“I did research in trading post archives, and I also conducted interviews and ethnographic studies with weavers. I asked weavers about their experiences today, and they also told me about their mothers and grandmothers,” Wilkins said.

Wilkins also looked at the relationships between weavers and traders, and how the traders influenced them as far as patterns and ideas and how much sovereignty they had for their own productions.

Wilkins, who has a degree in art marketing and production from Appalachian State University, obtained her Master’s as well as her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. During the course of museum work, she was hired by the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History in Boulder to curate an exhibit of Southwest textiles.

“The Southwest textile collection of the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History is one of the top collections in the world, for scope and study potential,” Wilkins said. “The exhibit we did was based on the research of Joe Ben Wheat, later my grad school advisor, who developed a chronology for Southwest weaving based on materials, designs, collection histories and the history of the area. This was my introduction to Southwest textiles.”

Today Wilkins uses that knowledge not only in her teaching, but as a consultant with businesses and collectors who want identification and authentication of Southwestern textiles.

Besides researching, writing and teaching about textiles, Wilkins has been a judge at various juried native art exhibitions, including the Intertribal Ceremonial and Santa Fe Indian Market. She was recently accepted into the first annual New Mexico Women Authors’ Literary Festival, set for September 27 in Santa Fe, and sponsored by the Museums of New Mexico.

For more information, contact the University of New Mexico-Gallup Bookstore or the University of Oklahoma Press, (405) 325-2000.

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