By: Jamison Wagner, Staff Reporter
Health major students are currently petitioning to keep the practice of cadavers from being dropped by spring of 2014, said Dr. Anne Michels, full-time Biology instructor.
The instructors were informed in February of this year that the school will be discontinuing practice on human cadavers, she said.
The classes that will be affected are Anatomy and Physiology I and II along with their labs; these classes are taken by Nursing majors as well as many other healthcare majors, she said.
Students will be looking at plastic models and computer images instead, which will be less realistic compared to an actual human body, she said.
“I know that a lot of the students and quite a few instructors would like to keep the cadaver practice going. But, neither group was really given a say in this decision even though it affects us,” she said.
The administration has not given the instructors much information as to why this is being cut, she said.
“Apparently the cost is why the administration is cutting the practice, but this is not by any means one of the most expensive Biology labs, not even close,” she said.
From where the instructors stand, the administration did not look at any other options, she said.
“It seems to me that somebody just picked it, said it was expensive and did not even show that it is expensive,” she said.
While the cadaver program is a significant expense, it is not the most expensive, so this seems arbitrary to the instructors, she said.
The students have written a petition requesting that the cadaver practice be continued and so far in 11 days they have collected almost 700 signatures, she said.
A similar event happened at UNM a few years ago; many students signed a petition to keep cadavers in the undergraduate anatomy labs but the cadavers were eliminated anyways, she said. CNM is now the only college in the Albuquerque area where undergraduates are able to study cadavers, she said.
The Chronicle did attempt to reach out to the administration but they were not available for comment at the time of this article being published.
If students not currently involved in the petition effort want to help fight this, they should e-mail President Winograd, Vice President Gunthorpe, Dean Calabro and Associate Dean Martin, Michel said.
President Winograd: winograd@cnm.edu
Vice-President Sydney Gunthorpe: sydney@cnm.edu
Dean Richard Calabro: rcalabro@ cnm.edu
Associate Dean Linda Martin: lmartin@cnm.edu
“We the students are requesting cadavers remain an instructional tool at CNM.
This very valuable tool is a rare experience that allows students to visualize anatomical parts of a real human. Models and two-dimensional images cannot compare to being able to see and touch organs that a human cadaver provides. In addition, many of the cadavers provide the opportunity to see disease and the attempts to treat disease. We are thankful for your consideration in this matter.”
