By Jamison Wagner, Staff Reporter | Photo by: Jamison Wagner
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Club is currently based out of the CNM Westside campus, but the club officers are discussing how to expand it to all campuses, said Lori Mehl, club adviser.
The club meets off campus at Kaboom Test Labs, a comic book store, every Monday at 3 p.m. to play Dungeons & Dragons. Students interested in joining should drop by one of the meetings, she said.
“We are really excited about the idea of getting a CNM Science Fiction and Fantasy Club at Main campus, one at Montoya and so on,” said Mehl.
In the fall semester, instead of Dungeons & Dragons, the club will be switching to various other events like board games and a SF slam around Halloween, where club members will be reading classic SF horror novels, said club treasurer and Liberal Arts major Christopher Martinson.
“Now in the future we are thinking about doing a film festival, attending SF and Fantasy conventions for literature, movies and pop culture,” said Mehl.
Playing Dungeons & Dragons has gotten students to put some of their classes to use, including classes in Anthropology, Political Science and Statistics and Probability, said Martinson.
“We like to incorporate disciplines our members have an interest in. Some of the students in our club are involved in Anthropology and so they are helping to develop the characters backstories and how their culture evolves. We have our art students working creating miniature figurines of the characters,” he said.
Mehl teaches a science fiction literature class at the Westside campus every spring, and shortly after the SF literature class got going three years ago, Mehl was approached by students who wanted to form a club for SF and Fantasy, Mehl said.
“The first semester I taught the class, the students proposed we consider putting together a science fiction and fantasy club. I was very excited about this,” she said.
Some of the club members are working on character portraits of the group’s Dungeon & Dragon characters, said Martinson. A group portrait of the characters should be done by fall, he said.
The club is also working on developing a newsletter so people can stay up to date with club events, and have also commissioned a logo, banner and signage from one of the local student artists, he said.
“The artist is still working on the designs for us, and it will incorporate the CNM logo but still screams science fiction to people,” Martinson said.
The plans to expand the club to other campuses are still in the early stages and the club will likely need additional faculty sponsors at each campus, Mehl said.
If faculty or students want to help with starting a new SF and fantasy club at other campuses, they should contact club advisor Lori Mehl at lmehl@cnm. edu or Christopher Martinson, club treasurer at crmartinson@me.com for more information.
SF & Fantasy Club Meetings:
Summer semester every Monday at 3 p.m.
Located at: Kaboom Test Labs comic book store
10250 Cottonwood Park Road, Suite E Albuquerque NM 87114
