Month: April 2014

Westside campus puts on Arts Jam

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By Nick Stern, Senior Reporter | Photo by Nick Stern

8.5

Arts Jam is back at Westside Campus for the spring and people have used the opportunity to express themselves in many different ways.

Arts Jam is an annual event that is all about arts and culture in which stu­dents and faculty alike get the opportunity to show­case their different talents and have a richer experi­ence within the college environment, Mark Love- Williamson, Religion, Humanities and Philosophy Instructor said.

The Arts Jam is one day a week for five consecu­tive weeks starting from Monday, March 24 until Thursday, April 10 and is exclusive to the Westside Campus within the Michael J. Glennon rotunda, he said.

“I always insist that my students get outside experi­ences. So the motivation was to enrich campus life and enrich the students’ experience,” Love-Williamson said.

Everyone who partici­pates is allowed to perform an array of arts that include music, poetry reading, novel read­ings, dramatic readings and art shows, he said.

Love-Williamson said that students were so involved in this event that even the pro­motion posters were designed by students who were inter­ested, he said.

The Anthropology Club also has workshops that are a part of the event and explains many different prehistoric skills from making pinch pots to rubbing sticks together for a fire, Love-Williams said.

Students and faculty are the primary performers while many faculty members brought their entire class to either per­form or to watch and support other performances, he said.

“Many faculty will bring their class, like an English class will come and the stu­dents will take turns reading. We encourage faculty to bring their classes or to suggest that their students come down and check it out,” he said.

Arts Jam is part of the student organization known as Novel Slam which is sup­ported by the college and throws the Novel Slam cel­ebration during every fall semester as well, he said.

Currently there are no plans to host similar events related to the Arts Jam or Novel Slam anywhere other than the Westside Campus in the future but the event will keep on being held every year and does play a large role in creating the campus’ identity and is highly anticipated by many in the Westside commu­nity, he said.

“It helps establish that this is unique to Westside and it helps establish a sense of community and identity here. Students and faculty who have been here a while look forward to Arts Jam and Novel Slam each year and it is our thing, but I would be willing to help other people get started someplace else,” Love-Williamson said.

Communications and Education Major, Charles Sanzone-Wood is part of a theater class that attended the Arts Jam this year and read from several different plays for the experience, and of course — extra credit, he said.

The experience has always been cherished by him and he believes that the event is important to people in the the­ater department because the performances can help build a sense of confidence among shy students, he said.

“It is always really cool but it is especially cool in theater because it is hard for some people who are not used to speaking in public to go out and read in public. You have to project and speak loudly and it kind of sounded like a bunch of people whispering, but next time they go up there, they are going to have more con­fidence,” he said.

Letter to the Editor on Boundaries, Rape Culture and Sexual Harassment

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This last weekend I had the distinctly unpleasant experience of being on the receiving end of sexual harassment from a women to myself, a man.

I have never knowingly or deliberately engaged in wolf-whistling, lewd catcalls or “copping a feel” myself and to find myself on the receiving end and having my crotch grabbed by someone I barely knew was shocking to say the least.

I have come to a painfully personal understanding that the worst part of such an experience is that while I was horrified and paralyzed by the shock, my body responded to the woman’s groping of my person. This is a very painful reality that any victim of sexual harassment or assault must deal with, and that is that we cannot fully control our bodies sexual response no matter how much we might wish to or try to fight it.

Sometimes you hear in the media or from people that someone was “asking for it” when a victim speaks out about this. To say this is a flagrant lie is putting it far too mildly.

I struggle with social interaction for the most part and tend to feel very awkward around people I do not know and in this instance, I was so stunned that I was not able to give voice to my objections of being treated this way. I was not wearing revealing clothing or engaging in flirting. Yet society would say, “he must have done something to deserve it.” That is complete and utter bullshit.

Nobody and I mean NOBODY, deserves to have their personal boundaries or body violated in any way, shape or form whatsoever. Unless someone explicitly and emphatically says that yes, they do want to engage in sexual activities with you, leave them alone. Either ask outright, or do not bring it up at all.

No one has the right to another person’s body and to suggest otherwise is stating that the person who was sexually harassed or raped does not have the right to their own body or life. Everyone in this world, has the right to live their own life as they so choose. If someone wants to be promiscuous, that is their choice. If they are like me and feel that sexual intimacy is not to be a casual thing that too, is their right.

I do not care who you are, how much money or power you have, if you are male, female or transgender. You do not have the right to violate another person’s body or boundaries. For whatever reason, our society pretends that such things are acceptable to engage in. These invasions of people’s space and bodies never have been “okay”, and never will be.

Until we can actually learn to respect one another’s choices and boundaries culturally, we cannot claim to be a mature or civilized species for only barbarians with no regard for others engage in such activities of violation.

 

Jamison Wagner

APD protests spark controversy among community

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By Rene Thompson, Editor in Chief | Photos by Rene Thompson

4.3

4.1

Demonstrators took to the streets on Tuesday, March 25 and Sunday, March 30 to protest against the Albuquerque Police Department’s use of force and killing of Albuquerque citizens.

Specifically James Boyd, who was shot and killed while squatting in the Northeast Heights Foot Hills at Copper Trailhead, on March 16, and protests eventually ended in people being dispersed by tear gas at Girard Blvd and Central Avenue and at APD head­quarters twelve hours after protests began on Sunday.

Since the first protest on Tuesday that brought more than 1,000 people to the event, there has been a massive media frenzy online and many took to the internet on social media sites to voice their concerns, whether people were in support of APD or against APD’s use of force.

Former student and Activist with the ANSWER Coalition, Joel Gallegos said that this whole situation had blown up because it had been a long time coming and that the city should not be surprised by the blowback that occurred in the pro­test event on Sunday.

ANSWER stands for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, but also helps with organizing many protest events through­out Albuquerque, and Gallegos said that is why the ANSWER coalition is around, to give people the opportunity to participate in a safe way that is organized.

“The police were wrong to escalate the situation with a paramilitary response,” Gallegos said.

Gallegos said that whether it is direct action, civil disobedience, or politi­cal action, that the coalition wants to encourage folks to get involved.

History major, Zachary Case, who was at the Sunday event earlier in the day to observe protesters, said that he never saw protesting as a real way to change anything.

Case said that there were many touching stories at the event from people who had lost loved ones to police violence.

“I love freedom of speech and freedom of assembly; it’s just not exactly certain what will happen from all this,” he said.

Former President of ECOs, Stephen Martos said he believes people should be supporting APD instead of protesting them, because the police force is an essen­tial part of the community.

Martos said that APD is necessary to serve and pro­tect, but that there are times when that does not always ring true, as in the recent officer involved shooting.

“You cannot improve the situations by creating enemies, but instead by making partners. We are partners with our police force and are responsible for bringing our community together,” Martos said.

The Department of Justice has had an ongoing investigation of APD since Nov. 2012, after numerous misconduct lawsuits had cost Albuquerque taxpayers more than 24 million dollars in 2010 alone, according to a justice.gov D.O.J. press release and the Albuquerque Journal.

APD has been dealing with threats and personal infor­mation of officers being leaked from the activist and hacking group Anonymous, as APD’s website was attacked on Sunday which kept their site down for most of the day, Police Spokesman, Simon Drobik said in a statement.

Gallegos said that politicians do not start talking about prob­lems until the people make it a problem.

He also said there is a city ordinance that allows protesters to march in the streets without a specific permit.

“We can’t control what others do, and we might not agree with the tactics used Sunday night but we fully support and stand with the people involved,” he said.

Case said that police should not be militarized— period, and that the city is just trying to control the population instead of pro­tecting them.

Case said that he believes that if a cop is going to assault someone, then that person should have the right to defend themselves.

“This has been going on in Albuquerque since I was a little kid, and I remember there being issues of police brutality in our city since then,” he said.

Martos said that he believes that there are two camps of people protesting, with those that are truly interested in improving the APD, and those who are only interested in stirring the waters, because they are only focused on negativity.

It is necessary to alert our lawmakers and those administering training in order to improve in the ways we are failing, but Martos said that some of these pro­testers have lost sight of what the real issue is, which is the excessive force of APD.

“What is sad is they have done this in the name of James Boyd whom nobody worried about before he died. If the community cared so much, then they would have been out there helping him with food, water, shelter and healthcare,” Martos said.

According to justice.org, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 prohibits state and local governments from engaging in a pattern or practice of misconduct by law enforce­ment officers that deprives individuals of federally-pro­tected rights.

Arts shindig supports scholarship fund

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By Jonathan Baca, Copy Editor | Photos by Jonathan Baca

1.2

On Saturday, April 5, the Art department and the CNM Employee’s Union will be put­ting on the second annual Arts Fandango, where dozens of artworks donated by students, instructors, and alumni will be auctioned off to raise money for the Ernest Garcia Emerging Artist Scholarship, said Union President and SAGE instructor, Andrew Tibble.

The event is scheduled to be held at SCA Contemporary gallery at 524 Haines Avenue NW. Doors open at 6 p.m., with tickets at $5 for students and $10 for the general public, which will include free food, drinks and music by instructor Patrick Houlihan’s classic rock band The Great Blue Whales.

“We’re really excited to be doing this event again, it’s a lot of fun and it’s for a great cause. You get to see a lot of really cool art. Most of the artists are there for you to talk to and the guys in the band are great,” Tibble said.

All the art will be sold the night of the event through a silent auction, and Tibble said there will be some great deals on lots of professional quality paintings, prints and ceramics, so he suggested that attendees bring cash or checks and bid on some pieces.

The matting, framing and setup is being done by volun­teers from the Art department, and the food and music is being provided by the Employee’s Union, so all of the proceeds will be donated to the scholar­ship fund, Tibble said.

“If you come to the event, you can be sure that if you bid on some art, your ticket cost, every penny goes into the scholarship fund,” Tibble said.

The scholarship, which was created by the Art department and the CNM Foundation, is in its second year, and was named after Ernest Garcia, the school’s very first studio art instructor, and a founding member of the Employee’s Union, who died in 2012, only a few years after retiring, Tibble said. suddenly of prostate cancer

Full-time Art instruc­tor Lynn Johnson, who was the school’s second studio instructor and helped to create the scholarship, said that the Art department as it is today was created by Garcia, who started as an Art History instructor and went on to create nearly all the curriculum for the studio art program.

“He was just instrumen­tal in starting the studio side of the department. He really started a legacy, and I feel like without him we wouldn’t have the Art department. We really miss him dearly,” Johnson said.

Garcia, Johnson, and several others in the Art department had been trying to create a scholarship for art students for years, and when Garcia passed away, the school, with the help of the Employee’s Union, saw fit to name the new scholarship after him, Johnson said.

The scholarship has awarded around $400 a year to an art major, and with another successful fundraising event, they hope to increase that amount significantly and possibly begin giving out schol­arships to several different stu­dents a year, Tibble said.

Full-time Art instructor Harley McDaniel said that in addition to raising money for the scholarship, the event is also the largest group show­case for the Art department, and helps to shine a bright spotlight on the work of the students and instructors.

“It allows people in the community to come and see the work that we make, that our students and faculty are making, and also to see the syn­ergy between faculty, students and community. Everybody is coming together, and it just brings a great amount of exposure to the department,” McDaniel said.

Johnson agreed that the event was an important opportunity for the Art department to show off the quality of work that is being produced, and hopefully will lead to increasing the respect, profile, and even­tually the funding of the Art department.

Johnson said that several pieces have been donated by alumni who have gone on to have successful art careers after graduating, and that last year collectors came out to the event, knowing that they could get some great deals on high quality works from up-and-coming artists.

“We really have incredible students coming out of the pro­gram. There is kind of a new respect that CNM is benefit­ting from based on the quality of the students’ art, and I really appreciate that,” Johnson said.

In addition to all the good that it does in raising money for the scholarship and showcasing the Art department, Johnson said the most important thing is that the event is a chance for everyone to get together and have a lot of fun.

“It was so much work, but it was also so much fun. We were all dancing and doing things we shouldn’t, I’m sure, but it was just a really great time. Everybody was really excited to be there, it was a blast,” Johnson said.

Making fire; Prehistoric skills workshops offered

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By Angela Le Quieu, Staff Reporter | Photos by Angela Le Quieu

1.1 1.3

The Anthropology Club and their faculty advi­sor, Anthropology instruc­tor Dr. Sue Ruth, hosted workshops focusing on ancient technologies used by prehistoric Homo sapiens at the Westside campus on Thursday, March 27.

Students gathered at one of the amphitheaters outside of Westside where Ruth demonstrated how to make fire with a technique known as bow and drill.

“It gives a chance for people to play with this tech­nology that we have had for thousands of years, and most of the time they find out that it’s a little bit harder than they expected, although we made a lot of fire today,” Ruth said.

The first student that was able to produce fire was Jaxon Sorby, Psychology major, but he used flint and steel to ignite the tender.

Sorby has had experi­ence making fire from when he worked as a docent for El Rancho de las Golondrinas living history museum and joined the museum after attending a fire starting class that was held, he said.

The flint and steel kit that he used to start the fire was his own and he practices making fire often in his own backyard, and has even used the fire to cook things like eggs in cast iron cookware Sorby said.

“It was really fun, I was glad I could make this one, last year I wasn’t able to,” Sorby said.

After the initial fire was made students were given marshmallows to roast which were part of the snacks that the Anthropology Club provided for students who attended the event.

Chandra Germain, Anthropology major and Vice President of the Anthropology Club helped supply the snacks, she said.

Germain said that these events give students the opportunity to see the sort of hands-on work that students who pursue anthropology do in order to better understand what they are studying.

“We did it last year and I really enjoyed it. A group of us actually managed to make fire, but that was like the only time. It’s actually exciting to see a lot more people are making fire,” Germain said.

Introducing applied anthropology, such as repli­cating how hunter-gatherers built fire, is the reason that the Anthropology Club organizes events like this one, said Jamie Fowler-Diaz, Anthropology major and Club Treasurer.

An event like this gets people involved in what anthropology is as well as being something that is fun, Fowler-Diaz said.

“I think they are awesome, so this is a really cool way to get a lot of people involved— people are having fun, they are chatting, they are talking, they are enjoying themselves, and we have food,” Fowler- Diaz said.

Fire making was not the only event planned by the Anthropology Club this spring, and on Monday, March 24 the club had an atlatl throw­ing event, that are devices which use a stick to propel a dart with greater force than if it had just been thrown by hand, which is a technique that has been around for tens of thou­sands of years, Ruth said.

The club will also have an event on April 9 that will show students how to make pinch pots, Ruth said.

Pinch pots are another way to demonstrate how experiential archeology and applied anthropology work, Ruth said.

“So basically we are going to be playing with clay and look at a very simple way to make a pot. It’s essentially the kindergarten ashtray, but again people find out is not quite as easy as they remem­bered it back in kindergarten,” Ruth said.

These events on the Westside are not the only things that the Anthropology club does; they also go on field trips to places like the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, and the Petroglyph National Monument, Ruth said.

In the fall, the club will also host a meet and greet for club members, anthropology majors, and faculty to show­case the program and to dis­cuss what they will do in the future; this upcoming fall term will be the third year that they will have this event, Ruth said.

“We have just a great group of people and we’re really active,” Ruth said.

More information about the Anthropology Club and their events can be found on their Facebook page CNM Anthropology, which is a closed group, but the club does accept requests to join.

Native American club hosts fun run

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By Carol Woodland, Staff Reporter | Photo by Carol Woodland

1.4

In partnership with the Native American Task Team, CNM’s chapter of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society plans to hold a 5k fun run and one mile walk on Sunday April 6, said Teresa Billy, Academic Adviser and member of the NATT.

Billy said the groups have been planning the “Honor Your Heritage” 5k since last November which was Native American Heritage month, but bad weather prevented the event from being held at that time.

Nabahe Abeita, Vice President of AISES and Engineering major, said he is very happy to see the event come to fruition is looking forward to volunteering during the race.

“I’m excited about the fun run first of all because we had to postpone it before and now we actually get to have the event occur, I’m excited to have the event to have other Native American members volunteer to help make it successful,” Abeita said.

Billy said that the groups wanted to host the run to promote unity, health and wellness for the CNM community.

Members of the NATT and AISES  met with the Dean of Students, Student Activities, Security, and the Communications office as part of the event planning, Billy said.

“This was something that students really wanted to have here on campus. It’s the first time ever a 5k and 1 mile fun run will be held on campus,” Billy said.

Volunteers will be needed to help the event run smoothly and there will be training for volunteers on Friday, March 4 at 2:30 p.m. in the Student Services Center, room 205, she said.

Students who are interested can contact Academic Adviser and AISES  Adviser Dee Bluehorse (dbluehorse@ cnm.edu) if interested in volunteering, she said.

The race will be held on Sunday, April 6, and those interested in running or walking should arrive in front of the Student Services Building at 8 a.m. to register, as the event will kick off shortly thereafter, Billy said.

During spring break, five students from the AISES  attended the third national AISES  Leadership Conference at Santa Ana Pueblo said Dee Bluehorse, AISES  adviser and academic adviser.

In addition to all of the AISES  chapters present there were professional speakers from local New Mexico businesses, as well as some from out of state companies who gave presentations and workshops, Bluehorse said.

Jasmine Casiquito, Liberal Arts major, said she had not been to the conference before, but found it to be deeply enriching.

Students could attend sessions; in financial planning, social media, resume building, public speaking and interviewing, among other leadership development activities, Bluehorse said.

“One of the things I learned at the leadership is that there are so many obstacles, but you just have to find a way to get through them, there’s always a way, no matter how difficult it may be,” Casiquito said.

The club’s advisers took part in professional training sessions in which they were able to share some of the things they do to help students be suc­cessful, Bluehorse said.

She had expected to receive a lot of input from other group advisers, but in fact it was CNM’s AISES  chapter that was giving out much of the input, and Bluehorse said “We were on top, I found myself giving ideas out to them.”

Bluehorse said that the CNM students were also very influential communicators and a dignified group who made quite an impression on the other attendees during the conference.

“One thing that was men­tioned to me by other chapter advisors, is that CNM is really shining at this conference,” Bluehorse said.

Bluehorse said she attri­butes some of that positive attention to the efforts of Jana Dunow who is incred­ibly dedicated to the AISES students’ success.

“She was a very influential person regarding this, she even held a previous workshop for our AISES officers to attend,” Bluehorse said.

Jana Dunow, academic advisor and AISES  co-advisor said that though the group is rooted in promoting Science and Technology fields, their view on what falls under the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math umbrella is much more diverse than other groups on campus such as STEM Up.

Dunow said AISES  covers everything from health sciences to psychology to heating and refrigeration technology, and Bluehorse added that even business could be included.

“Business is included as well too because we’re finding out that a lot of the programs that deal with STEM need those other disciplines in those areas too,” Bluehorse said.

Dunow said that the group provides valuable backing to students to help them become successful in their careers.

“They have great resources, they have internships during the summer, and they also have peer mentors which can be huge for students figuring out where they want to go,” Dunow said.

AISES  is also involved in a variety of volunteer projects in the greater community including the New Mexico Mesa STEM conference in February where Jasmine Casiquito volunteered, Bluehorse said.

Other AISES  students have volunteered in the community through partnerships with Habitat for Humanity and Project Feed the Hood, Bluehorse said.

“All students can experience the same things that Jasmine (Casiquito) was able to because it’s going to help them as they go through their college career,” Dunow said.

 

Editing Correction:

Native American club hosts fun run should have been dated on April 6, as the dates for the race and volunteer session were printed as March 4 and 6.  American Indian Science and Engineering Society members will be volunteering, but AISES is not the host as it is stated in the headline.  Throughout the article, AISES was referred to as THEATER.

APD protests went from peaceful to just ridiculous in only one week.

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By Rene Thompson, Editor in Chief

The Tuesday, March 25 protest of APD officers’ excessive use of force had a massive turnout of more 1,000 people, and was really a very peaceful event that went as smoothly as it could have when ending at APD headquarters.

Unfortunately though, the other protest on Sunday, March 30 seemed to have an eerie and anxious feel in the crowd right from the get go.

I got the impression that there were instigators and troublemakers throughout the mass from the beginning; getting people riled up to walk the streets, and not to really show solidarity, but to wreak havoc on central and antagonize police officers, who seemed to have no other choice but to try to shut down the event that lasted from noon to 12 a.m. throughout sections of Downtown and Nob Hill areas.

The weird vibes in the crowd seemed to start when organizers tried to speak on behalf of family members who have lost loved ones, and were booed and interrupted by the crowd.

From that moment on the protest seemed unorganized and the march stopped sporadically, with people not knowing where they were going next, and eventually ended up circling Central Avenue from Downtown to Nob Hill and back again.

While doing so, entire groups stopped completely in the middle of Central, blocking traffic, provoking cops while screaming and yelling at officers on Girard, attempting to tear down the Central street sign at Yale Boulevard, and standing in the middle of the I-25 freeway, as well as attempting to block the I-25 on-ramp at Central.

Police were forced to stop protesters with an officer barricade while in riot gear, after demonstrators started getting even more out of hand when reaching Fourth Street and Roma Avenue, and again at Carlisle and Central where police had to finally tear gas protesters to get people to disperse, as well as arresting six people.

It seems that activists and protesters were intentionally provoking the police to do something and ruining what great work, effort, and results had been made from the Tuesday protest event.

People were aggressive from the beginning of this protest and seemed to intentionally want this event to get out of hand by acting out throughout the city in order to try and make people aware of the city’s issues, but it only takes a few bad apples to ruin a cause; like people prepped with weapons and gas masks, and this is exactly what happened at the protest on Sunday.

This issue has divided the community in our city, including some people who are supporting APD as well and even had a “wave or thank your local officers” event on the same day.

Some protesters acted hastily and without regard for others on Sunday, while losing much of the local support for this cause in the process of making citizens in Albuquerque look like fools.

This issue of APD violence has gotten to a boiling point that seriously needs to be addressed by city officials before anything worse occurs, because the community of Albuquerque deserves to feel somewhat safe and to have the peace of mind in knowing that ensuing chaos (like hundreds of people blocking city traffic for hours) and poor leadership will not be the city’s eventual downfall.

Letter to the Editor regarding APD protests

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What we are seeing is the chickens coming home to roost. In political science we call this a blowback. What we are seeing here is the murder of defenseless and troubled people by the APD and is what we do with our military and economic forces in countries around the world.

On the global level, the U.S. needs to step up the extraction of resources from abroad using economic sanctions, outright war and terroristic assassination with drones to bring about regime changes that will allow our corporations freedom to run the economies of the world.

Many of the APD it seems have been tools of this policy in our military service and are here carrying out the same shoot to kill methods. Like abroad, here they claim they are the victim and just had to defend themselves. Their killings are always justified in their eyes.

This is just what our national leaders have established on the larger level with the policy of pre-emptive war. We don’t see the cops shooting white collar, politicians and corporate CEO criminals up in the heights who have bankrupted the state and global economy do we? No. We are seeing state terrorism being unleaded to intimidate the poor and troubled people in the grassroots because at some point this has the potential to unite with the middle class in a large revolution. New Mexico and Albuquerque are full of military bases and research universities that live off quiet support for the principle that massive violence to support our corporations abroad is legitimate. It is no big jump for it to be accepted for domestic control too. Plus it keeps taxes low for the rich.

That is why we don’t see any institutional responses to APD terrorism. All the resistance is coming from people who are just one paycheck away from a job or in need of social services themselves that would require raising taxes on the corporations and wealthy. We are experiencing a real paradigm shift right now too. Domestically civilian policing methods are no longer able to cope with the growing unrest due to cutbacks of jobs, wages, and services.

Again, this is just like our corporations and military abroad who have not been able to meet the demands of the Arab Spring movement and the growing Asia countries for justice and equality, a fair economy. As a result there we are now involved in a large series of wars to suppress it. With the government’s recent suppression of our Occupy movement here at home there is a growing class consciousness growing.

A war between the haves and the have-nots is brewing everywhere and the rich know it and are preparing with agencies like the APD and the military. We need to be aware and fight for justice and equality even more.

Bob Anderson

Political Science Instructor

English department offers more classes plus online degree

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By Carol Woodland, Staff Reporter

An exciting change is coming for students pursuing an Associate of Arts in English degree from CNM said Stephen Mathewson, chair of the English department.

Starting in fall of 2014 students will be able to pursue an AA in English completely online, he said.

“So you can take all of the core require­ments within English but also within CHSS ( Communication , Humanities and Social Sciences) for the AA in English online,” Mathewson said.

Online courses will offer classes that include British, English and World Literature, as well as a class on literature analysis, Mathewson said.

The AA degree in English is also undergoing a revision to make transferring to the University of New Mexico a clearer process by synchroniz­ing CNM with UNM require­ments, he said.

“If students check UNM’s degree requirements online, they will see what ours will be. It’s a much more stream­lined process especially at the sophomore level, and in the fall of 2015 our degree will match UNM’s revisions,” Mathewson said.

Currently students can choose from numerous dif­ferent literatures and writing classes that include special topics course, such as Science Fiction Literature that will be offered at the West Side campus, a script writing class offered through the Theater department, and Film as Literature class which is already offered every semester, Mathewson said.

Despite the selection of course offerings, there has been low enrollment for some of the classes, English Professor, Rebecca Aronson said.

“This semester we didn’t have a poetry class on the Main campus because there was a dip in enroll­ment,” she said.

Aronson said she thinks that there are many great reasons why students should take Poetry or Creative Writing classes ranging from practical reasons to more expressive purposes.

“I think that on the imag­ination side, it’s a chance for people to express them­selves, or sometimes just vent, follow their imaginative paths and do a freer kind of writing than academic writ­ing,” she said.

In addition, students can gain a deeper connec­tion to their lives and ideas when students write down their thoughts and aspirations, Aronson said.

Examining literature in English class can be an unex­pected way to learn about cul­ture by looking at literature from other countries or from the past, Aronson said.

“I think that poetry really is a good reflector of culture, time and place. You’re going to learn things about culture and what’s happening, and what that part of the world is like,” she said.

Reading literature from other countries can also help to get students informed about things they might not necessarily be learning from the news, Aronson said.

Mathewson said he thinks the skills students take away from English classes are essential in any professional environment.

“Not just writing emails, I think students don’t realize how much writing happens at work: proposals, grants, annual reports, revenue state­ments, those types of skills are universal,” he said.

Good writing skills, criti­cal thinking, and analysis of all types of texts are all valuable skills developed in English classes, Mathewson said.

Writing for digital media, creative non-fiction, and professional writing are some of the biggest markets for English majors to start careers in right now Mathewson said, he also said he thinks that technology has been a cata­lyst to this growth.

“There’s sort of this misconception that texting is going to destroy writing, where actually the opposite is true,” he said.

Professional writing, which most people think of as technical writing, is not neces­sarily writing technical manu­als and medical or government documents, Mathewson said.

From writing grants and proposals to critical analysis of nontraditional nonfiction, there are many interesting niches within professional writing, he said.

Though the field may be growing quickly writers still need to develop strong English skills in order to succeed in any field, Mathewson said.

“Digital media sort of exploded in a lot of ways, but within that explosion you still need to punctuate correctly and make sure subjects and verbs agree,” Mathewson said.

One way students can dig a little deeper into English is by taking 2240, a class in traditional English grammar, Mathewson said.

“In the last year or so Erin Lebacqz has revived 2240, which is a class that a lot of folks in education curriculums take but a lot of English majors take as well. It’s not really a writing improvement class, but sort of the theories behind gram­mar,” Mathewson said.

The track that students are taking to earn an English degree is evolving and chang­ing to meet the needs of today’s workforce, Mathewson said.

“I think that it’s cer­tainly changed from when I was a student. It’s become much more expansive and the traditional arrangements of English departments are no longer what they were,” Mathewson said.

For students still unsure of whether or not to pursue English as a degree, the English department has put together a video at the CNM YouTube website (youtube.com/users/ CNMonline) called “Why is Writing Important?,” and shows people from all differ­ent walks of life talking about how to use the skills students have developed in English classes, Mathewson said.

Aronson said that stu­dents sometimes avoid or fear taking English classes and should not have to feel that way because learning English is just like any other subject and that with practice people can learn to be great writers.