Contractors Committed to Safety Protocols

By Angelique Cox Staff Reporter

In alignment with the State of New Mexico’s COVID-19 guidelines, all contractors are required to submit their plans for protecting against the spread of the COVID-19 prior to beginning work at a CNM location, said Brad Moore, Director of Communications and Media Relations.

Due to social distancing guidelines, all contractors have submitted plans to ensure that employees wear face coverings, while working at a CNM location, said Moore.

The college has reviewed the safety plans submitted by all contractors at CNM, said Moore.

If it becomes known that agreed upon COVID 19 protocols are not followed by on-site contractor employees, CNM will address the situation with the contractor, said Moore.

Contractors have been reminded of their commitment to COVID 19 safety protocols while working at CNM, said Moore.

Contractor practices will continue to be monitored by the College and communicate the importance of complying with state directives and CNM safety protocols, said Moore.

“The health and safety of everybody at a CNM location is of utmost importance to the College,” said Moore.

Ken Chappy Hall gets facelift, removes hazards

By Daniel Johnson, Investigative Reporter

Parts of Ken Chappy Hall have under­gone asbestos and lead paint removal in preparation for the creation of a new faculty office space said Director of Communications and Media relations, Brad Moore.

CNM has removed the asbestos in Ken Chappy Hall in compliance with city, state and federal laws, including the city of Albuquerque, Environmental Protection Agency, New Mexico Environmental Department and OSHA, he said.

“All rooms that are currently open in Ken Chappy Hall are safe to use”, Moore said.

Asbestos is not dangerous until it is disturbed and becomes airborne, where it can be inhaled or ingested by people, he said.

The asbestos abatement was done so the area can be safely remodeled to provide new faculty office space, he said.

There was recently an addi­tion of new furni­ture and some other minor upgrades to the SAGE instructor office spaces prior to the asbestos removal in Ken Chappy Hall, but is now being renovated in a much more comprehensive and structural way to provide more space for faculty and the offices they use, he said.

When this current renovation is com­plete, faculty from CHSS, MSE and SAGE will occupy the new office spaces, he said.

This project is in conjunction with the CNM Master Plan to provide centralized faculty office locations on Main campus, he said.

“This will hopefully encourage more collaboration among faculty members,” Moore said.

The instructors who were in the space that is being renovated are now located temporarily in classrooms in Ken Chappy, he said.

More space is now available in Ken Chappy because the registration office for Adult Basic Education classes has been moved to the recently remodeled Student Services Center, he said.

“Ken Chappy Hall is the only location that needs this kind of attention at this time,” Moore said.

The construction cost for the Ken Chappy renovation project, including the asbestos abatement, is $670,000, said Moore.

The removal of asbestos has been com­pleted and the faculty office renovation is expected to be completed around the start of the 2014 fall term, he said.

“If other buildings become pinpointed for renovations, and they are older build­ings, studies will be done to determine if there are any dangerous substances such as asbestos that require special attention prior to any renovations,” he said.

When a building has been chosen for renovation, many studies are done to evaluate whether there are dangerous materials within the structure, including studies to determine whether asbestos is present, he said.

Buildings built prior to the early 1980s could have asbestos inside them in inaccessible areas like inside walls or above the ceilings, he said.

The reports from these studies are used to determine how a building is reno­vated, he said.

The contractor for this project was KEERS Remediation Inc., and they special­ize in the safe removal of asbestos, he said.

They are thoroughly trained in removing asbestos and disposing of it properly, he said.

An inspector from the New Mexico Environmental Department checked the site on Thursday, May 22, and confirmed that the project was being conducted appropriately and safely, he said.

KEERS Remediation Inc. Service Coordinator, Emily Sanchez said the removal of the asbestos went as planned and finished on schedule.

“The crew that worked out at CNM ran into no hiccups or problems during the removal process which was a good thing,” she said.

Upon completion of the removal a test sample was sent to a third party tester and all results returned as negative, she said.

Currently KEERS Remediation is not working on any other projects on CNM campuses, Sanchez said.

Aviation students want their teacher back

By Rene Thompson, Editor in Chief | Photo by Rene Thompson
Aviation
The day after spring break, students in the Aviation Department wondered where their instructor Jason Manzanares had gone to, especially when a substitute teacher came in and told them that he would be taking over their class without any real explanation as to why, and have yet to still get answers on whether these students will get their aviation instructor back or not.
More than a dozen of the aviation students stormed President Winograd’s office on April 24 to get their teacher back or at least find out if he is still going to be their teacher, but were turned away.
These students were later given a meeting with the Applied Technologies Assistant Dean, Michael Cranny later that day where students said that they were able to voice their concerns, but also said that their issues were still not addressed and had hope to hear more from administration on this situation.
Most of these student said they felt they are still being left in the dark about their instructor, or the fate of the aviation program.
Such as student Jasmine Vasquez who said, “It’s kind of confusing, because we don’t know what’s going on— I mean one day he was here and the next he wasn’t, so I feel like we were left in the dark, because we don’t even know who our instructor is going to be next semester.”
Students Paul Romero and Laura Brandon said that Manzanares developed the Aviation program at CNM six years ago and has created the majority of the curriculum, had planes donated to the program for students to get hands on knowledge, and showed students real world experience outside of the program with field trips.
Romero said “he even spends off time with us, and we’re invited to go help him work on planes, or he goes out of his way to get us field trips to places that these other teachers probably won’t do. We’ve had him for so long that we got used to him and all of a sudden just to take him away, and not giving us a reason as to why really sucks. We want him back —he’s a good instructor and we get along with him well, so we are trying to get him back in any way we can.”
Students said they turned in a petition to the Dean of Students office during the second week of April, but have yet to hear back from anyone willing to let them know anything.
Media and Communications Director Brad Moore was not willing divulge the nature of the suspension, but said that “Jason Manzanares is on paid administrative leave. CNM will not comment further on ongoing personnel matters.”
Aviation student Travis Cline said that school officials came to the class and were willing to tell the students that Manzanares was put on paid leave and that it was a human resources issue as to why.
“It comes down to violation of school policy. He can’t even talk to us or let us know what’s going on, and we’re the ones who are suffering,” Cline said.
Not only were students fighting to get their instructor back, but also addressed concerns of the quality of the aviation program in the April 24 meeting.
Student Justin Lester said that he feels the quality of the aviation class has been lacking since his instructor has been suspended.
“I feel like now I am struggling more because he isn’t here anymore,” he said.
Lester said that Manzanares had his own way of teaching, and that he got his way of doing things, because Manazanares was able to go into detail about difficult concepts and that he would explain things to be true to real life situations.
“He would take the time to sit down with us and make sure that we are doing it right, and when we did something wrong he would tell us how to correct it. I feel like we’re hanging in with the program, we’re getting the grades, and doing what we have to do, so I feel like we have a right know what’s going on with our teacher,” Lester said.
Student Mary Bowers said the classes taken for an aviation certification can be brutal at times, so to her it was good to have an instructor that made the students want to learn.
“We have really long lectures, like five hour days, so it was really good to have somebody who was colorful and could explain things in ways that were crazy, but just made sense. The substitute is trying and doing a pretty good job, but it could be better,” Bowers said.
Cline said Manzanares is a really good teacher, he’s been around and he understands students, explaining that the quality of the class has gone down since Manzanares was put on leave.
“The temporary instructor is just not up to that skill level —he gives presentations in PowerPoint and that’s it. When our instructor showed a PowerPoint he would elaborate on a real life situation. His presentation and mannerisms (is what makes him a good teacher), and he has the ability to lighten the moment a little bit when students are drifting off, and come back and divert it,” Cline said.
Vasquez said it would be beneficial to the class and program if the school was at least willing to give them a time frame of exactly when this issue should be resolved.
“That is really what is so upsetting, because the students don’t even know if Jason is going to come back or not,” she said.
Manzanares also makes a great family type atmosphere for these students who spend the majority of two-years with one another, she said.
“He was really big on community, and is why we have barbecues, because he wants us all to kind of be like a family since we’re all going to be with each other over the next two years,” Vasquez said.
Romero said that no one has contacted their class in regards to wanting back their instructor or the changes in program quality, so student do not know what instructor they will end up having for the summer semester.
As of the date of this publication the aviation students are still waiting to find out if their instructor will be coming back, and if the quality of curriculum will be up to par with Manzanares’ teaching.
The Chronicle does plan to do a follow up when this situation has come to a resolution.

Graduating with flying colors

By Nick Stern, Copy Editor, and Daniel Johnson, Inves­tigative Reporter | Photo by Daniel Johnson

graduation

CNM’s spring graduation cer­emony was held on Saturday, May 3 at Tingley Coliseum where, for the first time in the college’s his­tory, students involved with the brand new dual-credit College and Career High School walked with the rest of the graduates.

A total of 659 students from all the schools at CNM partici­pated in the graduation ceremony, 85 were GED graduates and nine were College and Career High School graduates.

The CCHS graduates were the very first students to be enrolled in the new program which gave them a chance to finish their high school diploma while simultaneously earning a college certificate, two-year degree, or credits toward a bachelor’s degree, which would place them ahead of the game the following college semester in their college careers.

The ceremony also imple­mented the use of new massive flat screen projectors of the event that lined each side of the stage, and allowed for a much better view of the proceedings, since Tingley Coliseum is such a large venue.

Director of Communications Brad Moore said that the addition of the new rear flat screen pro­jectors where audience members could see loved ones close up for the first time at graduation was a fruitful decision and improved the view for everyone, especially the family members of graduates.

“Adding the video boards was a way for CNM to provide family members and supporters much better views of the graduates and the ceremony on stage. The video boards were a great addition to the ceremony,” Moore said.

A local celebrity was also cre­ated when dual schooled student, Emily Watson graduated with her associate’s in liberal arts and studio arts degrees alongside her parents, and doing so before even finishing her high school diploma.

Emily Watson walked with her mother, Kelly Watson who received degrees in general studies, liberal arts, history and fine arts, and her father Jarrod Watson who received a degree in drafting, liberal arts, and a certificate in general studies, she said.

Emily Watson and her par­ents were pleasantly surprised and excited when they realized they were so close to graduating at the same time and decided they would make the plans which eventually put all three of them in their caps and gowns at the exact same time, Kelly Watson said.

“It is kind of amazing that it worked out that way. We did not have any idea it was going to track like that until the last year and we started planning our final year and were like ‘I think this is going to happen,’” Kelly Watson said.

As a family of mostly stu­dents, they had to sell one of their cars and soon after, while Emily and Kelly Watson wound up carpooling with the second car, Jarrod Watson made use of the CNM bus pass to get to his ATC courses, Emily Watson said.

Jarrod Watson even made a color-coded spreadsheet which was used to figure out how to make everyone’s school sched­ules fit together with the rest of their time and transportation, Kelly Watson said.

“She and I would try to schedule 95 percent of our classes together and online whenever possible. It actually worked out alright,” Kelly Watson said.

Roughly two weeks after the CNM graduation ceremony, Emily Watson also walked with her fellow high school students at the graduation ceremony for the SAMS Academy where she was the student speaker.

Emily Watson plans on going to UNM to study art education with the hopes of getting a job teaching children with disabilities, she said.

Emily Watson’s advice to any and all CNM students who may need it was to make sure to persevere no matter how rough the road may seem to be.

“Do not give up. It is not easy but as long as you just keep going you’ll make it —every day just start over fresh,” Emily Watson said.

Kelly Watson also had simi­larly wonderful advice for stu­dents, which was to encourage them to stay positive and take smaller steps towards the larger goal by not obsessing over the uncertainty of the future, she said.

“Every day is just one day closer to the end so you just have to do it one day at a time, sometimes when it gets rough,” Kelly Watson said.

The keynote speaker for the ceremony was the Honorable Judge Willow Misty Parks, who on top of being a CNM alumna, was also voted in as the distinguished CNM Alumna by the Alumni Foundation.

Parks’ speech involved a recol­lection of her remarkable and inspi­rational story of her journey from the pursuit of her education to her induction as Bernalillo’s one and only probate judge.

The student speaker was computer information systems major Regina Thompson, whose speech seemed to not only cap­tivate the audience, but also suc­ceeded in capturing quite a few laughs from the crowd.

In her speech, Parks talked about her challenge of summing up everything she had gone through with just 500 words and ended the speech by jokingly saying, “500 words!? I can’t do that.”

The speech’s ending seemed to almost poke fun at the first feel­ings of hesitation that she and many others have undoubtedly had about being able to get through college, and like her speech, she and 659 stu­dents were able to graduate after all.

Big plans for L Building Renovations

By Nick Stern, Senior Reporter
Main Campus’ L Building is looking at major renovations that are meant to create a cutting-edge place of learning for students, Director of Communications and Media Relations Director, Brad Moore said.
The renovation is a huge project and is planned to create better learning opportunities for everyone, especially science students and instructors, by creating a bigger and better learning environment, he said.
“This is an exciting project because it is going to greatly enhance the teaching and learning experience for faculty and students in the science fields,” Moore said.
All of the science labs that are currently located in the L Building are intended to be improved by adding new “state-of-the-art technology” in order to create the best learning environment for students, he said. The building houses an array of different labs in diverse scientific fields like chemistry, biology, geology, anatomy, physiology, microbiology, geography, physics, and astronomy, which will all be updated with the newest technology, he said.
There is also a plan to implement more biology and chemistry labs in order to be on par with the high demand of those particular classes, Moore said.
Moore said that New Mexico is actually in need of an increasing number of careers in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, which makes the future of the L building important to the students and the community as a whole, he said.
“Our state’s economy is also in serious need of many more college graduates in the STEM fields. CNM is doing its best to produce more STEM graduates and this L Building renovation is an important step in supporting those efforts,” Moore said.
The building is not only meant to be an amazing place for anyone in the science fields, but the plans also include areas meant for any and all students to hang out and study, or just rest between classes, he said.
These areas for students would be a first in and around the L Building along with new solar panels intended to be mounted outside and will serve as a means to make hot water and will include information on energy used, Moore said.
“The building has not had areas where students can meet or study together. Once the building is renovated, it will have ‘agility’ spaces where students can meet, study or relax. These areas will be decorated with scientific displays and artwork of science topics,” he said.
The L Building is considered to be the main laboratory building for the sciences on Main campus and the CNM community is very enthusiastic about the fact that it is being improved upon and will ultimately serve as a way to improve how teachers can teach and how students can learn, Moore said.
“CNM is very excited to be upgrading the primary science laboratory building on Main Campus. This renovation is going to provide faculty and students with an exceptional teaching and learning environment. This building is going to generate more excitement and interest beyond the sciences at CNM,” Moore said.
The building has already been vacated and is currently being prepared for demolition, Moore said.
The renovation was designed by SMPC Architects and Flintco, LLC is the general contractor of the project which will see the building increased from 33,000 square feet to 43,000 square feet, Moore said.
The budget for the project is estimated at $15 million, and will be planned to have the building reopened to the community in the 2015 fall term, Moore said.

New 8 week courses offered for summer

By Carol Woodland, Staff Reporter

This summer CNM is offering more courses in online or condensed eight week format than ever before, said Brad Moore, Director of Marketing and Communications.

CNM began offering the eight week courses during the 2013 Summer term as a pilot program to test student interest and allow faculty members the opportunity to teach their curriculum in a condensed format, which was both well received and effective, he said.

“One of CNM’s core missions is to ensure that a CNM education is acces­sible to as many people in our community as possi­ble. In addition to keeping tuition affordable, another important way CNM tries to make its courses easily accessible is by giving people multiple options on how, when and where they want to take CNM classes,” Moore said.

To achieve this goal, CNM has been increas­ing the number of online classes offered over the past few years to accom­modate students who have busy schedules or have dif­ficulty getting to one of the campuses, and enrollment in online courses reached an all-time high during the Spring 2014 term with 8,957 students taking at least one online course, Moore said.

“Enrollment in online classes has continued to steadily rise year by year, and CNM has continued to increase its offerings of online classes to meet stu­dent demand,” Moore said.

The new eight week format classes pro­vide another option for students to complete courses over the summer, and provides them with the added bonus of a longer break between spring and summer terms since the courses start later, Moore said.

Another benefit to the later start date for eight week courses is they will allow for graduating high school seniors to attend classes, which was not possible before because CNM’s summer semester started before the high school year ended, he said.

The eight week courses are scheduled in smaller chunks of time, but spread out over four days per week to allow for time to cover the same amount of material as the traditional classes, Moore said.

“Taking a condensed course like this also requires more time per week devoted to course­work outside of the class­room,” he said.

Students who do take advantage of the summer semester course offerings will benefit from being on a faster path to graduation, Moore said.

“Many of our students work full-time and many of our students have chil­dren, so we try to offer courses in various for­mats, so they are accessible to anybody who wants to improve their lives through the power of edu­cation,” Moore said.

Employment freeze affects work-study

By Jonathan Baca, Copy Editor

CNM has initiated a hiring freeze for all work-study employment positions, and all departments will be unable to hire any new stu­dent employees until July 1, when the new fiscal year begins, said Lee Carrillo, Director of Financial Aid and Scholarship Services.

The hiring freeze should not affect any current work-study employees, but any departments who lose any employees will not be able to replace them, and will have to make do until they can hire new employees in July, Carrillo said.

“It all comes down to one thing; we have limited fund­ing,” Carrillo said.

The school currently hires about 300 to 350 work-study employees per year, he said.

One change that will affect current employees is that pay periods will not go up from 20 to 30 weekly hours this summer as it has in the past, because there are no extra funds this year, Carrillo said.

This increase had been done in summers past, because there had been a sur­plus at the end of those years, and the school is required to spend the entire allocation before the end of the fiscal year. If there is any money left over at the start of the new year, the amount of money the State and Federal governments give would likely be adjusted, and the school would receive less the next year, he said.

This is the second year in a row that a hiring freeze has had to be implemented in order to ensure that enough money was left to continue paying existing student employees, he said.

Although the school could cut student employ­ees’ hours in order to keep from running out of funds, Carrillo said that the school has looked at the affect this would have, and would only do this as a last option.

“We look at all those things, and we hope it doesn’t come to that, which I don’t think it will,” Carrillo said.

The funds that go toward paychecks for all work-study employees come from a collective fund from Federal and State allocations, and from CNM itself, he said.

Director of Marketing and Communications, Brad Moore said that $600,000 comes from the Federal government, $1.2 million is given by the State, and the school kicks in an addi­tional $650,000, which is more than the 25 percent the school is required by law to contribute.

“We want to be able to hire and employ as many work-study students as pos­sible. The administration feels it is important for stu­dents to get an opportunity to have employment here, so the decision is made to add money to that fund,” Moore said.

At the start of each fiscal year, the school must esti­mate how many work-study employees it can hire based on the amount of money in the fund, the number of hours in a typical pay period, and the hourly wage, Carrillo said.

Although it was not legally required of them, the school did raise the hourly wage to $8.50 when Albuquerque voters raised the city’s minimum wage at the start of 2013. The school then gave work-study employees an additional ten cent raise in January, Carrillo said.

Carrillo said that the recent increases have changed the math significantly and con­tributed to the recent freezes, but that the school is still dedi­cated to hiring as many stu­dent employees as it can.

“Once we hit that pla­teau, we’ve got to freeze. And everybody who has a job can keep that job, but we just have to make sure that we make it to the end of the funding year with the allocations we have,” Carrillo said.

Carrillo said that budget­ing for the work-study fund can become a delicate balanc­ing act, since some employees work less than others, some quit or are fired, and some vacant positions stay open for long periods of time.

The Financial Aid depart­ment has to keep a constant eye on these ever-changing factors in an attempt to pre­dict how much money will be needed to last the entire year. This hiring freeze is the final tool in the toolbox that ensures the money will not run out, Carrillo said.

Moore said that the work-study program is very important to the school and to the employees them­selves, because the work they do is valuable to so many departments, and because the students get experience and important references for their future.

“It’s great to have stu­dent employees in the work environment because it helps keep us in tune with students and how their day to day lives really are. It’s highly valuable for regular CNM employees to have work-study employees around, to stay in touch with student life,” Moore said.

With talk in Washington about the possibility of raising the Federal minimum wage to $10 an hour or more, Carrillo said that the school would most likely be forced to hire significantly less work-study employees if the raise were to pass, unless they could secure more funding.

 

Registration change proves fruitful for students success

By Dan Chavez, Staff Reporter

The school’s updated registration policy that prohibits students from registering after the first day has not affected many students’ schedules since its inception at the beginning of the semes­ter, and Brad Moore, Director of Marketing and Communications said that the strategy has been going as smooth as expected, also that there is a definite plan to continue the new rule into future semesters.

Moore said he believes the spring 2015 semester will start with much fewer difficulties because CNM’s offices will be open January 5, but classes will not start until January 20, which gives students two weeks to register for classes.

Moore said the new registration policy was a result of studies con­ducted by CNM, which showed that students who started a class later would tend to struggle a great deal in their coursework because they had fallen behind from the very start.

“CNM has known this for a while, that grades did drop off for students who started late,” he said.

Late starting students would have lower success rates and were more likely to drop out, and those who stuck with the course would still end the term with lower grades than those who were present from the first day of class, he said.

CNM felt that the pre­vious way of registering was basically a disservice that the school was letting students start late, and that these students were already falling behind in their coursework from the very beginning of the class, Moore said.

“That’s the main reason behind it,” Moore said.

The large issue delaying the implementation of this new policy had to do with the short window between the date CNM offices were opened over the break and regular class start times, he said.

CNM plans to continue the policy barring late registra­tion and administration will monitor any effects it may have, he said.

Moore said that CNM will continue to communicate to students regarding the registration policy before the next term begins so that they will remember to sign up for their classes before the start­ing date, and so that registra­tion can go along smoother in upcoming semesters.

CNM did offer a signifi­cant number of late starting classes in anticipation of stu­dent need during this transi­tion phase, but these classes are shorter and are also more condensed, so the curriculum is equivalent to regular classes, he said.

Moore said that there will be several late starting classes offered during the summer semester that are 8 weeks in duration, rather than the standard 12 week course, and that the fall schedule will also start to offer more 8 week courses as well.

“We know a lot of stu­dents need those classes due to work issues and family obligations and so forth. We try to accommodate all dif­ferent types of students, so we’ll definitely continue to offer late starting courses,” Moore said.

Alexandra Fowler, Chemistry major, said she has been a CNM student for quite a while and she would advise any new stu­dent to meet with an aca­demic advisor as early as possible to find out what classes should be taken and when to do so for each semester, or to find out if more classes are avail­able to take during certain semesters.

Fowler said she felt that CNM spread the word about the new registration policy adequately enough.

“Teachers really drilled it in last semester and it was all over the website, so I think we did know ahead of time,” she said.

Dereck Swain, Engineering major, said he gets to pick his classes early, so he registers for the courses he needs way before the next term begins.

Swain said he had no major problems registering for the spring term and the new policy locking classes from registration after their beginning date did not affect him at all.

Swain said he was not aware that late starting regis­tration was possible in previ­ous semesters, and he advises newer students to go to the CNM catalog and write down the Course Reference Numbers (CRN) of the classes that are needed, as well as to register instead of doing a class search online, and to get it all done early.

“Don’t procrastinate. Try to get it done as early as you can,” he said.

Moore said that CNM will evaluate student per­formance at the end of the spring term to determine if final grades improve or not under the new registra­tion guidelines.

Editorial: E-cig policy makes no sense

By The CNM Chronicle Editorial Board

 Banning of the use of electric cigarettes in common areas and classrooms on campus is not right. In the article “Electronic ciga­rettes may be formally banned from indoor use on campus” on page 10, Director of Marketing and Communications Brad Moore said that the school has always con­sidered electronic cigarettes to be the same as cigarettes, but often, these devices are used by students, staff and faculty in an effort to quit smoking.

Continue reading “Editorial: E-cig policy makes no sense”

Administration explores solutions to faculty paycheck mix-ups

By Jyllian Roach, Editor-In-Chief

 Instructors were recently asked by the Marketing and Communications Department to take a survey regarding past payroll difficulties in an attempt to streamline the payroll process.

The online survey was avail­able to part and full time instruc­tors from Feb. 11 to Feb. 22 as a way for instructors to give their opinions and ideas on how to better handle faculty payroll, said Director of Marketing and Communications Brad Moore.

Faculty members’ pay can be tricky because of added or dropped classes, special projects and added assignments, which have caused errors on some pay­checks, he said.

“The project team is look­ing into the payroll process for possible areas for improvement to make sure all paychecks are accurate the first time to avoid having to make adjustments on the next paycheck,” said Moore.

Continue reading “Administration explores solutions to faculty paycheck mix-ups”