Tag: Deborah Cooper

Cool classes: African American Studies; Bringing African American history to the forefront of higher education

cnmchronicleLeave a comment

By Deborah Cooper, Staff Reporter

Introduction to African American Studies is designed to outline the evolution, the goals, the philosophy and the method of African American studies or Africana studies, said Ph.D. Charles Becknell, Cultural Studies Instructor.
“It’s really situated not to discuss African American history from a beginning to an end period,” he said.
Becknell said there is a certain period of African American history that is discussed as one of the areas of focus in his class, while looking at the studies as a discipline, and that it important to understand the evolution, social, and political climate that has fostered African American studies into higher education.
“The core areas that we examine are important, which allow for a conversation on history, so it’s kind of imbedded in all of this,” he said.
Becknell starts with early African history as the start of human history in which history is examined in the context of oppression and white supremacy, he said.
“When we talk about early African American history we start with the 1400s, the beginning of the journey to America and move on up to the twentieth century while discussing the spirit of resistance, so we look at individuals who resisted colonization and who tried to eliminate enslavement in Africa,” he said.
The areas of African American history that are covered are sociology, religion, politics, also cultural production in the arts, and is really an overview of everything including economics, he said.
“So we look at all of the areas that would encompass a discipline,” Becknell said.
With fall of 2013 being Becknell’s fourth semester teaching the class, he said that enrollment has been strong every semester since he has been instructing the course.
Zachary Shank, Associate Dean of the School of Communication, Humanities and Social Sciences said, because the course is offered as an elective, students may be overlooking the class.
“The course has been taught since 2006 and has had its ups and downs, however, Mr. Becknell has brought stability to the course,” he said.
Shank said that word of mouth and student surveys conducted by the Cultural Studies Department are ways that the school is able to find out what classes peak students interest.
“These are great classes for understanding what it is to be human and for students to experience the voices that aren’t usually heard,” shank said.
Fitness Tech major, Santana Johns said he did not think about taking the class because he was focused on what classes are a part of his degree, also that he believes hip-hop relates to the class very much because artists rap about African American history and heritage.
“Hip-hop is major because it ties into African American culture, so if a student has already taken the Intro to African American studies, they won’t see hip-hop as some commercial product, it would be seen as being tied to a long historical experience of African Americans,” he said.
Becknell said that this is the appropriate course to introduce AA studies because it builds foundation for students to keep on learning.
“There’s room for so much more because when you look at it, you could have one class on black economics, one class on black politics, as well as one class on black cultural production and expression,” he said.
Becknell said that his father was the first Director of Afro-Studies at UNM 20-years-ago.
“I’ve always been immersed in Black studies,” Becknell said.
Becknell is an Albuquerque native and graduate of UNM, who also teaches African American history I and II at UNM.

Veterans Services available at CNM

cnmchronicleLeave a comment

Deborah Cooper, Staff Reporter
The Vet Success on Campus (VSOC) program for the anticipated 1,250 veterans attending CNM this fall is full of multiple support programs, according to Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor Esmerejildo Romero.
Romero is a retired Senior Chief of the U.S. Navy, and during his 27 years of service, he served three tours in the Persian Gulf, but has now settled down to be of service to the veterans at CNM campuses.
“VSOC helps not only those who have served in the military with their transition into higher education, but also helps retired veterans wanting to return to school,” Romero said.
Kimberly Hayes, Computer Information Systems major and United States Coast Guard veteran said she has utilized the housing programs offered by VSOC.
“It took away the uncertainty of not having a place to stay. The combination of the staff and the facility were very helpful and made me more confident in continuing my education,” Hayes said.
With offices on Main campus and Montoya campus, the program gives veterans access to all potential resources, Romero said.
“Connecting veterans to medical and social services at the VA hospital are just part of our services,” Romero said.
The program assists homeless veterans by connecting them to obtain housing through various outlets such as the Young Woman’s Christian Association (YWCA), The Veteran Integration Center (VIC), The Henderson House (homeless shelter for women) and Goodwill, he said. Honorably discharged veterans can get help with their rent and receive assistance concerning housing, he said.
“Peer-to-peer counseling and referral services are also provided to veterans,” Romero said.
VetSuccess counselors help resolve any problems that could potentially interfere with a veteran’s educational program, which includes assisting with disability requirements, he said.
“I still do Disability Transition Assistance, (DTAP) over at the Air Force Base where service men and women are also CNM students,” Romero said.
The new DTAP program, which started about three months ago, is a week long program that includes writing resumes and creating a transition plan to connect service personnel with the civilian community, he said.
According to Romero’s office, the Chapter 31 program is a counseling program that helps veterans in assessing their careers and this program includes active duty members, the National Guard and all other veterans.
“The Chapters programs are from Chapter 30 through 35. There are also Chapters 1606 and 1607, a Fry Scholarship and Vietnam Veterans Scholarship program to help veterans, which are all non-taxable,” he said.
Romero also mentioned the importance of the Veteran’s Club on campus, run by President Gerald Maytea, and said the club is always looking for new members.
“We had a recent meeting and we’re looking for veterans to join this fall as we’re trying to present something for November 11(Veteran’s Day) for veterans and the CNM community,” Romero said.
For more information about VSOC programs or the Veteran’s Club contact Romero at 224-3265, or e-mail him at t-eromero@cnm.edu.

Sports too costly for school

cnmchronicleLeave a comment

By Deborah Cooper, Staff Reporter
The state of New Mexico has two junior colleges that belong to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), but CNM is not one of them. The colleges that do have sports teams are New Mexico Junior College and the New Mexico Military Institute.
Communications and Media Manager, Chris Burroughs said, “there are no sports teams at CNM and there have never been any, even when it was TVI.”
Burroughs who has been in the communications and media office at CNM for the last four months said the reason why there is not a sports program is because sports teams are expensive, and that money would most likely come out of student pockets, she said.
“The money would have to come from somewhere, the students’ fees, and the tuition would have to go up. The whole intent of CNM is to keep tuition low and make it affordable for students in the community to attend,” she said.
Jessica Ortiz, Veterinary sciences major said, “Sports at CNM would be cool but in order to get programs started as well as facilities built would cost a lot of money. This would mean higher tuition costs for everyone.”
Business major Jesse Salazar said, “We have a mascot, where’s the teams? They developed a mascot at the request of the students.”
Salazar said people at the school just wanted something to rally around when it comes to having a mascot.
“It really had nothing to do with sports. Even grade schools and middle schools have mascots,” Salazar said.
Burroughs said that she recently had a conversation with the president of UNM, Bob Frank that explained about the high costs of running athletic programs.
“He was talking about the high costs of running athletic programs and the high cost of paying the football coach. He’d recently gone to a meeting with other college presidents and they were all talking about the same thing,” she said.
Burroughs who is from Canton Oh., the home of the “Football Hall of Fame,” has also worked at UNM for 8 years in Public Relations and has been a New Mexico resident since 1984, she said.
Burroughs said she is also aware of the positive side in having sports teams at a college.
“Sports are really important as they build up community and spirit. It helps in fundraising and helps in recruiting really good students, but that’s for research institutions. Community colleges typically don’t have athletic programs, some have intramural sports,” she said.
According to the National Junior College Athletic Association, benefits for a college and students while being members could consist of being accredited by the appropriate state and/or regional accrediting agency, and there could also be opportunities for student-athletes to participate in structured conferences, Regional tournaments and National Championships which provide increased exposure and publicity.
Burroughs agrees that sports are important, but she said, “The goal is to keep costs down.”
There is a really good survival rate of 2-year schools without sports that just focus on academics, but more than likely CNM will never have sports teams because the whole goal is to keep costs low, Burroughs said.

Math: what is it good for? Students ponder why math classes are needed

cnmchronicleLeave a comment

By Deborah Cooper, Staff Reporter

Having to take college mathematics can be challenging for some students, and many do not know about what resources are available to help them better succeed in math classes at Main campus.
Linda Martin, Associate Dean of Math, Science and Engineering said personal finances can affect choices in terms of political decisions such as voting in elections, as well as medical decisions, because percentages and probabilities can come into play.
“Beyond basic math there’s some more advanced mathematics that run into your everyday life. Just in terms of working with percentages and working with probabilities has some pretty complicated concepts behind them and you face that stuff every day in stores and in dealing with loans,” she said.
Developing aptitude with numbers takes time, and students’ progress into learning variables, number and graphs and the ability to analyze numbers seen out in the world, she said.
“As humans we measure things, there’s numbers everywhere and so as you develop that facility, you develop the ability to make predictions and to do analysis, of what’s going on. You see trends and you’re able to make predictions that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to make,” she said.
Martin said that what degree one is getting is what really matter into how high one needs to go in math courses.
“If you’re looking for an Associate Degree in something not math related, it’s probably just math 1210 or above. Then you have all the choices that you want. If you’re going to an algebra based degree, you would have to take an algebra class. Whether it’s an Associate‘s or Bachelor‘s degree will determine how high on the level you need to take,” she said.
As far as Martin knows all Associates Degrees require some college mathematics, and that there is no opting out of required math courses for students, but that there is different types of math classes students can try, she said.
“So we have algebra classes and people who like to follow set processes and like a lot of structure, do very well in algebra even if they think they don’t, a lot of times, they do. People who are freer and like to think outside the box, we have problem solving, the math 1210 and that satisfies the requirement for most degrees at CNM even though it does not include much algebra,” she said.
Here expectations of students coming to a 1210 class when she was teacher, is to have passed the pre-requisite 930 math class and to have grasped the concepts in those courses, she said.
“I assume the students are proficient with basic operations, addition, multiplication, division and fractions. I assume they have used percents before and that they’ve solved linear equations , done some really basic algebra,” she said.
If students hope to move onto a four-year college for a bachelor’s degree people will have to take college Algebra, she said.
“If you’re an algebra enthusiast, then we have statistics which is really an applicable class. It doesn’t involve much algebra, but there are some formulas you use. You run into statistics in your everyday life all the time and it gives you the tools to understand the statistics you see,” she said.
Martin said that there is also the 1320-survey of math class that is the artistic side of mathematics and playing with ideas.
Ms. Martin offered knowledge of many resources for the challenges of Math such as pulling up lectures on line, tutors, and for additional practice problems by getting amazing software that gives hints and links to lectures of the books author. There are so many different options of how to learn in the best way.
Math tutoring services are available at the main campus in the SRC room 203 Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., Fridays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“It seems like a lot of people who are afraid of it think that they can’t learn it and it is something that doesn’t make sense and they just have to memorize. In my mind, math makes sense. Nothing is going to be done in the math class that you cannot make sense of and every student here has the ability to understand what’s going on in their math class. So if they’re hitting that frustration that there is so many crazy rules that they’re memorizing, then they might want to step back and realize that they’ve got the ability to understand and figure out,” Martin said.