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Morning Word
NM college enrollment increases
For the first time in more than a decade, enrollment in New Mexico colleges has increased, according to the state Higher Education Department. Approximately 4,000 more New Mexicans enrolled in a certificate, associate or bachelor’s degree program at the state’s public colleges and universities this fall compared to the prior year, a 4.1% increase statewide, marking the first growth in New Mexico’s college participation since 2010, HED says. The number of first-time, full-time students also increased by more than 9%. Those stats, from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, show New Mexico bucking a national trend of falling enrollment. New Mexico Higher Education Department Secretary Stephanie M. Rodriguez attributed the state’s gains to its Opportunity Scholarship: “With continued funding for the Opportunity and Lottery Scholarships and ongoing investments in support programs that serve our diverse student population, we can ensure that more students are on a path toward graduation and are moving toward success which will benefit New Mexico today and for generations,” Rodriguez said in a statement. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the Opportunity Scholarship Act into law last March, with $75 million to expand tuition-free college. According to the higher education department, more than 45,000 opportunity scholarships have been awarded to date, and agency is requesting $100 million for the program next year. “Every time I am out and meeting with students, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, we’re hearing that their nieces, nephews, children, grandchildren, are going to college or staying in New Mexico because tuition-free college exists here,” Rodriguez told the Albuquerque Journal. “We’re feeling very confident that this is a trend that’s going to be going in a positive direction for a while.”
Flu season has arrived
The state health department yesterday reported New Mexico’s first flu cases for the season. Nationally, health officials say flu cases are higher than normal for this time of year, and a potential “tripledemic” may emerge between flu, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) and COVID-19. “A triple threat of respiratory illnesses this year is very concerning because all are very contagious,” Acting Health Secretary Dr. David Scrase said in a statement. The rise in RSV, he noted, has been particularly acute among infants. “It is more important than ever that New Mexicans get their annual flu shot and are up-to-date with their COVID-19 boosters,” he said. Those shots “won’t guarantee that you won’t get sick,” Deputy Secretary Dr. Laura Parajón added in a statement, “but the shots can reduce the severity of symptoms and increase chances of keeping people out of the hospital.” More information about flu and flu shots is available here, including locations of public health offices where they are available. The department recommends flu shots for several groups of people, including: children younger than 5, but especially children younger than 2 years old; pregnant women (all trimesters), and up to two weeks post-partum; people ages 65 years and older; Native Americans; and anyone who is immunocompromised or has a medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, lung or heart disease.
Nutcrackers
New Mexico State University scientists will be leading a multi-state effort to “breed climate-adapted pecan trees.” The effort comes in response to increased incidence of “vivipary,” a disease that causes pecans to ripen prematurely on trees, becoming inedible and, thus, unsaleable. “Pecan has a native region that spans from Oaxaca, Mexico, to Illinois, which is a huge geographical range with many different climates,” project lead Jennifer Randall, an NMSU plant molecular biologist and plant pathologist, said in a statement. “Our goal is to have trees that are best-suited for their regional areas and figure out not just what would be great to grow in specific areas today, but 50 years from now under climate change.” The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (part of the US Department of Agriculture) recently provided Randall with eight years of funding for the project, beginning with $3.9 million for the first two years. She says the group has set up research plots in New Mexico, Arizona, California, Texas, Oklahoma and other areas. “Part of the strength of this grant is that we’re trying to look at pecan trees in a lot of different pecan regions, not just New Mexico,” Randall said in a statement. “We will help our New Mexico growers, but the main goal is to help pecan growers across the United States.”
COVID-19 by the numbers
Reported Nov. 1: New cases: 496; 628,725 total cases; Deaths: two; Santa Fe County has had 359 total deaths; there have been 8,645 fatalities statewide. Statewide hospitalizations: 133. Patients on ventilators: one. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent Oct. 27 “community levels” map, which uses a combination of hospital and case rate metrics to calculate COVID-19 risk for the prior seven-day period, nine New Mexico counties are now “yellow,” aka have medium risk levels (two more than last week): Bernalillo, Sandoval, Valencia, Torrance, Socorro, Cibola, Grant, De Baca and San Juan. The rest of New Mexico’s counties continue to have green, aka low, levels. Corresponding recommendations for each level can be found here.
Resources: CDC interactive booster eligibility tool; NM DOH vaccine & booster registration; CDC isolation and exposure interactive tool; Curative testing sites; COVID-19 treatment info; NMDOH immunocompromised tool kit. People seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider can call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Listen up
This coming weekend, Santa Fe flamenco troupe Companía Chuscales y Mina Fajardo will join with Teatro Paraguas to present live performances of Memories of Doña Tules, a tribute in dance, poetry and music to “one of Santa Fe’s most notorious and influential women of the 19th century,” Doña Maria Gertrudis Barceló, aka Doña Tules. On a recent episode of the Cline’s Corner podcast, host Lynn Cline interviews New Mexico Deputy State Historian and flamenco singer Nicolasa Chavez about the show, in which she will both be singing and narrating.
Short listed
Two of the eight “best eco-friendly vacations you can take in the US” can be found in New Mexico, according to a recent story on the Best Life website. They include the Ted Turner Reserves, which sustainable travel advisor Rose O’Connor describes as “one of the most special experiences in the US” and “a living testament to Ted’s decades-long commitment to rewilding and ecosystem restoration.” The story also includes the Greater World Earthship Community in Taos where, Travel Lemming Editor Abigail Nueve says, “residents welcome tourists, excited to share the creative and colorful innovations by architect Michael Reynolds.” As for Taos, Fodors just included it on its list of 25 places to visit “during your lifetime” (at #6), and the Trips to Discover travel website also placed Taos on its recent list of the “20 most beautiful small towns to visit in the US.” Last, but not least: The Travel rounds up the 10 best bathhouses in the US, including Ten Thousand Waves in Santa Fe, which it describes (aptly) as a “pocket of paradise.”
Our neck of the woods
Speaking of eco-travel, Booking.com has a special deal that goes live today at 10 am MST: a two-night stay at the Smokey Bear Ranger District House. Located in the Lincoln Nation Forest in New Mexico, where the iconic Smokey the Bear campaign began (“Only you can prevent forest fires”), the home includes a plethora of Smokey Bear decor and memorabilia; furnishings from local artisans and small businesses; plus a variety of smart home technologies and appliances, as well as home energy and water conservation. According to a news release, the booking is tied to the one-year anniversary of Booking.com’s Travel Sustainable Badge. The stay will cost $19.50, in honor of the year the actual Smokey Bear was rescued from a forest fire, and will include a variety of activities, including a bike tour through Lincoln National Forest; a session with a local woodworker using recycled and reclaimed wood from the forest; private cooking lessons with a local chef using “locally and ethically sourced ingredients and organic fresh produce to create a farm-to-table vegan meal”; and “a meet-and-greet with Smokey Bear himself.” The opportunity likely won’t come again. Following the weekend, Booking.com says it is donating the house to the Smokey Bear Ranger District “to provide supplemental housing for park rangers and firefighters who dedicate their life’s work to protecting the environment and local communities.” You can read more about the home in this Forbes story.
Fair weather, friends
The National Weather Service forecasts another (mostly) sunny day ahead, with a high temperature near 59 degrees and southeast wind 5 to 15 mph becoming southwest in the morning. A chance for rain and/or snow returns tomorrow.
Thanks for reading! The Word found the short (13 1/2 minutes) award-winning documentary “Nuisance Bear” riveting (yes, it’s about a polar bear; here’s some back story).
