Once the student is engaged in research, that is, once the student has passed the comprehensive examination, the student is expected to give a colloquium once a year until graduation. These colloquia are intended to help the student assess the state of his/her research to date, organize knowledge and results, and also to give the student practice with presentations and to give the graduate student population and the faculty an opportunity to find out about the student's research.
Take a look at the colloquia page: some of the presenters are UNM PhD candidates.