Editor,
Sharon Warner's resignation is a stunning blow not just to the English Department but the entire University.
As a former Daily Lobo editor, a graduate of the creative writing program and current MFA student at Sarah Lawrence College, this news disturbs me immensely.
Warner built the creative writing program into a phenomenal force over the past decade. As Lisa Chavez's student, it's even more disturbing to see my former mentor leveling threats of legal action against Warner, who was instrumental in Chavez's hiring in the first place, owing to Warner's insistence on rightfully disciplining Chavez for her role in the photographs.
While the question of ethics can be lobbed back and forth about posing in sexual pictures with former students, it's still sketchy. Engaging in this act with a current student is no longer a subjective argument.
Whether consensual or not, no professor should ever engage in any sexual acts with a student, and this includes posing in sadomasochistic photos with them.
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The power in any such situation belongs entirely to the professor, and this is the reason we have sexual harassment laws in the first place.
What Chavez did was wrong, unethical and, above all, illegal. It alarms me that a professor would engage in such behavior with a student, especially my former professor. It alarms me even more that Warner was coerced into resigning for doing the right thing.
I have nothing but utmost respect for Warner. She has proven to me consistently over the years that she is one of the most dedicated and competent faculty members at UNM.
She was a member of the Publications Board while I was editor of Conceptions Southwest and helped in my selection as editor of the Daily Lobo. She supported me in my extracurricular and academic activities, as she has done with countless other students. Her resignation is a blight upon this institution.
This incident brings a few questions to mind. Why was Chavez not properly punished for what amounts to repeated acts of sexual harassment?
Would it be brushed off if a white male professor posed in sadomasochistic pictures with his current students? Is this situation different because Chavez is a woman? Since I'm Latina, I'm going to throw this hardball out there: Is it because she's a Hispanic woman?
The English Department should know it will be judged owing to this incident. Think long and hard how this will play out and how UNM will look to the rest of academia.
Students from elite colleges and universities Warner actively helped recruit will think about this first. They may decide to go elsewhere, and all of Warner's hard work will unravel. Ask yourselves, Richard Holder and company: Is this what UNM represents?
I want to convey my heartfelt regret that Warner had to leave this way. She is an amazing person, a brilliant creative writing director and is in the right.
I wish her all the best. I know she will continue to do well professionally and be all the stronger in the face of this incident.
Angela Maria Williams
UNM alumna
