Mike Westervelt, ASUNM vice president, is planning to pass legislation to provide more lighting on campus to make sure a repeat of Monday’s student attack doesn’t happen again.
“I don’t want there to be any more dark places where this kind of thing can happen,” Westervelt said. “I’m going to push really hard to get (something) similar to what the Johnson lights are, but all over campus — light the campus up to make it look like it is daytime even in nighttime.”
Westervelt said his advocacy of improved lighting resulted directly from the Monday night stabbing of a UNM student and employee. He said he helped the victim until paramedics arrived.
“We just want to be safe,” he said. “I think that’s what we all want at UNM. I didn’t realize how unsafe our campus can be before this.”
Zoila Alvarez, an ASUNM senator, said she will draft a resolution asking administration to increase bike patrols, install better lighting and put up more emergency phones.
“I hate walking at night on campus as a girl,” Alvarez said. “It’s sad that it takes an event like this to shine light on the safety issue.”
She said ASUNM may also organize a self-defense workshop open to all UNM students.
Westervelt said students shouldn’t be frightened indoors or outside of night classes. He said this incident can be an opportunity to demand better campus security.
“I think it’s important for students to be — instead of afraid — to be proactive,” he said. “Demand that there are lights everywhere. Demand foot patrols by UNMPD. Only us as students can really affect that kind of change.”
Westervelt said he went to UNMH on Tuesday to see the victim, but she is not yet allowing any visitors. He said he spoke with some of her family members briefly.
“They said she’s going to be OK physically, so that’s good,” he said.
He said that after the victim laid on the floor in the music appreciation classroom, she requested that a student call one of her friends.
He said a student dialed the number for her and held the phone up to her ear so she could tell the friend what happened to her and where she was located.
Westervelt said the victim mentioned she was on her cell phone outside the anthropology building when the attack happened.
“I think she was as calm as she could be,” he said. “We told her to continue to breathe slowly.”
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The entire class — 88 people, according to LoboWeb — came to the victim’s aid.
“Everybody jumped up,” he said. “Everybody in that class deserves a hero’s award.”
