Editor,
The University of New Mexico has established guidelines to deal with hate and bias acts. These guidelines were established to reflect our belief that everyone has worth and dignity and that any act of hatred or bias will not be tolerated on our campus. Responses that have appeared in the comment section of the online Daily Lobo lately are cause for all of us to be reminded of the principles of respect that we hold dear as a University community that honors its diversity.
We are aware that trolling often occurs in the use of electronic media and we do not know if the individual that posted the comments is from our University community. Nonetheless, it is imperative for us to respond to any act that targets individuals on our campus. We apologize to members of the African-American community and all others who were offended.
We will work closely with individuals within the University to ensure that we address this issue immediately and appropriately. While we cannot totally prevent the irresponsible and hurtful behavior of others, we will take steps to strengthen our processes and community so that we minimize the frequency of these events in the future.
David J. Schmidly
UNM President
Jozi De Leon
Vice president for Equity and Inclusion
