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New Mexico drought hinders agriculture industry

  As increased greenhouse gases force warming and greater atmospheric retention of water in arid New Mexico, severe droughts follow. Farmers along the Rio Grande have felt the implications of less water and largely criticize regional laws and decisions that regulate state water usage for limiting access to irrigation. The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District board, which manages the water through dams, voted on Aug. 20 to curtail irrigation along the Rio Grande on Oct. 1. This was enacted even though the law honors Native American pueblo water rights and protects them from the shut-off, according to John Fleck, professor and director of the UNM Water Resources Program.

UNM football to face tough season after start in September

  UNM football will begin their 2021-22 season on Thursday, Sept. 4 against Houston Baptist University, an NCAA Division I Football Championship subdivision opponent, at University Stadium. It comes after a tough 2020 campaign, which saw the Lobos go 2-5 during a season that was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but also saw the team end the program's 14-game losing streak. Houston Baptist, who went 1-3 last season and averaged 33.75 points per game, will give UNM football a tough first game. Moving forward, things won’t get any easier.  

LETTER: UNM faculty ask admin to bargain with grad worker union

  On Aug. 17 the New Mexico Public Education Labor Relations Board ruled that graduate employees are public employees and eligible to collectively bargain under the state's Public Employee Bargaining Act. The University of New Mexico community will be rallying Sept. 3rd at 11 a.m. between the Student Union Building and Mesa Vista calling on the UNM Administration to respect this ruling and begin negotiations as swiftly as possible. We, the undersigned faculty, ask the UNM administration to recognize and collectively bargain with the graduate employee union — the United Graduate Workers of UNM (UGW). An overwhelming majority of graduate workers legally authorized UGW to represent them last fall, yet the UNM administration has yet to come to the bargaining table. 

August 30, 2021 Comics

LETTER: To fight climate change, we must rely on ourselves first

  It's time to be that guy again: with all the problems we're facing in the world in 2021, climate change is still the worst of them. From the wildfires ravaging the Pacific Northwest in late summer 2020 to the winter 2021 Texas deep freeze that left millions without power, climate disaster is accelerating. If you accept climate science and statistics (many unfortunately do not), climate change indeed remains the single biggest issue of our time. Without a functional planet, we can't effectively take on the other most important causes, like containing the COVID-19 pandemic or bridging the gaps in economic and social inequalities. That all falls flat if we don't have a functional planet to wage our most important battles on.

Resident physicians continue to bargain with UNM for better benefits

  Bargaining for fair work conditions is ongoing between the Committee of Interns and Residents and the University of New Mexico. This union, representing all intern and resident physicians who work for UNM, is entering its third month of contract negotiations with the University. CIR is an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union and has had a collective bargaining agreement with the University since 2007. These contract negotiations take place every three years to determine agreements on working conditions, including stipulations on salaries, benefits, supplies and more. The current agreement, which began on August 1, 2019, will expire on Aug. 31 this year.

Multi-million dollar training center to be built for UNM student-athletes

  The University of New Mexico’s Board of Regents recently approved the New Mexico Mutual Champions Training Center, a $4.3 million project for student-athletes, on Aug. 19. This extensive training center will be exclusively for student-athlete use, replacing the tent that teams currently train in that stands as a Title IX deficiency. The construction of this center is important in fulfilling a Title IX requirement that the University currently fails to meet, which is that more women than men are training in the 7,200-net-square-foot outdoor tent rather than in climate-controlled indoor facilities, according to UNM athletics director Eddie Nuñez. 

UNM volleyball team to face trials at Titan Classic

  The University of New Mexico’s women’s volleyball team will begin their season in Fullerton, California this weekend at the Titan Classic, where they will face Fordham University and California State University, Fullerton on Friday, Aug. 27, and the University of California, Riverside on Saturday, Aug. 28. All four teams participating in this year’s Titan Classic could be judged in the low-to-mid-tier skill rankings based on preseason polls and past performance. This is to be expected for a UNM team that finished 4-10 last season and is predicted to finish next to last in the Mountain West preseason coach’s poll. 

OPINION: New “Witcher” movie adds depth, beauty to established universe

  As an avid fan of the hit Netflix series “The Witcher,” I was devastated when I originally burned through the eight, hour-long episodes very quickly. However, Aug. 23 brought some new content with the release of “The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf,” an animated movie independent from the first series that’s actually worth watching. My initial excitement about this new series was short-lived when I learned the characters would be unfamiliar and the plot would be completely unrelated to that of “The Witcher.” However, I soon came to realize that while the stories may be different, the world that both productions share was greatly benefited by this new animated film. 

UNM’s Laura Crossey promoted to distinguished professor

  University of New Mexico Professor Laura Crossey’s interest in planetary sciences dates back to her childhood memory of watching the first steps on the moon on her grandmother’s black-and-white TV in Illinois. Now, she has over 150 peer-reviewed publications and is a distinguished professor — the highest-ranking title faculty can have — of the Earth and Planetary Sciences department at UNM. Crossey is a pioneer for women in geosciences, as she was the second woman hired on the EPS faculty in 1985 and was the first woman tenured in the department. She also served as the first female chair of the department from 2013-2016.

5 and Why: 5 exciting things about starting college

  New UNM student Alison Harper was on her way to the First-Year Convocation ceremony when she agreed to give an idea of what her thoughts were about coming to college for the first time to Daily Lobo readers. This is Harper's top-five list of what she’s most looking forward to about college. Studying what she’s passionate about Oftentimes, high school limits the freedom of personalized academic pursuit in the interest of a more rounded degree overall. Because of this, high schoolers often don’t have more than a couple of electives each year; Harper is looking forward to that changing in college. 

Sea of cherry and silver

OPINION: 5 back-to-school hacks for students

 With school starting up and stress looming, it can seem pretty nerve-wracking to come to campus, either for the first time ever or for the first time in a year and a half. Having personally experienced college before and during the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic, I feel like a more-than-competent student; while I don’t have all the answers, I’ve compiled a list of general tips that every student can utilize. 

OPINION: My traumatic experience as a breakthrough COVID-19 case

I write as a student journalist that has covered the COVID-19 pandemic since it started. I write as an aspiring musician who has been playing the flute for half of my life. I write as a heartbroken person who feels isolated emotionally and physically as I get over my experience with COVID-19. And I write for all the people lost due to the recklessness of others. I did everything right: I’m fully vaccinated, I’ve been adhering to mask mandates and social distancing, and I’ve been putting my life on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic. But I still got the virus.

Board of Regents special meeting passes plethora of approvals

The University of New Mexico’s Board of Regents had an exceptionally long list of action items and passed nearly everything in a virutal meeting that lasted over three hours on Aug. 19. The only item that didn’t pass was the sale of the Student Family Housing property to the Central New Mexico Community College. 

UNM grad workers' right to unionize approved

After the fight to unionize has been ongoing for over a year, the United Graduate Workers of the University of New Mexico received a win as graduate students were labeled as public and regular employees by New Mexico’s Public Employee Labor Relation Board (PELRB) on Aug. 17. This label, as specified by the Public Employee Bargaining Act (PEBA), gives the graduate workers the right to form a union. The board will meet again in the future to define what the workers’ bargaining units will be. 

UNM’s Welcome Back Events underway before school starts

  On Sunday, students at the University of New Mexico will have the opportunity to get used to campus life again at the University’s Welcome Back Events. Before school starts on Monday, students can partake in Discover UNM, First-Year Family Day (exclusive to first-year students), Class Crawl and Movie on the Field. The Discover UNM event will kick off the day from 1-3 p.m., in which various departments and organizations will be located in the Student Union Building ballroom to talk about opportunities and resources on campus. “One of the greatest benefits to being a Lobo is the access to resources and organizations that support their intellectual, social and personal interests and well-being,” University secretary Nancy Middlebrook wrote to the Daily Lobo. 

OPINION: “Twilight” takeaways as an adult

  This review contains spoilers for the “Twilight” series Take any movie saga from the early 2010s and you’re bound to get an iconic era fueled by quirky traits like side braids, archery classes and running around aimlessly in the woods. Possibly the most influential of the fictional series phase we all experienced around the 2010s was “The Twilight Saga.” While I never got into the books or movies at the time, the films’ recent arrival on Netflix inspired me to finally see what the hype was about. I can completely understand loving “Twilight” as a kid, but here are some of my thoughts as a first-time adult viewer. 

New Mexico reinstates indoor mask policy following COVID spike

  On Tuesday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that the state will reimplement an indoor mask policy, effective Friday, Aug. 20 until at least Sept. 15, due to an increasing number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. This policy, which may be extended or lifted by the governor if necessary, is required of individuals age 2 and up regardless of vaccination status.  “We know that the pandemic is not over and that we’re in a pivotal moment in the state,” Lujan Grisham said at a COVID-19 update livestream on Tuesday. Lujan Grisham also said the state is enforcing “mandatory vaccines in the places where they make the most sense.” 

August 16, 2021 Comics