Multimedia

Students call for firing of UNMPD officer over racist TikTok video

Update: UNMPD officer Eric Peer has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the University’s investigation but no final decision has been made, according to University communications officer Cinnamon Blair. Meanwhile, a petition calling for Peer to be fired has gained more than 100 signatures since being created Friday morning. In a now-deleted TikTok video, University of New Mexico Police Department officer Eric Peer recorded a man tiling a floor with a voiceover of Cartman from South Park saying “scanning for Mexicans” edited in. The video circulated on Twitter Thursday night, with some students calling for Peer to be fired. “I think the cop absolutely needs to be fired. There’s no justification to keep him on whatsoever,” Associated Students of the University of New Mexico President Pro Tempore Suha Musa told the Daily Lobo.

Activism and poetry inspires truth at UNM

Poetry and pressing conversations about social justice typically go hand-in-hand, and “Dare To Speak” confirms just this. Carlos Andrés Gómez and Katie Kramer spoke to University of New Mexico students on Sept. 1 about activism through poetry through the Student Activities Center. I recently found myself reminiscing about on-campus events that wouldn’t happen this semester, prompting me to click on UNM’s Aug. 31 newsletter, “This Week at UNM.” I scrolled until I saw an activist poetry event and, thrilled to see the efforts to spark meaningful conversations among students, I immediately signed up. Kramer and Gómez are collaborators who perform poetry together at various schools and companies in order to promote inclusivity in professional settings.

Black Student Union condemns Brian Urlacher post on Jacob Blake shooting

On Aug. 27, perhaps the most famous football player ever to wear the cherry and silver uniform of the University of New Mexico posted an incendiary screed on Instagram denigrating NBA players’ brief strike of playoff games in protest of police brutality and structural racism. The players’ boycott was in response to the police shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Aug. 23. Blake is paralyzed from the waist down, according to his lawyer, and remains hospitalized as of the publication of this article. UNM’s Black Student Union (BSU) followed with a strongly worded statement, released on social media on Sept. 2, rebuking what they said was Urlacher’s “horrific” interpretation of the events leading up to the near-fatal police shooting of Blake.

Albuquerque movie theaters yet another pandemic casualty

The movie theater industry has been slammed by the coronavirus pandemic on both national and local levels and has seen its enterprise on movie releases shrink. Theaters that financially survive the pandemic are considered the lucky ones. In Albuquerque, permanent closures include both Movies 8 and Movies West theaters of the Cinemark chain, leaving the city without any “one dollar theaters.” While major theater chains struggle, local theaters face similar, if not more dire, financial consequences. Keif Henly, owner of the Guild Cinema in Nob Hill, said revenue is extremely down due to COVID-19 but the online streaming service the cinema has used has helped with lost revenues. 

Aug 31, 2020 Comics

Fine arts students face unique challenges, new perspectives with distance learning

  Methods of learning and practice have changed radically for University of New Mexico fine arts students because of distancing procedures amid the coronavirus pandemic in the fall 2020 semester. As a plethora of courses are now being held primarily or solely online, students in hands-on art studies have voiced a number of concerns with the quality and value of their current education. Photography major Elizabeth Wilkinson said distanced learning affects not only the production of her art, but the nature of her creativity.  "When I'm around other people, I get most of my inspiration and most of my motivation, so not having those people around has been a huge burden on my work," Wilkinson said. 

Medical examiner says no CTE in Flowers autopsy

Editor’s note: This article contains discussion of suicide. If you’re feeling suicidal, you are not alone. Please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or UNM’s Student Health and Counseling at 505-277-3136. On Aug. 25, famed attorney Ben Crump announced a wrongful death lawsuit regarding the November 2019 death of former University of New Mexico football player Nahje Flowers. The suit alleges that Flowers suffered from untreated and/or undiagnosed chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) — a neurological disorder common in athletes who participate in contact sports such as boxing or football — due to repeated head trauma during the course of play in his capacity as a defensive lineman for the Lobos.

As mass eviction prospect looms, Albuquerque protest calls for rent, mortgage cancellation

DOWNTOWN — As the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage across the nation, the United States is staring down the barrel of another crisis: a wave of evictions and foreclosures. Almost half of New Mexicans have experienced a loss of employment income since the pandemic began, according to Census Bureau ...

SHAC attempts to assuage student anxiety with new ‘HonesTea with SHAC HP’ podcast

  Student Health and Counseling (SHAC) at the University of New Mexico recently released “HonesTea with SHAC HP,” a new podcast that reassures students that they are not alone in their struggles and anxieties when facing this most unusual school year amidst a pandemic. In the “Welcome Back Lobos” episode, SHAC student-employees Tiffany Martinez, Chris Naranjo and Leah Adent host the podcast (available on Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon) and discuss their thoughts and worries about the fall semester in a casual and relatable format. Martinez poses several questions to her fellow hosts about their feelings on returning to a campus absent of the educational and social opportunities many students have relied on to get through the stress that comes with school and work.

‘Fallout’: New book sobering reminder of nuclear devastation 75 years after entering atomic age

Editor’s note: This book review contains graphic depictions of violence. New Mexicans are perhaps more acutely aware of U.S. nuclear capabilities and the bomb, “Little Boy,” dropped on Hiroshima, since its predecessors were developed and tested in our own backyard. However, most people alive today will not remember the immediate aftereffects of the outsized attack on Japanese citizens that capped off the second world war. Modern awareness of the atomic bomb and the events of WWII are mostly relegated to fictionalized accounts contained in films such as “Pearl Harbor” and “Schindler’s List.” The events surrounding WWII have long since become a cultural legend, and first-person memories of these events no longer exist. We’ve simply forgotten the horrors of global war — until now.

Black Student Alliance focuses on campus diversity, inclusion amid BLM momentum

The Black Student Alliance (BSA) at the University of New Mexico is focused more than ever on the necessity of diversity at UNM. The organization has already gotten to work alongside the start of a largely online fall semester amid the coronavirus pandemic. The BSA is open to all Black students but mainly consists of leadership from other African American student organizations on campus. Its mission is to tackle oppressive issues that affect all of UNM, according to member Ricardo Hill. This semester, the BSA is focusing on what ASUNM can do for the student body to implement inclusive legislation before they move on to working at a larger scale, like taking issues directly to the University. They are also focused on emphasizing the importance of showcasing diversity at UNM by hiring more Black faculty, and restructuring the way UNM markets to new students to include diversity in recruitment.

UNM professors share the highs and lows of online instruction

  Life goes on as students and faculty adjust to the University of New Mexico’s hybrid semester, performing small group discussions in Zoom breakout rooms and submitting assignments from the comfort of their own bedrooms. While technological issues and network timeouts may plague students’ academic experience, on the other end of the screen, professors are also having their fair share of remote learning-based woes. Professors were given a few weeks to tailor curriculum to a virtual format last March, when the University officially shut down in response to COVID-19 cases reaching New Mexico. Instructors utilized the following summer months as an opportunity to finesse online instruction for the upcoming semester.

COVID-19 campus testing available as UNM gears up for outbreaks

As student newspapers across the nation push back on administrators and media accounts that are framing party-going students as responsible parties for university COVID-19 clusters and outbreaks, the University of New Mexico’s Student Health and Counseling (SHAC) is busy gearing up its diagnostic testing capacity. UNM opened up a mobile testing site in UNM’s C Lot — located at the corner of Las Lomas Road and Redondo Drive – earlier this week. With the prospect of imminent outbreaks and clusters like those seen at universities across the country, UNM is putting plans in place to stem a potential tide of cases that could arise from continuing in-person classes.

‘Big Lebowski’ screening really ties the room together at Fusion Forum

As New Mexico nears its sixth month of lockdown, many residents are eager to get out of their homes and experience what the city has to offer without compromising the health and well-being of others. Local performing arts theatre company Fusion Forum has made this possible with outdoor film and movie screenings. Fusion showed the Joel and Ethan Coen classic “The Big Lebowski” on the evening of Aug. 23 and plans to continue the trend by showing the pilot episode — as well as the final episode of “Breaking Bad” — on Aug. 29 at 7:55 p.m.

Pandemic continues to wreak havoc on vibrancy of Albuquerque arts scene

New Mexico is rich in culture, but the coronavirus pandemic has put that to the test by transferring the Albuquerque art scene to an online environment. “We’ve all experienced such a dramatic shift in our daily lives. Everything about how we interact and how we plan and how we move through space and our ability to travel — it’s all changed so much, so quickly,” Diana Gaston, the director of the University of New Mexico’s Tamarind Institute, said. “In the arts community, I think we’re still grappling with some of those changes.”

Pick-your-own small farm operation gains popularity as pandemic wears on

For the past few weeks, people from all over the Albuquerque metropolitan region have been flocking to Heidi’s Raspberry Farm in Corrales early on Saturday mornings to pick pints of tart, delicate raspberries. Pick-your-own (PYO) or you-pick operations like Heidi’s have been allowing people to head to the fields to harvest their own produce across the state. Unlike many other retail businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t put their operation on hold.

Prominent civil rights attorney files wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Nahje Flowers’ estate

On Tuesday, famed attorney Ben Crump announced a wrongful death lawsuit regarding the November 2019 death of former University of New Mexico football player Nahje Flowers. Crump’s firm has represented such high profile cases as Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and the children from the Flint water crisis. The defendants are the NCAA, former head football coach Bob Davie and the UNM Board of Regents. The complaint alleges that the defendants were negligent in the case of Flowers’ suicide and that the NCAA was negligent in cases of other premature deaths of student athletes under their supervision.

International students face daunting financial, legal woes amid Student Family Housing shutdown

International students are facing a difficult financial situation with the looming shutdown of the University of New Mexico’s Student Family Housing (SFH) in May 2021. According to international student and SFH resident Sherry Shafique, students within the complex were informed through a newsletter in June that UNM couldn’t afford the repairs that SFH needed. A majority of the tenants at SFH are graduate and international students, according to Shafique. International students face unique circumstances with the oft-maligned complex being shut down, forcing them to find another suitable place to live with their families. Most of these issues revolve around financial hardships and having to abide by different laws than students who are from the United States, such as language barriers and academic or visa requirements.

Sigma Gamma Rho sorority recharters

Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., a historically Black Greek-lettered sorority, was rechartered at the University of New Mexico on March 28. The non-profit organization was founded by seven schoolteachers during the perilous thickets of segregation on Nov. 12, 1922 at Butler University in Indiana. According to the sorority’s official website, "Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority's aim is to enhance the quality of life within the community. Public service, leadership development and education of youth are the hallmark of the organization's programs and activities. Sigma Gamma Rho addresses concerns that impact society educationally, civically and economically."

LETTER: Complete your 2020 census for our Lobo community

Lobos: We urgently need your help! It’s not too late to be counted! The deadline to fill out the census is rapidly approaching (Sept. 30, 2020), and New Mexico is in danger of losing critical federal dollars. If our state loses federal funds, our University of New Mexico community loses federal funds as well. So, what is the census, you might ask? The census is the once in a decade opportunity for us to re-shape our communities. A simple, 10-question questionnaire determines how more than $800 billion in federal funds get distributed across our country. In New Mexico alone, the 2020 census will determine how more than $7 billion per year gets distributed to our state. As students and members of the Lobo community, the census impacts us directly, as it determines how much funding is in: • Medicaid • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) • Federal student loans • Pell Grants • Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) • Many more programs that we and our families use