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Sports

Soccer: NM United and OKC Energy FC play to a 1-1 draw in Pride on the Pitch match

Robert Maler | June 5

New Mexico United remained undefeated at home, running its record on the season to 6-1-7 overall after playing OKC Energy FC to a 1-1 draw on Wednesday evening in its "Pride on the Pitch" match at Isotopes Park. The team announced an attendance of 13,574 for the mid-week fixture as fans filed into the stadium to venue to celebrate . Prior to the match, it was announced that the first 5,000 fans would receive a limited-edition New Mexico United rainbow flag.

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Sports

Soccer: NM United collects win over Switchbacks; earns date with MLS squad

Alanie Rael | June 4

The excitement around New Mexico United soccer continued last Wednesday as United took on the Colorado Springs Switchbacks in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.  In the first half of the match, the game appeared to be uneventful as hopeful attempts from both teams were blocked and recovered by the dedicated goal keepers. At the end of the first, there were no goals scored.  Things began to pick up at the beginning of the second half. After an assist from Jordan Schweitzer, The Switchbacks scored the first goal of the night from Colorado Springs captain, Jordan Burt. 

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News

Local program works to help refugees resettle

Bella Davis | June 3

As they waited and waited at a bus stop on a Sunday five years ago, Mohammed Alkwaz and his sister didn’t understand why the bus was taking so long to arrive. A woman passing by told them the bus didn’t run on Sundays. Unable to get ahold of the few local contacts they had and with no other way to get home, they walked to a nearby motel and asked the receptionist to call them a taxi.  Alkwaz came to Albuquerque from Iraq in 2012. He was one of nearly 60,000 refugees who resettled in the United States that year. He said the process of resettlement comes with many challenges —  including language and cultural barriers.  “It’s not easy to change your life. Outside of your home country, everything is different: the culture, the system, the language,” Alkwaz said. “Imagine you are going to change your whole life for you and your family. It’s so difficult because, for me, I have no choice.” 

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News

In wake of student death, APD & UNMPD partner

Danielle Prokop | June 3

The man accused of killing Jackson Weller, 23, a University of New Mexico baseball player, pleaded not guilty in a court appearance on Friday, May 31. Police said Darian Bashir, 23, shot and killed Weller outside Imbibe — a bar in Nob Hill —  in the early hours of Saturday, May 4. According to reports, police arrived on scene and found Weller, who had been shot once in the chest. Weller was later pronounced dead at the hospital.  Police later told KRQE 13 that Weller had been in a fight before the shooting. Witnesses interviewed said Bashir wasn’t involved in the incident.  Bashir will be detained until his trial. 

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News

Scooter rentals come to ABQ, but not UNM

Justin Garcia | June 3

Shareable scooters have begun zipping around the University area in Albuquerque. But scooting around campus remains illegal.  University of New Mexico spokesperson Daniel Jiron (cq) said that the Spin scooters, like all motorized scooters, are not allowed to be used on campus based on UNM policy 2260. Spin did not return the Daily Lobo’s request for comment on the matter.   The scooters arrived after the Albuquerque City Council passed an ordinance creating regulations for the rentable scooters (also called e-scooters) in October, 2018.  “We’re excited to have these new forms of transportation like scooter shares come to our great city, as long as they follow the rules we’ve established,” said City Councilor Pat Davis in a press release. 

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News

Marketing students win advertising award

Justin Garcia | June 3

A marketing class at the University of New Mexico Anderson School of Management took home a first-place award in a competition to create the best advertising campaign.  The class created the “Made You Look” campaign to promote the Acura ILX, a luxury sedan. The class’ campaign beat out around 20 schools and garnered over a million impressions on social media, according to one of the class’s instructors, John Bendavidiz.  “We’ve been doing this forever, I think 14 years now we’ve been doing these competitions, and so I feel fairly confident in saying this is the best campaign any class has ever produced,” Bendavidiz said.

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Sports

Track and Field: UNM remains Top-10 in NCAA Division I

Robert Maler | June 3

The University of New Mexico remained in the top-10 of the NCAA Division I Women's Outdoor Track and Field national rankings in the latest poll. The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's week 9 National Track & Field Rating Index dropped New Mexico to No. 7 overall in the standings, though it remains the highest-ranked school in the Mountain Region. New Mexico's distance runners have been turning in consistent performances throughout the season, and advanced four competitors to nationals after qualifying in the NCAA West Preliminary in Sacramento, California last weekend.

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Culture

Five things to keep you busy over the summer

Luisa Pennington | June 3

Existential dread got you down?  Now that the semester is over, you may be wondering what to do. With the time to do whatever, whenever, you may be feeling a little disoriented. No worries, though. Here at the Daily Lobo, we have you covered. Here’s five things you can do with your freedom this summer:

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News

Changing of the guard: Q&A with Richard Wood

Kyle Land | May 7

Richard Wood has been a sociology professor at the University of New Mexico since 2002. However, in the past couple of years that he has served in his biggest role yet — Interim Provost & Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs.  During nearly one year in the position, Wood has faced a host of issues at UNM, including budget cuts, decreasing enrollment and struggling to retain faculty. He recently sat down with the Daily Lobo , just before his replacement, James Holloway, fills his position in July. 

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News

UNM Baseball mourns Jackson Weller's death

Cameron Goeldner and Justin Garcia | May 6

“Jackson Weller was one of the classiest kids I’ve ever coached,” Lobo Baseball Head Coach Ray Birmingham said as he held back tears. “This was the first time in 42 years I’ve lost one of the players on my watch.” Birmingham, Athletics Director Eddie Nuñez and outfielder Brayden Merritt spoke with members of the media about Weller, who was shot and killed outside of a Nob Hill nightclub early Saturday morning.  During the press conference, Birmingham and Merritt reflected on how Weller came to play for the Lobos and what he meant to the team, despite never throwing a pitch in a series game. 

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News

Three Protests, Two days, One Union

The Daily Lobo Editorial Board | May 6

Last week there were three unrelated demonstrations at the University of New Mexico — each one larger than the last.  On Tuesday, the UNM faculty marched to Scholes Hall chanting and using an airhorn. The march followed a meeting discussing the agreement between United Academics of UNM (UA-UNM) and the University to allow a  vote on the existence of a faculty union. UNM President Garnett Stokes has promised to honor the outcome of the vote. The group of about 30 faculty dispersed after an hour.  On Wednesday, graduate workers walked out in order to advocate for “living wages.” That protest swelled to around 200 people and lasted over two hours. On Friday, hundreds of Albuquerque students walked out of class to bring attention to human-caused climate change. This in conjunction with the worldwide movement, School Strike for Climate. 

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News

Becka Myers says farewell to UNM

Justin Garcia | May 6

Few students will ever have the ability to impact the University of New Mexico like Becka Myers has.  Myers has served as a coordinator, a senator, a chairwomen and, most recently, as the president of the Associated Students of UNM, undergraduate student government. While many students disregard ASUNM, which has been expressed multiple times by senators during meetings, all students are affected by their decisions. When administrators need student input on a decision, like raising tuition, they go to ASUNM. If they can, they go to Myers.  Myers was born in Texas but sees Anchorage, Alaska as one of her homes. She went to South Anchorage High School, one of eight high schools in a city with a population of less than 300,000.  “We got super excited when the Target opened,” Myers said. “We couldn’t get into Olive Garden for months.”  Alaska was the 

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Culture

Adrian Abeyta's 'unpredictable' college experience

Makayla Grijalva | May 6

“Unpredictable,” is how graduating senior Adrian Abeyta describes his overall college experience at the University of New Mexico.  “In my brain I always have steps of things I want to get done,” Abeyta said. “I am probably a totally different person than I was when I started, and I really could never have predicted that I’d be a mechanical engineer.” Although he is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering this month, it wasn’t always Abeyta’s chosen degree path.  He first started out as an Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media (IFDM) major and even did a semester-long stint in Pre-Pharmacy before settling on engineering.  Abeyta’s younger brother, Esteban, 22, was not as surprised when Abeyta decided to pursue mechanical engineering.

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Sports

D'Andra DeFlora works through changes to graduate

Robert Maler | May 6

People who compete in athletics are often creatures of habit — prisoners of preparation and routine, even though it is often by design. Maybe they take the same amount of practice swings, bounce the basketball a certain number of times before attempting a free throw, or any number of other things that feel like things are in the proper place and resemble what they have prepared for. "I'm not one for change."

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Culture

Shayla Cunico discovers love of journalism at UNM

Danielle Prokop | May 6

Shayla Cunico isn’t fragmented, she’s kaleidoscopic.  Cunico, the culture editor for the Daily Lobo has said her time at the University has helped to transform how she sees the world and carve out space for her authentic self. She’s learning now that despite how she has pulled in different directions, she could be a whole person and create something new. Graduation is looming but afterward she’s headed to Arizona State University, where orientation starts for her Masters in Visual Communication Design on May 28.  Cunico said she feels she has one foot in two places as she finishes here but looks ahead to the program.  “I’ve been trying to go through my head and see how I feel,” Cunico said. “But it’s difficult.”

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Sports

NM United blanks San Antonio FC

Andrew Gunn/ @agunnwrites/ Daily Lobo | May 6

For the first time in their brief existence, New Mexico United stands alone at the top. The expansion club recorded an emphatic 3-0 win over visiting San Antonio FC (3-5-1) on a gorgeous Cinco de Mayo evening, playing in front of a record 15,023 at Isotopes Park. The result saw New Mexico (4-1-5) claim sole control of first place in the USL Championship's Western Conference with 17 points through 10 matches.

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Culture

Milkweed and Monarchs

Makayla Grijalva and Shayla Cunico | May 5

Tatia Veltkamp, owner of Wings of Enchantment, has a home filled to the brim with butterflies — whether it’s decorations on the walls or breeding monarchs fluttering in their mesh enclosure.  Wings of Enchantment is a butterfly farm in northeast Albuquerque that ships butterflies to consumers across the country. What once started out as a hobby 18 years ago, has grown into a business of Veltkamp farming butterflies for the last nine years.  Her customers purchase the butterflies to release them at weddings and other events. After release, it is expected that the monarchs migrate with the Eastern population “When my kids were little, I read an article in a magazine about how to go find caterpillars and eggs, but I didn’t know what milkweed was, so we had to figure out what milkweed was first in order to go find them,” Veltkamp said.

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News

UNM baseball player shot and killed

Cameron Goeldner | May 4

Jackson Weller, 23 years old and a University of New Mexico Baseball Player, is dead after a shooting outside Imbibe Nightclub in Nob Hill early Saturday morning.    Weller was a transfer from Gateway Community College in Arizona. He had not yet appeared for the Lobos after joining the program in the fall of 2018 and was sitting out this season due to injury. He had plans to rejoin the program next fall, according to an Albuquerque Journal story. 

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News

ABQ students walk out for climate action, participate in global movement

Andrew Gunn | May 4

The youth have spoken on climate change, and their message is clear: inaction will no longer be tolerated. Over 200 students from the Albuquerque area walked out of class on Friday afternoon and converged on Johnson Field in protest of governmental failures to address climate change. The student-led demonstration, in lockstep with a growing worldwide movement known as the School Strike for Climate, demanded elected officials and businesses face the reality of human-caused climate change and take steps to mitigate it. It was organized by Fight For Our Lives, a student-activist group formed in response to the Stoneman Douglas high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., in February of last year. The protest ended in a march from Johnson Field to the intersection of Central and Carlisle, where the junction was blocked for the better part of an hour.

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Culture

Heroes of Johnson Center

Sean Arguello | May 3

Johnson Center is a place on campus where students go to destress. However, it is the people who work at Johnson Center that make a difference. One student-employee at Johnson is University of New Mexico student Jaquan Franklin. Franklin worked his way up for six months to assistant supervisor at Johnson Center. Franklin said in order to work at Johnson, a person must have “hard work and dedication, a good attitude and the ability to focus on customers.”