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 ...
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.
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.
UA-UNM and the administration reached the agreement just as numerous colleges and universities across the United States have been plagued by coronavirus outbreaks forcing them to shift to online instruction only. Schools like the University of Notre Dame and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have reverted to online classes following a growing outbreak and clusters of infections, respectively, according to the New York TImes. Other universities, like Smith College in Massachusetts, announced plans for an entirely online 2020 earlier this month prior to the school year. Several have opted for a delay in the semester, like Winthrop University and the University of California, Merced.
The U.S. Department of Education announced a series of controversial changes to Title IX — a civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination at federally funded educational institutions — a little over three months ago. Under the new regulations, colleges are now required to hold live hearings in sexual assault and harrassment cases and must allow for cross-examination. The University of New Mexico hosted a virtual town hall on Friday that addressed those regulations — among other new, contentious requirements — and how UNM is responding. Hosted by Angela Catena, UNM’s Title IX coordinator with the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO), Friday’s town hall featured one faculty member and three advocacy center staff members who emphasized that the new regulations will not affect the services and support they provide students.
A member of a far-right militia has been arrested and charged with witness intimidation after showing up armed with a handgun to the home of a witness connected to the June 15 Juan de Oñate statue shooting trial. The Daily Lobo previously reported that an armed man identifying himself as a Three Percenter — a national far-right militia active in New Mexico — showed up at the home of a witness in the case against shooter and former City Council candidate Steven Baca. 34-year-old Daniel Carr has since been charged with intimidation of a witness. A criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court detailed the incident that happened last Friday.
During Steven Baca’s preliminary trial on Friday, an armed man reportedly identifying himself as a Three Percenter — a national far-right militia with a New Mexico chapter— showed up at the home of a witness in the case. Baca is being charged with two counts of aggravated battery, battery and unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon for his actions at a protest on June 15, during which Baca was seen attacking multiple women before shooting and injuring protester Scott Williams. Shortly after the witness testified, the man “showed up at the witness’ home with a handgun, asking for them by name and if they were ‘antifa’,” according to activist and UNM American Studies faculty member Nick Estes, who is in contact with the witness and reviewed a video of the incident, which has not yet been made public.
The Associated Students of the University of New Mexico Senate came together for its first full meeting to elect Suha Musa president pro tempore on Saturday, Aug. 15 in an otherwise uneventful session. Musa is a sophomore majoring in international studies and was a co-sponsor of the ASUNM Black Lives Matter resolution that was passed over the summer. According to the ASUNM Constitution, “a president pro tempore shall be elected from the membership of the Senate by plurality. The president pro tempore of the Senate shall preside over the Senate in the absence of the vice-president.”
As the infectious spread of the coronavirus multiplies locally and around the country, many students are wondering how the pandemic will impact the University of New Mexico community during the 2020-21 academic year. With students, faculty and staff beginning the slow, deliberate process of returning to campus on Aug. 17, the University disclosed to the Daily Lobo that 35 people with ties to UNM’s main Albuquerque campus have tested positive for COVID-19. Two students, one faculty member and 11 staff members from UNM’s main campus have self-reported that they have tested positive for COVID-19, according to University spokesperson Cinnamon Blair.
Protesters marched through the University area Saturday night in part as a response to the Albuquerque Police Department’s killing of 50-year-old Ken Reiss, a beloved community member who was fatally shot by police last week. Family members, friends and patrons of Carraro’s and Joe’s Place — a local dive bar that Reiss co-owned — have since challenged the APD account of the shooting. Early on Aug. 11, Reiss called the police to report multiple people breaking into his home. The department has alleged that when police arrived on scene Reiss shot at the responding officers before they fired back, but those closest to him have disputed that claim.
Around 50 people came to the University House northeast of the duck pond — the residence of University of New Mexico President Garnett Stokes — to protest the rise in tuition costs on Thursday, Aug. 13. UNM undergraduate student and protest co-organizer Ava Yelton created a petition last month calling on the Board of Regents to reverse the tuition increase for the 2020-21 school year. The rationale behind the calls against the tuition rise is the increasing financial hardships and perceived diminished quality of online instruction wrought by the pandemic.
Students at the University of New Mexico will have to find new study spaces at the start of the semester due to the delay in the opening of University Libraries (UL). UL pushed back its originally-planned opening on Aug. 10 to an anticipated opening on Aug. 17 to no date for a public opening at all. Instead, UL is following a two-stage opening plan, according to Associate Dean of Public Services Mark Emmons. This includes the Zimmerman Library, Centennial Science and Engineering Library and Fine Arts and Design Library. “What we’re trying to avoid is having too large of a viral load in our building,” Emmons said.
Only 10% of people in the United States that need substance use disorder treatment are actually getting it, according to Dr. Laura Brown, a clinical assistant professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of New Mexico. One of the University’s Grand Challenges initiatives, which launched in the spring of 2019 as a tripartite research project, has now been partially redirected from its original mission to boost that treatment number to studying the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on substance use disorders. The Substance Use Disorders Grand Challenge team, led by Katie Witkiewitz and Brandi Fink, recently allocated funding for four pilot research projects examining the impact of the pandemic and stay-at-home orders on substance use patterns and mental health.
Multiple reports have come in that the Mountain West Conference will suspend its fall 2020 sports season and will instead attempt to resume in the spring. The extraordinary move comes after weeks of speculation and concerns that moving forward with collegiate athletic events would exacerbate the coronavirus pandemic currently wracking the country. According to 247Sports, league presidents have decided to cancel the 2020 season due to player safety concerts and health concerns. “"I fully understand the impact of this outcome on our student-athletes, coaches, administrators and staff who work so hard daily to play the sports we all love, and I share in their disappointment,” Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said in a statement. “We will continue to navigate this pandemic together, overcome the obstacles and return to intercollegiate athletics at the earliest opportunity.
A group of tenure track School of Law professors at the University of New Mexico have formally requested a delay in the start of the fall semester. According to a letter obtained by the Daily Lobo, law school faculty members Christine Zuni Cruz, Barbara Creel and Marc-Tizoc González sent a letter to UNM School of Law Dean Sergio Pareja on Aug. 5 urging him to push back the start of the semester until Sept. 8. The letter referenced that the law school has reported two positive cases of COVID-19 in the past few weeks. The first was announced on July 24 and the second on Aug. 4, according to the letter.
Amidst national concerns over the safety and security of the November elections in a nation still ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic, low numbers of new voter registrations have voting rights groups anxious about representation at the ballot box in an extraordinary election year. According to the civic engagement advocacy organization Civics Center, New Mexico has seen a precipitous 79.5% decline in new voter registrations in April 2020 compared to four years prior. 8,021 individuals registered to vote in April of 2016, while only 1,644 people registered to vote during April of this year, according to the Civics Center.
Four University of New Mexico buildings, built and named over two mid-century decades, still bear the names of conquistadors: Coronado Hall, Alvarado Hall, Oñate Hall, and DeVargas Hall. Now, UNM is taking the first step in a long procedural process toward addressing campus buildings named after contentious historical figures, according to UNM spokesperson Cinnamon Blair. The UNM Committee on Naming has been reviewing whether current University policy allows buildings to be renamed or if new provisions must be written to do so, Blair — a member of the committee — said on Wednesday. Current UNM policy covers naming new buildings but lacks a specific provision on their renaming.
Nearly 150 young people, students, teachers and community members demanded Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) defund its police department during a protest outside of APS headquarters on Saturday evening. Organizers said police departments in school systems contribute to the criminalization of Black and Brown communities and aggravate the school-to-prison pipeline. “We are out here to demand the defunding and abolishment of the APS Police Department,” Fight For Our Lives organizer and leader Zoey Craft said. Monica Armenta, a spokesperson with the APS superintendent’s office, said Albuquerque Public Schools “understands many of (our) students and their families experience public education through a lens not always understood by all, and (they) will continue to do what they can to eradicate racism where it exists” in a statement to the Daily Lobo.
About fifty protesters — including families with children and moms in yellow vests — gathered downtown in front of Filling Philly’s, a cheesesteak shop on Central Avenue and Third Street, on Thursday afternoon to decry an incident that happened there Sunday night. As a Black Lives Matter protest came to a close at around 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 2, Black New Mexico Movement organizer Te Barry walked a few protesters to their cars. They’d heard that the New Mexico Civil Guard (NMCG) — a local militia founded by Bryce Spangler Provance, a man who has a swastika tattoo and a documented leadership role in a neo-Confederate organization — was in the area but didn’t know precisely where.
Residence Life and Student Housing announced in late June that the Student Family Housing (SFH) complex near south campus would shut down in May 2021 due to insurmountable renovation costs, giving residents time to pack their belongings and find a new place to live. However, some residents are questioning the University of New Mexico administration’s stated reason why SFH is closing. A number of Student Family Housing tenants claim that UNM has been a negligent landlord and treated the SFH complex differently than other potential — and completed — construction projects on campus.
Solutions by The State News
