Lissa Knudsen - The Daily Lobo

News

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: The unfulfilled promises of the Tlowitsis Nation Totem Pole

Lissa Knudsen | April 27

The presence of the "Smith Family Totem Pole" in the Frank Hibben Center of the Maxwell Museum remains a profound testament to a legacy of colonial roots. While the University of New Mexico’s official narrative acknowledges that Frank Hibben (the same person that the Hibben Center is named after) stole this culturally significant piece from the Tlowitsis Nation in 1941 — using a ruse to smuggle it into the United States — the institutional response remains insufficient. According to the University’s own timeline, an agreement was reached to keep the original pole at UNM while a replica was to be erected in its original home in British Columbia. However, in 2026, the status of this replica remains unclear. Why has there been no public accounting for the completion and installation of this promised restoration?

News

ASUNM presidential election kicks off

Lissa Knudsen and Hevyn Heckes | March 7

This year’s ASUNM election is anything but business as usual. Presidential and vice-presidential candidates have presented diverse and comprehensive platforms that moved beyond empty platitudes. With the events of the past year fresh in their minds, the candidates outlined their strategies for tackling the biggest issues still plaguing the UNM community. Undergraduates can vote online beginning on Monday March 8 by going to their myUNM student portal and selecting two of eight candidates — four running for president and four running for vice president. Each position is elected separately as opposed to one united slate.

News

Four students vying for ASUNM president

Lissa Knudsen | March 2

On March 8, undergraduate students can log onto their myUNM account to vote for one of four candidates running to lead the University of New Mexico’s undergraduate student government. The voting period will end at 5 p.m. on March 10. Noah Dowling-Lujan, Ricardo Hill, Jacob Olaguir and Greg Romero are the four candidates vying for the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico presidency this year, alongside their respective vice presidential running mates. Although the pairs are running coordinated campaigns — known as slates — students can vote for any combination of candidates. Earlier this week, the candidates held an online debate where they introduced themselves and described their platforms. A recording of that debate is available on the UNM Student Activities Center Youtube account.

Culture

Period: A podcast about the science of menstruation and 'all the bloody bits'

Lissa Knudsen | March 2

When the Period podcast went live in 2016, it took a social-scientific approach to menstruation, a.k.a. "periods." Kathryn Clancy, a biological anthropologist and former writer for Scientific American, served as the podcast host and brought both feminist and scientific lenses to the show, which halted production as the pandemic worsened in May of last year. I found this podcast while looking for a list of the best science podcasts and consistently found myself learning new things about a topic that, for more than half the population, is a normal part of existence for much of our adult lives.

News

UNM advocacy group fights for lower campus sexual assault rate

Lissa Knudsen | February 28

Reports of sexual violence in on-campus housing at the University of New Mexico — including rape, dating violence and stalking — increased dramatically in 2019, according to the 2020 UNM main campus Clery Act report released last November. According to the data, there were 17 reported rapes in on-campus housing out of 23 campus-wide in 2019, marking a 21% increase from the year before. During the same period, reports of dating violence increased from 16 to 30, and stalking cases increased from 36 to 45.

News

State money for child care available to graduate students

Lissa Knudsen | January 19

As a full time PhD student, with one child at the University of New Mexico’s Children’s Campus half-time, Naomi Ambriz used to pay $568 a month in child care. With newly available child care assistance from the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD), her copayment is now only a third of that amount. Ambriz, a fifth year American studies graduate student and the student parent advocate at the Women's Resource Center, said she first learned about the temporary eligibility rule change that made graduate student parents eligible for child care assistance through the UNM Graduate Studies listserv.

News

Grad student union effort nears threshold for recognition

Lissa Knudsen | November 10

University of New Mexico graduate student workers reported on Friday that more than 40% of eligible graduate workers have signed union cards. The union needs 50% plus one in order to appeal to the New Mexico Public Employee Labor Relations Board (PELRB) to form a union. “More cards have been coming in ... We have broken 700 cards, and there are 1,600 graduate students. And so, a simple majority is 800,” Emigdio Turner, a chemistry Ph.D. candidate at UNM and union organizing committee member, said during a Zoom breakout session with STEM graduate students on Friday. “(But), we would be looking to go much further past that to demonstrate unilateral support.”

News

Video of man performing traditional dance goes viral

Lissa Knudsen | November 9

Editor’s note: The original version of this article incorrectly labeled the dance that Trujillo spontaneously performed as one from the Pueblo of Ohkay Owingeh. The dance was a men’s northern traditional dance not associated with a particular pueblo. We apologize for the error. Ashkia “Kia” Randy Trujillo left his car idling as he jumped out onto Central Avenue in downtown Albuquerque on Saturday evening to spontaneously perform a portion of a men’s northern traditional storytelling dance. Video of the performance captured by a Daily Lobo photographer went viral almost immediately, attracting more than 5 million views and highlighting the influence of Native American voters in the 2020 election.

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Culture

Harris’ VP candidacy carries torch for Albuquerque Asian community

Lissa Knudsen and Gabriel Biadora | November 2

Senator Kamala Harris was selected as the running mate for presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden on Aug. 11, after months of speculation between potential nominees. Following the announcement, the Daily Lobo met virtually with a number of local Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community members to talk about Harris’ cultural heritage and the connections her Indian ethnicity creates within and across the local AAPI community. Harris was born to Shyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris on Oct. 20, 1964 in Oakland, California. Her parents immigrated to the U.S. from India and Jamaica respectively in the early 1960s, a decade defined by the civil rights movement, according to the Los Angeles Times.

News

Student Fee Review Board opts not to reduce fees

Lissa Knudsen , Spencer Butler and Jesus Mata | October 27

The University of New Mexico’s Student Fee Review Board (SFRB) voted to hold fees steady for fall 2021, despite calls for reductions amidst the coronavirus pandemic. On Sunday morning, Oct. 25, the SFRB — after more than 10 hours of deliberations — approved the fall 2021 student activity fee recommendations on a unanimous 7-0 vote. Student activity fees are charged alongside tuition to all students registered on main campus and at the Health Sciences Center. These fees are assessed per capita — as enrollment increases, the total budget expands, giving the board more money to recommend for allocation.