DAILY LOBO new mexico
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February 24, 2012
Driver who hit student speaks
The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
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by Luke Holmen holmen@unm.edu
The driver of a truck that hit UNM student Wolfgang Scott-Cohen said police promised to keep him updated on Scott-Cohen’s condition. But, the driver said, he never received any notifications, not even after Scott-Cohen died. “They whisked him away because he was hurt,” he said. “The cops said they are going to let me know, but they haven’t said a damn thing.” Driver Michael Barros said police promised to contact him following the Feb. 10 incident, but said he didn’t even know the name of the student until he spoke with the Daily Lobo. Scott-Cohen fell into a coma as a result of the accident and died Tuesday night. “I’ve been wondering about him, and I called to the police station the day after it happened, but they were closed over the weekend, and the next day there was another accident nearby and I asked that cop, but they told me ‘Well if he would have died, they would have let you know,’ so I kind of took it that he was doing alright.” Albuquerque police told the Daily Lobo on Feb. 12 that ScottCohen had been hit by a drunk driver, but the official police report states Barros had not consumed any alcohol. UNM Public Information Officer Casia Martinez said there was no DWI investigation connected to the incident, and Barros said he was not intoxicated at the time. “Oh no, I don’t drink and drive at all,” Barros said. Martinez said she was unable to obtain any documentation about the incident late Thursday night and that she does not know if Barros will face any charges. “The case gets forwarded to the district attorney and they will decide if there is going to be an investigation,” she said. “I do not know if there are any pending charges.” According to the police report, multiple witnesses said Scott-Cohen ran the stop sign at Adams Street while heading west on Claremont Street and was struck by Barros, who was driving south. Barros said he called for help and several PNM workers who were in the area monitored Scott-Cohen until an ambulance arrived. “I got out of my truck going ‘Oh my God, oh my God,’” he said. “We called 911 and they came down and were tending to the guy, but he had trauma to his head and
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Daily Lobo volume 116
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Junfu Han/ Daily Lobo UNM senior sprinter Thomas Trujillo (right) passes the hand off to junior decathlon athlete Richard York during the men’s 4x400 relay at Don Kirby Invitational Feb. 10 at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Check the sports section for the MWC indoor championship preview.
Club preps students for societal collapse by Nathan Farmer
news@dailylobo.com
One UNM professor says a world without electricity and ravaged by natural disaster might not be too far off, and the UNM community needs a plan. “I think we are going to crash in one form or another,” Sustainability Studies professor Maggie Seeley said. “It may be slow; it may come economically so I want the UNM campus and the perimeter around the campus to have a plan.” The newly formed Transition Club is ready to prepare students and UNM for possible societal and technological collapse. The club was originally a project started last semester in Seeley’s Sustainability 334 class called “transition group.” Seeley said she isn’t planning for doomsday, just that the lives of future generations are going to be more difficult and preparation needs to begin now. you could see it.” Scott-Cohen’s sister, Pegeen Scott-Cohen said in a text message that a hospital staff
“I’m not thinking about Armageddon,” she said. “I am just totally believing that we won’t have the life that I grew up with.” The group became a club on campus two weeks ago and hopes to have monthly potlucks where students can come together to plan to make UNM more prepared for environmental disasters and hardship. Pily Rodriguez, a junior community regional planning major and head of the Transition Club, said the club aims to train students in traditional agricultural techniques that don’t depend on modern technology. “It’s a movement that is becoming more resilient and becoming less energy dependent,” she said. “It means increasing the amount of food we produce locally, having chickens and learning manual skills that we have lost over time because of technology.” Rodriguez said the group had a meeting off campus last se-
mester that 83 people attended. About 30 percent of the attendees were students, he said. Rodriguez said holding club meetings on campus will encourage more students to attend. She said she is going to focus on teaching students simple manual skills, such as sewing and repairing, that many people don’t have because machines are able to do them. “It’s (about) becoming resilient so that when crisis happens we are going to survive as a community so we’re not going to go into chaos,” she said. Seeley said UNM will be one of the first campuses in the country with a club like this. “UNM could cut some serious ground here,” she said. “I think it’s a good plan if we are prepared. It could just be a drought with no water, or it could just be a brownout, or some sort of flu epidemic or perpetual unemployment.” Seeley said she wants to build on the idea behind Lobo Gar-
dens, which is an agricultural initiative that teaches students how to cultivate and harvest crops. La Posada dining hall and Outtakes then use the produce for the food they sell. Lobo Gardens is an effort to teach students how to live off the land, Seeley said. “We already have Lobo Gardens, and we have a tiny amount of produce going into Outtakes from the produce we make,” she said. “It’s not much, but it’s a beginning. I want to see something big enough so the University can get behind it. “
member “who didn’t have correct information” told the family her brother was hit by a drunk driver. Barros said he wanted to con-
tact Scott-Cohen’s family but was unsure of how they would respond. “God bless his soul and his
family,” he said. “It’s hard to know whether I should call his family, or are they going to hate me? This is a hard position to be in.”
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Box: Transition Club Transition Club meeting meeting Monday 5 p.m. Travelstead Hall
Monday 5 p.m. Travelstead Hall
TODAY
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