DAILY LOBO new mexico
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wednesday The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
March 31, 2010
Regents get final say on secession
Students host vigil for slain professor by Shaun Griswold Daily Lobo
Students, staff and community members continue to remember the life and work of professor Hector Torres and stuBake sale for dent Stefania Gray. Hector Torres and The two were found dead at Stefania Gray Torres’ home March 8. Ralph Today Montoya, 38, confessed to the Smith Plaza murders to his lawyer and has 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. been indicted by a grand jury on 17 counts stemming from stalking and the murder of Torres and Gray. A memorial is set to take place April 9 at noon at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Former students of Torres organized the event. “He was exceptionally brilliant, compassionate and would go above and beyond for students and was beyond inspirational,” said Robby Ortiz, an organizer for the event. “It’s really just a way to honor him as an educator. Anyone who had him as a professor or graduate assistant, any of his colleagues or anyone who knew the work he did on a national scale will be there. It’ll be a real eclectic gathering of people who have memories about Hector.” Ortiz was writing his thesis with Torres and was the professor’s student for two semesters. Oscar Ortega, a student in Torres’ Chicano studies class, said the news of his death left him compelled to organize students and begin setting up a memorial. “It came as instinct. It felt like the right thing to do at that moment,” he said. “The way he went out was not an honorable death. I thought, ‘Let’s give him something better to celebrate.’ This is our way to atone for the wrong that happened to him.” The Sigma Alpha Omega sorority organized a bake sale to raise money for the memorial. The group plans to use the funds to purchase a memorial brick that will be placed at the NHCC plaza. Any additional funds will go to the Hector Torres Scholarship Fund, which was set up by members of the English department after his death. “I went to the funeral and the wake, and it was pretty obvious the impact he had on the community,” said
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by Tricia Remark Daily Lobo
Terrance Siemon / Daily Lobo Media arts tricycle crafted by students Seth Grant, Dylan Stevens-Sheriff and Parker Jennings is displayed during a show at Black Market Goods Gallery on Saturday. The tricycle has an FM transmitter which broadcasts its signal up to a half-mile radius around the tricycle. See the full story on page 5.
Kaine: Loan reform will make college affordable by Andrew Beale Daily Lobo
The Daily Lobo sat in on a conference call with the head of the Democratic National Committee and the head of the College Democrats of America. Tim Kaine, chairman of the DNC, and Katie Naranjo, president of the CDA, held the conference call Tuesday to discuss the new Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. The SAFRA is attached to the health care bill and will make college more affordable for students, Kaine and Naranjo said. Kaine said the bill will free up $68 billion in federal funds, which will go to help lower the cost of student loans. “It eliminates subsidies that are just not in it to private bankers by switching to a system of direct lending for federal student loans,” he said. “This will save taxpayers the subsidy amount, which is $68 billion over the next 10 years. SAFRA meets the pay-as-you-go fiscal responsibility principles.” Naranjo said President Obama supported the bill to help Americans afford a
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college education. “Recently, Obama addressed the issue of college affordability, declaring that no one should be denied an education simply because they can’t afford it,” she said. “We’re very lucky that we have not only a president that listens to young people on our issues but to have members of Congress who will help him and enact more legislation like this.” Obama set a goal to improve Americans’ competitiveness in the world, Kaine said. “He set a very ambitious goal of having the highest percentage of college graduates in the world by 2020,” Kaine said. “Beginning 20 or 30 years ago, other nations started to pass us by, and now, by some measures, we’re ninth or 10th in the world. And if we don’t do something different, more nations will continue to pass us.” This bill gives more funds to colleges than any bill in the history of the country, Kaine said. “This is the single largest investment in higher education in the history of this country, and it’s going to enable us to regain and sustain a competitive advantage in the global marketplace — all of this done simply by ending the practice of subsidizing financial institutions,” he said. “Now, financial institutions are still going to have a
significant and important role to service the loans, but they will not be getting the dramatic subsidy for originating the loans.” The bill specifies that all student-loan processing will be handled within the U.S., Naranjo said. “Today, jobs were created (because) 100 percent of the direct loans will be serviced by private lenders in the U.S.,” she said. “And today, students and family members have a peace of mind that going to college and seeking opportunities won’t cost an arm and a leg.” Kaine said the bill will not create any further budget deficits or cost money to taxpayers. “For those who are concerned about federal spending, they should be very happy about this, because what we’re doing is we’re taking a program and we’re going to save $68 billion in subsidies that were being paid by the federal government to financial institutions,” he said. The bill is important to the future of the American economy, Kaine said. “When a student doesn’t have that financial access to education, or they can’t afford to finish their degree or training program, it’s not just that student that suffers; it’s the entire economy,” he said. “SAFRA’s going to help students realize their dreams of getting affordable higher education.”
The UNM Regents will determine whether or not the School of Law will secede from GPSA. Of 343 law students, 110 voted from March 24-26 by e-mail ballot on whether they should leave GPSA. More than 70 percent voted in favor of succession. Othiamba Umi, president of the Student Bar Association — the UNM School of Law student government — said 110 students is a high turnout. “Essentially, when you have over 300 students, it’s hard to get that many to vote on anything because they’re so busy,” he said. The SBA will now begin collecting signatures for a petition in favor of secession that they hope to present to the Board of Regents, said SBA President-elect Corinne Hale. “We’re hopeful that there will be a secession from the GPSA, but we can’t make that binding decision. The Board of Regents has to,” she said. “Unfortunately with secession there’s not really a set pattern. No one has done it since the GPSA started.” Hale starts her term as president of SBA on Thursday. She said that if the law school waits to present its request for secession at the Regents’ next official meeting in the summer, it may be too late to keep student fees within the law school. The law school gives $17,300 in student fees to GPSA each year, Hale said. “We don’t feel that our funds are being appropriated correctly; we think that we’re putting in too much money and not getting enough back in return,” said law student Jonathan Turner. Turner said that if SBA is the only student government representing the law school, then law school students will have more control over where their funding is spent. Law student Stephen Ochoa said many law school students were frustrated that GPSA included a question about confidence in Athletics Director Paul Krebs’ handling of the Sept. 20, 2009 altercation between UNM football coach Mike Locksley and assistant coach J.B. Gerald on a special election ballot. “That’s just not GPSA’s position,” Ochoa said. “We don’t think they’re a professional organization, so why would a professional school be a part of it?” SBA Rep. Moses Winston said he thinks GPSA membership is useful to students. “I see the value GPSA has for the law school,” he said. “I think they provide services for the law school. I think a lot of the current and future students would benefit from the services
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