DAILY LOBO new mexico
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April 5, 2012
The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Unarmed guards can’t cite students by Jeffrey Hertz
hertzjeffrey@yahoo.com With the addition of Lobo Village, the UNM Police Department didn’t hire any additional officers. Instead, Lobo Village hired a squad of security guards through a contract with the private company JLS Security and Investigations, Inc. But JLS officers cannot make arrests, issue citations or write police reports, and they rely on UNMPD to deal with crime that occurs in Lobo Village. UNMPD spokesman Lt. Robert Haarhues said JLS Security and UNM Security can’t enforce the law. “Security guards are unarmed and can’t issue arrests, citations or police reports,” he said “In fact, we actually advise them not to get involved and just wait until the police arrive.” UNMPD has 39 police officers on staff, six non-police security officers and three student patrollers to keep watch over campus, Haarhues said. Up to four JLS security officers patrol Lobo Village at any given time, according to police reports. UNM has about 29,000 students on main campus, about 2,200 of which live on campus, according to Lobo Development and the Office of Institutional Research. Lobo
Village, which counts as on-campus living, added 864 beds to campus last year. Compared to its peers, UNMPD is both under- and over-staffed. UNM’s police and security presence is larger than Boise State, which has close to 20,000 students, about 2,000 of whom live in university-owned housing. The school has only seven police officers, four civilian officers and 12-15 security administrators who work on campus. But UNM has fewer officers than the University of Utah, which has more than 31,000 students, only 3,000 of whom live on campus. Utah has 35 police officers and 55 security officers. UNM also has proportionally fewer officers than the University of Arizona, which has about 39,000 students, 7,000 of whom live on campus. The school has 57 police officers, 16 civilian aids and seven student patrollers. (All numbers according to respective university police departments.) Haarhues said the number of security and police officers on UNM’s campus is adequate to keep students safe. “We were adequately staffed and didn’t need to hire more officers,” he said. “The security guards at Lobo Village take care of small issues like telling students to turn down their music if it’s too loud in their rooms
Jessikha Williams / Daily Lobo A UNM police car sits parked outside Hokona Hall. While UNMPD can issue citations and make arrests, UNMPD spokesman Lt. Robert Haarhues said civilian and student security officers on campus cannot. or at the pool, and if there is anything serious they will notify us.” Haarhues said security deals primarily with tasks including maintenance of the emergency blue phones, paperwork and parking operations for on-campus events. Haarhues said the biggest problem UNMPD and UNM Security face on campus is dealing with theft. “Because UNM is an open campus, we have a lot of people
walking onto campus who are not studying here,” he said. “Students should always have a close tab on their belongings.” Haarhues said barring theft, campus is fairly safe as long as students are aware of their surroundings. If students find themselves in a situation where they need somebody to escort them across campus, there is a hotline number on the back of every student’s LoboCard that can be
used to call one of the dispatchers at UNMPD. “My advice to students is to be knowledgeable about all the different resources and services available to them on campus,” Haarhues said. “If students are uncomfortable walking across campus late at night, then they probably should be. They should go with their gut feeling. They should never feel afraid to call us — that is what we are here for.”
ASUNM slates prepare for spring elections by Hannah Stangebye hstang@unm.edu
With the ASUNM elections just one week away, presidential candidates Ashkii Hatathlie and Caroline Muraida and their respective slates are preparing for the impending elections. Early voting elections take place today, and each slate, comprised of one presidential candidate, one vice presidential candidate and 10 senators, has its own unique ideas about the future of ASUNM and the University.
Impact Hatathlie said one of Impact’s primary goals is to establish a scholarship to help students pay for the cost of textbooks. The scholarship would be based on both merit and need, and students would submit an application to apply for up to $500 in funding to help cover the cost of books. ASUNM has not yet identified a pool of donors for the bike share program. When members secure donors for the program, they will ask the same donors to fund the textbook program. The bike share program
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will receive a one-time funding allocation of $50,000 from student fees if ASUNM can raise the remaining $250,000 through donations. “We are not expecting students to pay for … the textbook scholarships,” Hatathlie said. Impact is also looking into applying the Freshman Learning Communities (FLCs) model to communities for students who transfer to UNM after their freshman year and for non-traditional students. The FLC program offers combined interdisciplinary studies with small class sizes in core curriculum areas including psychology and biology. “At this point in time, there is not this kind of program that caters to non-traditional students, whether they are transfers or just non-traditional in general,” Hatathlie said. “We recognize that non-traditional students don’t typically have time to be as involved on campus … and we would like to create more opportunities for them to be.” The Casas Del Rio dorms will add more than 1,000 beds to campus. Impact said it plans to create a hierarchy system in order to deal with limited dorm parking spaces. The system would give preference to returning students. “Right now, parking is first come, first serve,” he said, “We want to work toward … some sort of hierarchy, or structure. If you are a resident and returning for a second or third year, shouldn’t you have some sort of privileges? Ultimately, by creating this, it will be incentive for those returning students to live on campus once again,” Hatathlie said.
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Daily Lobo volume 116
issue 131
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Students for Students The regents proposed allocating $50 per student in fees to Athletics for next year. Muraida said the University needs to reconsider which departments and services should be funded by student fees, and which should be funded by other sources. “A big issue with the financial integrity of the Student Fee Review Board is that it is (only) a recommendation board,” she said. “Regardless of how many hours are spent discussing cents in the board room, those deliberations are subject to Board of Regents. I would like to begin a discussion that leads us in the direction of a more permanent student decision.” Muraida said Students for Students hopes to reevaluate the purpose of a student fee next year and better explain the process to students. “I would really like for the students as a whole to rethink the definition of a student fee, and what should it pay for,” she said. “The way we will go about doing this research is by comparing what peer universities (do) and
The legality of longboards See page 5
focus on the unique aspects that make us not comparable to those peer institutions,” Muraida said. Along with hiring 20 new faculty members, and increasing faculty salaries, the provost’s $4,273,330 five-year plan includes the creation of an honors college. Students for Students hopes to incorporate student input in the development process, by ensuring that students serve on the board of the honors college development team. “We want to make sure there is consistent student representation throughout the entire process,” Muraida said. “And also, that the curriculum reflects an academic program that will add value to the University.” Yearly, the administration asks ASUNM to appoint students to hold positions on several of UNM’s boards and committees, but Muraida said in the current ASUNM administration, many positions have gone unfilled. According ASUNM records, 24 student positions are unfilled at this time. “There is a libraries committee, a study abroad and safety committee, a special education committee, a curriculum committee,” she said, “They come to ASUNM asking for these positions to be filled by students. I would make sure each of these committees is full in a timely manner, to ensure student representation on these boards where huge decisions are being made.” Box: ASUNM Early Elections today in the SUB from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
ASUNM Early Elections Today in the SUB from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
TODAY
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