DAILY LOBO new mexico
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monday The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
April 19, 2010
Capital Projects layoffs a product of poor decisions by Leah Valencia Daily Lobo
Junfu Han/ Daily Lobo A man selects a cup of lemonade at Project Share, Inc. on Sunday. The nonprofit organization serves food to 150 people a day, on average.
Project Share feeds the masses ROOFLESS by Andrew Beale Daily Lobo
Thanks to the efforts of Project Share, Inc. hundreds of people that would otherwise go hungry can eat every week. Paul Eichhorn, food box coordinator, said Project Share serves 40,000 hot meals every year, in addition to providing food boxes, clothing and other needed items such as diapers. “We work with 50 or 60 different organizations to provide these meals,” he said. “We
have a garden that grows vegetables for the food boxes.” Eichhorn said on a typical day Project Share feeds about 150 people at its Yale Boulevard building, and its services are available in Spanish as well. Project Share is filled with people Sunday night, many walking there even through the rain. Eichhorn predicted that a lot of people wouldn’t come to eat Sunday, since they can’t catch a bus in the rain. Nevertheless, Project Share ended up feeding 102 people that night. On Sunday, the free meals provided at Project Share consisted of tacos, fruit, beans, rice and cookies. There was also milk and cups of candy-colored juice. Each plate contained food to constitute a good dinner, and
people were welcome to seconds after everyone had eaten. Eichhorn said he got involved with Project Share after sitting in on a UNM class taught by David Hilliard, a former leader of the Black Panther Party. Eichhorn said Hilliard’s class built Hope’s Half Acre, the garden that grows vegetables for the food boxes. He said Hilliard only taught the class for a year, and then was dismissed from UNM. Eichhorn speculates that Hilliard was fired because of “right-wing people” who were unhappy with having a former Black Panther at the University. “David Hilliard refreshed my faith in the UNM school system, in that they were doing something positive,” he said. “On the other
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Employees being laid off from the UNM Office of Capital Projects said the budget shortfalls are caused by a combination of mismanagement and hard economic times. Alec Mottershead, an OCP architectural draftsman, said jobs could have been saved if it weren’t for bad management decisions. Mottershead, a father of two, said he was three years from retirement. He cited a $2.8 million renovation, unnecessary promotions and other fiscal mismanagement as partial reason for the layoffs. “Ironically, I have a 15-year anniversary ceremony at the SUB tomorrow — two years late,” he said. “God, I hope they don’t ask me to say anything.” He said he will now have to wait 10 years to receive 30 percent of his pre-layoff salary. And Gordon Strickland, an OCP project manager, said in an e-mail that the layoffs have affected OCP employees in different ways. “Some are young, trying to get started in a career, so this is discouraging for them,” he said. “Some are almost at retirement age, and losing a year or so of pay will affect how much retirement income they have, which is scary.” Strickland said the OCP has budgetary problems. He said layoffs could have been prevented if better fiscal management had taken place. “We knew almost two years ago that new construction projects were drying up, and a year ago it was clear that we were in trouble,” he said. However, William Turner, OCP director, said they didn’t know exactly how severe the hard times would be, even though they knew they were coming. “We didn’t predict the magnitude of the downturn that we are experiencing,” he said. “We predicted that there would be a reduction of work, but not to the degree that it has turned out.” Mottershead said the economy only accounted for half of the problems in the OCP. “No one could see the economic downturn coming,” he said. “So, I give the management here a blank check for about half the problems here, but the other half has
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Council representatives claim GPSA fudged election process by Tricia Remark Daily Lobo
The GPSA Council Chair was elected on Saturday, but some council representatives called the results into question only an hour later. Graduate student Megan McRobert got 12 votes and current GPSA Council Chair Danny Hernandez received nine. “I’m excited to have been elected,” McRobert said. “A number of people noted with surprise how many people were in the room, and I think that speaks to the GPSA’s increase in visibility and that people really care about what goes on here.” However, shortly after the election, while the meeting was still in progress, GPSA Elections Chair Sophia Hammett realized that GPSA
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constitution mandates that the GPSA president should have presided over the election. Hammett offered to re-do the entire voting process so GPSA President Lissa Knudsen could run the election. GPSA eventually voted that Hammett acted as Knudsen’s designate in the election, which upheld McRobert’s victory. Hernandez said the election was unfair because Knudsen asked him a biased question before the vote. “She was supposed to be presiding over the election,” he said. “If you’re presiding over the election you’re supposed to be neutral.” During the public comment session of the meeting, Knudsen asked Hernandez whether he violated the GPSA’s Open Meetings Act in a meeting with law school
representatives April 9. Knudsen said that if there were six different departments represented at the meeting, Hernandez needed to give notice to the public. “I may have broken our Open Meetings Act,” Hernandez said. “It depends on how you interpret it.” Hernandez told the Daily Lobo on April 9 that five different departments were represented at the April 9 meeting. Hernandez also said he sent three e-mails inviting council representatives on their Listserv a week before the meeting. “I think that the GPSA president weighing so heavily on the election was unfair,” he said. “She hired this young woman and supported her candidacy.” Knudsen hired McRobert this
semester to help fix GPSA’s Web site, she said. McRobert began as a volunteer in the GPSA office in January. “I think that she’ll be able to bring something, especially in terms of the Web site, that GPSA hasn’t had in the last five years,” Knudsen said. Knudsen said Saturday’s election ran more smoothly than any other she has seen. Hernandez said there is still a possibility that he will contest the election within the GPSA Court of Review. The Court of Review has previously dealt with “election challenges,” according to GPSA’s Web site. “An attorney and I will be getting together, but it’s unlikely I’ll go against the election,” he said. McRobert said she thought the election was fair.
You got whomped
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“I think the important part is that if anyone still has concerns about the elections, there is a process they can go through,” she said. Hernandez said he will most likely stay involved with GPSA next year, either as a representative or as grants chair. “Beside the previous two grants chairs, there is no one else who knows more about how the grants process works,” he said. The GPSA meeting on Saturday was the first meeting McRobert attended, she said. Knudsen said that McRobert will bring new and unique skills to GPSA next year. “She is a fresh face and not at all entrenched in the politics,” Knudsen said. McRobert will take office after spring semester ends.
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