DAILY LOBO new mexico
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tuesday
April 19, 2011
The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Group to find provost WRC hosts event Faculty president: Position will be filled by applicant from within the University by Kevin Forte kforte@unm.edu
Provost Suzanne Ortega will resign from her position in June, and a committee to find her temporary replacement will publicly interview applicants starting next week. President Schmidly announced in his April 4 Monday Morning Message that Ortega opted out of a renewed contract with UNM to take a job offer back East. Schmidly appointed Faculty Senate President Richard Wood to chair the internal search committee for an interim provost. Wood said the committee will replaceme Ortega with a UNM faculty member. He said a joint effort between faculty and administration is crucial to the selection process. “That’s a really important improvement in shared governance of the University — to have the faculty and administration deeply connected as we look for a new provost,” he said. Applicants will hold open forums next week, where they will give presentations and field questions from faculty and students. Wood said the committee hopes to make a recommendation to Schmidly by May 6. The faculty member chosen to replace Ortega will serve as provost until Schmidly’s contract
expires in June 2012. A temporary appointment will allow the University’s next president the opportunity to appoint a provost. “The idea would be to have someone who bridges between the current president and the next president,” Wood said. “Typically a provost is appointed permanently and serves at the pleasure of the president.” Because of time constraints, the search committee isn’t accepting applicants outside UNM, Wood said. He said appointing an interim provost from within won’t take more than two months. “Usually when you search for a provost, you look outside, within and beyond the University,” he said. “Typically that takes a year to do. But what do you do in the meantime? You can’t leave the University rudderless.”
For more information on interim provost public forums, contact Kevin Stevenson at 277-0582.
The search committee is made up of 19 members, including Wood. Schmidly and Wood worked together to select committee members who adequately represent the UNM community. ASUNM Sen. Caroline Muraida and GPSA President-elect Katie Richardson serve as student government representatives on the committee. Muraida said student representation is invaluable to the selection process. “We advocate for the priorities of students because we represent those who are directly affected by the quality of academic affairs within this University,” she said. To be considered, applicants must have a doctorate or terminal degree and experience in a leadership role. April 20 is the deadline for applications for best consideration. Wood said the provost appointment is one of the most important decisions the University will make this year. “It’s not a political appointment; it’s an academic appointment requiring intellectual judgment,” he said. “And our belief is that the faculty are in the best position to have a strong voice in that. But that we need representation from the key student groups, the staff and the administration.”
to help rape victims by Shaun Griswold shaun24@unm.edu
The ages of sexual assault victims in New Mexico range from as young as 6 weeks to 90 years old, according to data compiled by the Rape Crisis Center of Central New Mexico, and one in four women in the state will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. In an effort to address the harrowing statistics, the UNM Women’s Resource Center will host an event today to discuss services available for victims and survivors. “The best way to help somebody is to believe them, straight up. Don’t ask them any qualifying questions. Just allow them control over their own bodies,” said Summer Little, the WRC interim director. “A lot of people don’t report to anybody because they don’t feel anybody will believe them.” Today’s event begins at 11 a.m. in SUB Ballroom C. More than 20 campus groups helped organize the event, including the LGBTQ Resource Center, El Centro de la Raza and the Student Health and Counseling Center. New Mexico Attorney General Gary King will speak at 12:15 p.m. about state sex trafficking. More than 100,000 minors are in the commercial sex-trade in the
SNAP program users increase
Texas battles rampant wildfires
Associated Press
by April Castro Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas — David and Kris Griffin returned home from out-oftown weekend trips on Monday to find that their house was one of at least 20 in their Austin neighborhood destroyed or nearly destroyed by a weekend wildfire. Nearly all of their possessions went up in flames, and George, their cat of 11 years, was missing. Making their loss even tougher to grasp, the homes on both sides of theirs survived relatively unscathed. “All the other houses got saved except ours ... we’re just kind of speechless right now,” said Kris Griffin. She said finding the cat was their priority, because their possessions were replaceable. Authorities charged a 60-yearold homeless man with arson on Monday, saying he defied a nearly statewide burn ban and left a campfire untended Saturday when
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United States, according to the Polaris Project, a leading organization against human trafficking. Eighty percent of human trafficking victims are women, King said. In 2008, the Attorney General’s office, spearheaded by King, passed a law that made human trafficking a felony crime. So far, New Mexico has prosecuted two cases, Assistant Attorney General Maria Sanchez-Gagne said. She said it’s too early to tell if the law has reduced state human trafficking. The forum will provide resources for sexual assault victims and divert the dialogue away from revictimization, Little said. Sexual assault victims are often accused of lying about instances of abuse, or told the abuse was their fault, which adds to the trauma. “If you put yourself out there and people start analyzing, ‘You put this on or you went to this place,’ it’s revictimizing,” Little said. “We all need to speak up against perpetuating myths of sexual assault.” Little said the forum looks to form allies with men. “This is a men’s issue,” she said. “They need to intervene when they see something wrong. Every man is not going to sexually assault someone, but every man will meet a sexual assault survivor in their lifetime.”
Alberto Martinez / AP Photo Mike Warren stands in front of his house in Oak Hill. Texas, on Monday, after his home was destroyed in Sunday’s fire on. Fire officials toured a smoldering area of the state capital, finding that a weekend wildfire destroyed at least 10 homes and damaged 10 others. he went to a store to buy beer. Fire officials say wind-blown embers ignited the blaze, which spread quickly through a suburban-like area of southwest Austin and forced the evacuation of about 200 homes. The blaze destroyed 10 homes in the affected area and significantly damaged 10 others, and
those numbers were likely to rise as fire officials continued searching the affected area, said Austin Fire Department spokesman Palmer Buck. One of the driest spells in Texas history has left most of the state in extreme drought, and wildfires in various parts of the state have burned more than 1,000 square
Getting hitched
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miles of land in the past week — an area that together would equal the size of Rhode Island. Gov. Rick Perry asked President Barack Obama on Sunday for federal disaster funding, and forestry officials said Monday that the threat of new wildfires remained extremely high in the western part of the state.
One in five New Mexicans now receives government help to buy food. The number of people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, soared as the nation’s economy began sinking a couple of years ago, with more than 400,000 New Mexico residents now receiving the benefits, the Albuquerque Journal Monday reported in a copyright story. SNAP benefits, once known as food stamps, are a safety net for people who have fallen on tough times. The program is based on income. A family of four, for example, can make up to $3,032 a month and qualify. New Mexico figures show the average SNAP beneficiary in March received $296. The U.S. Department of
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