DAILY LOBO new mexico
Caught reading
thursday
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The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
April 22, 2010
City water holds us over until water clears Election should ‘start anew’ by Tricia Remark Daily Lobo
The UNM Physical Plant Department received results from a state lab on Tuesday, but it didn’t reveal any harmful substances in the discolored UNM well water. Gary Smith, PPD assistant director of Environmental Services, said the PPD will continue to investigate why the water is discolored. “We’re going to keep working with the New Mexico Environmental Department and the lab,” he said. “We’re going to set up a meeting to decide where to go next.”
Smith said the possibility that the water changed color from too much chlorine is “a rumor and is unsubstantiated.” The UNM campus went without drinkable water for almost 24 hours, beginning Tuesday morning when a PPD worker noticed the discolored water. An emergency notification message sent out at 10:43 a.m. on Tuesday discouraged students from using any tap water on campus. At 6:32 a.m. on Wednesday, another emergency notification message confirmed that UNM was “fully switched to city water.” “The water is now safe to drink
and use,” Smith said. “No one should have any concerns” Residence halls were switched to city water by 8:21 p.m. on Tuesday. Smith said he talked to a state lab on the phone Wednesday, who told him that they didn’t find anything suspicious. The lab will send a full report to UNM through mail, he said. “There is no unusual concentration of bacteria, volatile organic compounds, metals or bacterial conditions,” he said. “All UNM knows is that we’ve experienced a nonhazardous, noncontaminating
discoloration of our well-water.” Smith said UNM will continue to use city water until the PPD can pinpoint the reason for the discoloration. “Safety comes first on this campus,” he said. “We want to review the written report from the state labs before making any decisions.” In his 15 years working at UNM, Smith said he has never experienced any issues with UNM’s wellwater. “Historically, our well water has been excellent quality,” he said. “I don’t think this has ever happened before — ever.”
Excess gas
Vanessa Sanchez / Daily Lobo A UNM construction worker tosses away a brick after helping to fix a gas leak at the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. and University Boulevards. The gas leak was minor, said a New Mexico Gas Company spokesman, and took 20 minutes to repair.
Greeks no longer allowed to dodge dorm contracts by Kallie Red-Horse Daily Lobo
A revision to UNM housing contracts will no longer give sororities and fraternities exemption for mid-year release. Residents wanting to relocate to a sorority or fraternity house may still do so after the fall rush period, said Lauren Haggerty, Greek Life adviser, but spring “rushees” will have to wait to move in until the subsequent fall term. “The exemption had been worked out a long time ago with the residence halls, but I think that housing is going through a lot of changes currently,” she said. “They are reevaluating a lot of the current programs and we understand that it
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 114
issue 141
was a change that had to happen.” UNM Housing Director Patrick Call said he considers this a necessary change and a good business decision. “I am new to the institution and looking at its business practices and how we have done some things and making some tweaks and changes here and there,” he said. “This was a practice that I ran onto that was pretty significant, and that’s why I engaged folks in conversation and we came to mutually agree that this was something we can do.” Student Kira Hughes said she was released from her contract this spring to move into her sorority house, which is a crucial experience in sorority life.
“It was hard for me last semester living in the dorms because I lived in the dorms to be over at the house,” she said. “When you are able to move into the house it’s a lot easier. You feel a greater sense of community and I think especially for girls who go through recruitment in the spring it’s a lot harder to feel a part of it because it’s a lot smaller pledge class and there is not as many girls going through it with you.” Sorority and fraternity houses will likely shift their housing policies to match UNM’s, Haggerty said. “They will have to plan for their facilities for individuals to be living there for a full year,” she
see Greek page 5
Fast lane photo See page 6
Daily Lobo
Today the polls close for the GPSA presidential election, but Council Chair Danny Hernandez wants to call the whole thing off. Hernandez cited three errors that occurred throughout the election process as reason to scrap the results and start anew. “There have been too many irregularities in this election,” he said in an e-mail. Early Wednesday morning, the GPSA Elections Committee realized that 180 of 5,500 graduate and professional students were not invited to vote in the election. On Monday, 62 votes were cast out due to the possibility of voters casting in votes numerous times. And, early in the election, candidate Martin Gutierrez’ name was misspelled in a Daily Lobo advertisement. “With there being so many discrepancies in this election process, I call that we have another election as soon as is possible,” Hernandez said. In response, the GPSA Elections Committee issued a statement. The committee said it would seek the input of the GPSA Court of Review, the GPSA’s judicial body. Also, Hernandez asked the GPSA council for input. “We strongly believe that aforementioned irregularities are unavoidable consequences resulting from unforeseen circumstances,” the statement reads. Decisions about rescheduling or calling special elections lie outside our authority.” Until the Court of Review issues a recommendation, however, the election will conclude today as planned. The elections committee also said many of the problems Hernandez cited stemmed from larger issues out of the elections committee’s control. “Most problems related to this election are institutional, while a few stem from the mid-semester resignation and replacement of GPSA’s elections chair,” the statement reads. The committee pointed to a fuzzy policy with maintaining a Listserv of GPSA members. “We, the elections committee are committed to ensuring that all eligible students can vote in this election,” the statement read. “We have been diligently working with IT and Student Activities to reconcile inconsistencies we identified related to determining the population of eligible voters. IT found that 180
see GPSA page 5
Today’s weather
BASEBALL Last night’s results:
19
by Pat Lohmann
5
77° / 48°