DAILY LOBO new mexico
Fine if on Obama’s watch
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September 14, 2012
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
OMI rules death Provost appointed to full term a homicide Frank: search would be expensive, likely choose Abdallah anyway
by Svetlana Ozden
Death of foreign exchange host had been thought suicide
news@dailylobo.com
by Svetlana Ozden news@dailylobo.com
The death of a UNM foreign exchange student host parent initially believed to be a suicide is now being investigated as a homicide. In July, Marc Herrera, 37, died at a foreign exchange student party held at his home in Northeast Albuquerque. Witnesses said Herrera was “heavily intoxicated” and that he told the students to move into different rooms at gunpoint. Herrera’s wife, Amy, said Herrera then put her hand on the gun and forced her to shoot him as they both held the gun. But according to report of the Office of the Medical Examiner, issued Aug. 30, Herrera died on July 1 from a “gunshot wound of the head” and was “shot by an assailant with (a) handgun.” According to autopsy report, fractures found in Herrera’s mouth, combined with microscopic particles
Marc Herrera of soot found in Herrera’s mouth “suggested that the weapon was fired from just inside or just outside the oral cavity,” and that “the manner of death is homicide.” The Albuquerque Police Department declined to comment about the ongoing investigation. Check with DailyLobo.com for more on this story as it develops.
Poll: hold back struggling readers The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE — A new statewide poll commissioned by The Albuquerque Journal finds a strong majority of New Mexico voters want to keep third-graders who can’t read from advancing to the fourth grade. The poll shows strong support, regardless of party affiliation, region or ethnicity, for ending socalled “social promotion.” Ending the practice has been a major policy initiative of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez but has been blocked by the Democrat-controlled Legislature, with the backing of teacher unions and some school superintendents. Proponents of a retention law argue that students who enter fourth grade unable to read are set up for later academic failure. Opponents say parents would not be able to override the decision to hold a student back and point to mixed results of retention policies elsewhere. The Journal Poll of 402 likely voters was conducted over land lines and cellphones Sept. 3 through Sept. 6 by Research & Polling Inc. It showed 75 percent of those asked wanted social promotion ended. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
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Daily Lobo volume 117
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Pollsters asked: “Do you support or oppose a state law that would allow public schools to hold back third-graders from advancing to the fourth grade if they cannot read at a third-grade level?” Eighty percent of Republicans supported third-grade retention, and so did 69 percent of Democrats. Support was highest among independent voters, or those who decline to state a party affiliation, at 83 percent. Pollster Brian Sanderoff said it was notable that such a policy had so much support among Democrats, since they usually are more aligned with teachers and teacher unions. New Mexicans seem to want answers to persistently low academic achievement in the state, Sanderoff said. “I think New Mexicans are wellaware of our dropout rates in the public schools, and well-aware of the wide student achievement gaps that exist,” Sanderoff said. “And so I was not surprised that three-quarters of New Mexicans support this idea of holding thirdgraders back, because people are looking for solutions.” Only 18 percent of respondents overall said they would oppose a retention law, while 7 percent said they were undecided or wouldn’t say.
see Advancement PAGE 2
Rather than spending about $250,000 to perform a national search to find the University’s next provost, an internal search resulted in the full-term appointment of Chaouki Abdallah to the position. In an email to the University on Wednesday, UNM President Robert Frank announced his decision to appoint Abdallah as provost of the University until 2016. In 2011, following an internal search, Abdallah was appointed to interim provost until 2013. Before his term began as interim provost, Abdallah was a chair member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. In the email, Frank said that as soon as he arrived at UNM, he learned that the provost was supported by members at many levels of the administration, such as former UNM President David Schmidly, the Faculty Senate and the Board of Regents. He said that his decision to appoint Abdallah as provost was supported by the members of the administration and the regents. According to Board of Regent policy regarding the appointment and termination of key administrators,
the UNM president must conduct a search “unless there are exceptional circumstances and the regents have been consulted.”
“He’s done a great job, so congratulations.” ~Robert Frank UNM president “I value their views and would not take this step in the absence of their support,” Frank said. “I have consulted with the faculty leadership groups, our deans and allowed a long time period to lapse after the conversations to see if any new ideas arose.” Frank said a national search would have cost about $250,000, would require more than eight months to complete and would immobilize the Office of the Provost. He said that the role of the provost and stability of the provost’s office are critical to the University to implement academic policy. “The search would consume the entire first academic year of my presidency,” he said in the email. “One person I spoke to said ‘Your best
solution is to run a national search and then select Chaouki.’” Frank said that although the tradition of a national search is valuable to the University, Abdallah would have been a candidate in that search. He said that a search would “validate Dr. Abdallah’s skills,” and that he would probably be selected because he has already proven to be valuable to the University. “I think we would choose him from a pool based on his knowledge and experience with UNM,” he said. “In my mind, it is not worth eight months of searching and thousands of dollars to achieve this outcome.” At a Board of Regents meeting Tuesday, Frank congratulated Abdallah for his appointment and gave credit to the provost for the University’s slight increase in freshmen retention. Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management Terry Babbitt reported at the meeting that the University has had a 2.5 percent increase in freshmen retention this year. “I’d like to congratulate the provost and his team, it’s very hard to reverse that trend,” Frank said. “We’re going to extend his time in the provost’s office. He’s done a great job, so congratulations.”
Juan Labreche / Daily Lobo Chaouki Abdallah speaks with (un)Occupy Albuquerque members last fall in former President Schmidley’s stead. Abdallah has now taken a full-term position as UNM provost.
Dart ‘em up
Texas round two
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