DAILY LOBO new mexico
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The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
September 22, 2009
Mistrust shapes audit debate by Pat Lohmann Daily Lobo
The University is a step closer to having an external audit, per the UNM Faculty Senate’s request last semester. The UNM Board of Regents Audit Committee met Friday and made a recommendation of how the state auditor should examine the University’s finances. Senate President Doug Fields said the regents should consider the faculty’s mistrust of the administration before making their recommendation. “Why can’t we just ask internally how the Rio Rancho Campus is being funded? The answer is, ‘We don’t trust the answer,’” Fields said. “We would like to have an external, independent audit of these things so that we trust the answer.” The committee met to discuss the recommended scope of work for the audit, which the voting faculty requested in late February at a meeting that also saw votes of no confidence in three University administrators. According to the motion requesting the audit, “it is in the best interest of the University of New Mexico to understand how its resources were used to further its mission” and “transparency in decision-making allows organizations to make better decisions through deliberations.” To this end, State Auditor Hector Balderas suggested four “items” or areas of UNM’s finances the auditing firm would examine. The Board of Regents will consider the committee’s revised version of these suggestions at their Sept. 29 meeting. If approved, the suggestions will be sent to Balderas, who will appoint a firm to conduct the audit. Faculty members at the meeting Friday said the audit should investigate the allocation of funds. The faculty requested that the sentence “Include a comparison of budgeted amounts to actual expenditures/revenues where applicable” be added to the end of item No. 1 (see box). The committee agreed to conduct an internal audit of item No. 4 and compare it to
Recommended Scope of Work for the Auditor Item No. 1 Comparisons of Instructional and General (I&G) expenditures and revenues, broken down into instructional, academic support, student services, institutional support, physical plant and other units who receive them
Gary Alderete / Daily Lobo
Item No. 2 (removed) A detailed analysis of Facilities and Administrative (F&A) revenues and costs sufficient to explain why the Office of the Vice President for Research is in debt Item No. 3 An analysis of “harvested” funds and where the money was transferred
Item No. 4 An external and internal analysis of how the current operations of the Rio Rancho campus are funded
see Audit page 3
Source: Office of the State Auditor
A spray-painted sign near Ortega Hall falsely designates a smoking area. The Physical Plant Department has removed more than 60 similar graffiti signs.
Smoking area signs are work of vandal by Andrew Beale Daily Lobo
More than 60 smoking areas have already been removed from UNM’s campus — or, at least, 60 stenciled signs for a “UNM Designated Smoking Area.” Pug Burge, head of UNM’s Smoke-Free Environment Committee, said the red spray-painted signs appeared around campus after the Aug. 1 implementation of the tobacco-free policy. Burge said the signs are not committeeapproved, and UNM Physical Plant employees are removing them. Burge said she doesn’t know who’s behind the stenciled signs.
Vicente Fox on immigration
“It’s really disappointing, though, that people don’t have a little bit more pride in their campus,” she said. Win Hansen, co-chair of the UNM chapter of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, said the social satire of the stencils serves a purpose. “As far as the person spray-painting ‘UNM Designated Areas,’ I approve of that,” he said. “That’s what art should be. Art should be cultural commentary and societal commentary. Yes, I understand it’s graffiti, but a lot of art is considered bad when it’s made. It still has a reason for being made.” Hansen said the administration should
Campus crime numbers inched upward in 2008 by Tricia Remark Daily Lobo
Vanessa Sanchez / Daily Lobo Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico, speaks at Popejoy Hall on Monday. Fox’s talk, which was part of the Lobo Reading Experience, covered immigration issues. Visit DailyLobo.com for a video with clips from Fox’s speech and student interviews.
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Daily Lobo volume 114
issue 22
see Smoking page 5
Robbery, burglary and arson are on the rise around campus, according to the UNM Police Department’s 2008 crime statistics. Drug law violations increased the most, with 10 more incidents than in 2007. UNMPD spokesman Lt. Robert Haarhues said most crime numbers from 2007 showed increases in the single digits for 2008. He said one crime that has been noticeably on the rise is arson. There was only one incident of arson in 2006, but that jumped to five in 2007 and eight in 2008. Haarhues said several arson incidents have occurred in 2009, and UNMPD suspects the same person is behind them. “You could say this person is a
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Going global
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serial arsonist. Those fires that keep happening on Sigma Chi Road are all by the same person — that’s why arson crime has gone up,” Haarhues said. “Some of the fires have been worse than others. The one that just happened last week at the Telos House — there were people in there, so that could have been really serious.” UNMPD is taking measures to catch the arsonist, but Haarhues UNMPD Dispatch 505-277-2241 said he can’t disclose what those measures are. Haarhues said the crime numbers reported include anyone who was on north, south or main
see Crime page 5
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