Daily Lobo new mexico
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October 12, 2011
Continuing Coverage
wednesday The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Occupy Albuquerque
Continuing Coverage
Occupy Albuquerque
Movement reps invite public to info forums by Luke Holmen holmen@unm.edu
Peace Studies professors in collaboration with Occupy Albuquerque protesters will hold teach-in sessions next week designed to give the community an idea of what Occupy Albuquerque stands for. Organizers held the first teach-in, “Intro to the Occupation,” on Tuesday. Desi Brown, who is pursuing a graduate degree in the Peace Studies program, helped coordinate the event. Brown said Peace Studies faculty were asked to help mediate talks between protestors and University administration last week, but he said the relationship between protesters and UNM officials fell apart when officials kicked protesters off campus at midnight Sunday. “They totally broke a trust that had been established in the mediation process,” he said. “There were understandings and compromises, the protesters held up their end of communication, but President Schmidly’s office did not.” Brown said the University made a renewed effort to accommodate the movement by allowing protesters to speak in the SUB. “The change isn’t going to happen overnight; it’s conversations like this that start that,” he said. “I’d like to see corporations held to ethical standards and institutions like this University
address social issues on campus and in the greater community.” Brown said UNM should make restroom facilities available for the homeless in the community and move away from the corporate structure the University has adopted, which he said has contributed to high tuition rates for students and low pay rates for employees.
“Our goal is to disorganize corporate America and to unite people for the revolution” ~Ruby Daunch protester Student Albert Guillen spoke at the teach-in and said student participation is imperative. “I feel as though it’s our responsibility to be here,” he said. “It’s important that we stay active in a system that doesn’t want us to stay active.” Anthropology professor Les Fields said the movement provides a unique educational opportunity. “It’s a teachable moment about how to communicate with those in power,” he said. “Those in power make
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demands, they don’t listen to our requests, they tell us what to do. … And there is no way to hold them accountable, yet we get in trouble when we don’t do what they want.” UNM community member James Buchannan was one of about 60 people who gathered in the SUB for the teach-in on Tuesday and said he thinks the movement is all hype and no substance. “They have no clear goals,” he said. “They talked about nothing. There was a whole lot of talk of revolution and of a new social order and of how corporate America is evil, but when it comes down to it, it’s a bunch of hippies who want to camp on the grass outside UNM and feel like they are part of something bigger because they can’t be bothered to go to work for a living like normal people.” Protester Ruby Daunch said she thinks the movement is about uniting people rather than satisfying demands. “Our goal is to disorganize corporate America and to unite people for the revolution,” she said.
Occupy Albuquerque Teach-in forums next week Monday thru Friday SUB atrium 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Protesters plan to occupy banks At their general assembly meeting Tuesday, Occupy Albuquerque protesters planned additional off-campus protests for today and Saturday. The group plans to occupy four banks in four hours today, beginning with the Wells Fargo on Lomas Boulevard and 2nd Street at 11 a.m. “We don’t stand by or represent any political party,” one protestor said. “We will participate with them, but we are not a part of their agenda.” The group also plans to occupy banks on Saturday, beginning with the Wells Fargo on Central Avenue and Richmond Drive at 11 a.m., and plans to celebrate with a party on UNM campus following the protests.
Candidate for U.S. Senate speaks Andre Valdez, an activist and Albuquerque Democrat seeking election to the U.S. Senate, visited Occupy Albuquerque’s site at Yale Park to present his Vecinos Mondragon plan, a business model in which workers own the companies for which they work. “It’s economic democracy,” he said. “There is a cap on how much people can get paid, and profits go to continue to create business enterprises rather than profit corporate greed.” Valdez said if elected he will target issues such as police brutality, land grants, immigration and homelessness, and spoke about specific plans to address these problems. “I’m running for social justice, and that is what these people are protesting for,” he said. “For instance, with police oversight, victims of police brutality can sue in civil court, but I would criminalize some inappropriate police actions.” Valdez said unlike his Democratic counterparts, he will not accept corporate donations. “Hector Balderas and Martin Heinrich are accepting money from the corporations,” he said. “It’s very hard as a grassroots effort to raise money, but that is the right way to go about it, to ask for support from the people.”
Regents approve one-off bonus by Charlie Shipley
charlieshipley84@gmail.com
The Board of Regents ruled Tuesday that employees making less than $50,000 per year will be eligible for a bonus. Employees haven’t been eligible for a recurring pay raise in three years, and this year saw a 1.75 percent decrease in what they’re required to pay into their retirement funds. “(The bonus) is a fill-in for deductions in income over the last two budget cycles,” Regent Gene Gallegos said. To be eligible, employees must have been employed at UNM for the past two years without breaks. According to Board of Regents documents, full-time employees
are estimated to receive $950 each, but that number may change as the University works out the final details. Part-time employees will receive pro-rated bonuses based on how much time they put in at UNM per week. The bonuses will cost the University about $4 million, and will come from a reserve fund of nearly $4.9 million left over from a higherthan-anticipated year-end balance for fiscal year 2011. Regent President Jack Fortner said New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez opposes the bonuses, which could affect UNM in the upcoming legislative session. Martinez spoke out against the bonuses earlier this week, saying they mean different treatment for UNM employees and other state
workers. “The governor believes that the intent of the Legislature was clear and does not believe that some state employees should be exempted from contributing more to their retirement, while nearly all other state employees are being required to do so,” Martinez’s spokesman Scott Darnell told the Albuquerque Journal. UNM staff council president Mary Clark said she disagreed. “While we are state employees in some respects, while we do get certain state funding, the output of work we do benefits UNM,” she said. “We have this money, it’s been vetted across campus. I think it’s the right thing to do.”
of breast cancer who also volunteers to help other women with the disease. “It’s the cheeriness I can’t stand.” Activists have even coined a new word: Pinkwashing. They say pinkwashing is when a company or organization does a pink breast cancer promotion, but at the same time sells and profits from pink-theme products. Some of the pink products have generated plenty of discussion among breast cancer advocates. A Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun with pink pistol grip? The
manufacturer says a “portion of the proceeds will be donated to a breast cancer awareness charity.” You can get the “Pink Ribbon Combo” at Jersey Mike’s Subs, or the Sephora Collection pink eyelash curler. One year, there was a pink bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. The San Francisco group Breast Cancer Action has led the campaign to question pink products, but executive director Karuna Jaggar said they aren’t
Pink not so pretty anymore by Kevin Begos
The Associated Press
Juan Labreche / Daily Lobo Sarah Rose, 26, stands dressed in a wolf costume in front of a child near the fine arts building while she executes the public service portion of her graduate student art project. For the project, she handed out cupcakes to passers-by.
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 116
issue 38
PITTSBURGH — The country is awash in pink for breast cancer awareness month — and some women are sick of it. While no one is questioning the need to fight the deadly disease, some breast cancer advocates are starting to ask whether one of the most successful charity campaigns in recent history has lost its focus. “The pink drives me nuts,” said Cynthia Ryan, an 18-year survivor
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