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welcome back The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
January 11-16, 2010
Mohawked Matrimony
Student killed by alleged drunk driver by Pat Lohmann Daily Lobo
Gabbi Campos / Daily Lobo Newlyweds Adam Hevey and Jessicah Adkins kiss in front of the Guild Cinema on Saturday night. They chose the Guild in an effort to make their wedding a community event and support the local cinema.
Survey gauges UNM racial diversity Voluntary questionnaire placed online to increase user response by Kallie Red-Horse Daily Lobo
Starting Jan. 19, UNM students, faculty and staff will be prompted to provide their race and ethnicity. The race and ethnicity data collection is a requirement for educational institutions that receive government support, Linda Johansen of UNM’s ITS Department said. “It’s not really a choice — the U.S. Department of Education mandated this change, and any school that wants to keep its federal funding has to comply,” she said. “The University’s eligibility for various kinds of federally funded grants and contracts and student financial aid depends on compliance with this mandate.” The survey has been converted from a mailed document to an online format and now allows participants to select multiple races, said Josephine De Leon, vice president of Equity and Inclusion and executive sponsor of the project. “I believe that the new format is able to capture some multiracial identities more effectively. A problem may exist for some individuals like my granddaughter who is Hispanic, Italian, African-American and American Indian,” she said.
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“Any categorization will not fully capture the rich racial and ethnic background that she embodies. I suspect that the same may be true for many students and employees on this campus.” The first question determines a user’s ethnicity by asking if they are Hispanic, since “Hispanic” is the only federally recognized ethnicity. The second question, determining race, allows users to check as many boxes as they deem applicable.
“By answering the survey you can be more accurately represented. Stand up and be counted.” ~Carol Bernhard, UNM institutional researcher The survey is not mandatory. Race and ethnicity information is important to obtain because it serves as recruitment tool and makes UNM eligible for additional federal grants and contracts, Johansen said. “Complying with this federal mandate is a high priority for UNM as an institution, and we ask all students and faculty and staff
members to make it a personal priority,” she said. Changes to the survey format have been in the works for over a decade, De Leon said. “Recommendations were made in 1997 in response to criticism that racial and ethnic standards did not capture the diversity of our population. However, it took a while for those recommendations to translate into standards,” she said. “It has been quite an undertaking, but UNM can be very proud of its implementation. I think our process can serve as a model for other institutions.” De Leon said knowledge of UNM’s diversity makeup is essential for building a strong educational environment. “It is important for us to know the learning environment at the University is diverse,” she said. “We want students to be able to interact with and learn from individuals who bring diverse experiences and perspectives into the classroom. Race and ethnicity are one aspect of that, however, diversity in all of its manifestations creates the richest and most dynamic learning environment.” Though response to the survey is not required, a higher response rate is expected with the changes to the survey Bernhard said. “We have to ask the questions, but it is completely voluntary to
see Survey page 5
A UNM student was killed Dec. 18 in a head-on collision by a suspected drunk driver near Cuba, N.M. According to a statement released by Lt. Eric Garcia, New Mexico State Police spokesman, geology major Ashley Forsythe, 20, was heading north on State Road 550 near milepost 67. Ronald Martinez, 36, was driving south with his lights turned off in the northbound lane in a Chevy Cavalier when he collided with Forsythe’s Ford Ranger, according to the statement. Officers were dispatched just after 6 p.m. The Office of the Medical Investigator pronounced Martinez dead at the scene. Forsythe was taken to UNMH where she later died. Forsythe was wearing her seat belt, but Martinez was not. NMSP officers observed an open container of beer in Martinez’s vehicle. Adrian Brearley, earth and planetary sciences professor, taught Forsythe in an introductory geology class in Fall 2008. He said the news of Forsythe’s death devastated his colleagues and himself. “She was very highly regarded by all her instructors that taught her,” he said. “I think this is a devastating
event that has an impact on everybody. We all developed very strong personal relationships with our students. When you see this kind of young, talented individual — their life coming to end like that — it affects us all very deeply.” Brearley said a separate memorial service is planned for after the break, but details are still being worked out. Brearley said Forsythe’s determination and work ethic made her a diamond in the rough. “She’s very quiet but very thoughtful and always very diligent and hardworking and obviously had a passion for the subject,” he said. “Any loss like that is so tragic, just a waste of an incredibly talented young lady.” On top of studying geology at UNM, Forsythe worked with the United States Geological Survey and aspired to study the world’s volcanoes in the future. Nicole Thomas, hydrologic technician at the USGS Water Science Center, said Forsythe’s presence at the research institution will be sorely missed. “I worked and went to school with her, and I would just like to say that Ashley will be missed here at the United States Geological Survey where she worked in the Water Science Center, Sediment Lab,” Thomas said in an e-mail. “She was very proud of her position here.”
Victims’ mothers join forces to plea for help “Feminicide” addressed by relatives of missing, murdered women by Kallie Red-Horse Daily Lobo
Women bound together by tragedy reached across borders to join forces last week. The Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice hosted a press conference on Jan. 7 featuring relatives of the West Mesa and Ciudad Juarez victims to publicize the issue of “feminicide.” Irma Monreal, the mother of cotton field murder victim Esmeralda Herrera, said the unsolved murders of women should not be overlooked. “I would like to ask you personally to not look at this as a very far away problem,” she said. “I felt that I would never go through this. I never thought that I would be a victim, but now it happened, and it is real. It has started, and you should not allow it to continue.” Jayne Barela, mother of missing Albuquerque woman, Jamie, said she vividly remembers the last moments with her daughter.
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“Her cousin came to pick her up, and they said they would be right back, but she never came back. I know to this day what my daughter was wearing,” she said. “Nobody knows what a mother really feels like in this situation.” The mothers from Juarez, Monreal and Paula Flores Bonilla, said they were appalled when they learned of the bodies found on Albuquerque’s West Mesa. “It was very shocking to know, reading the newspapers in Juarez about the 11 women’s remains found on the West Mesa here last year,” Bonilla said. “We should not permit these kinds of situations.” Monreal said the two homicide investigations were handled, and perhaps mishandled, similarly, in Albuquerque and Juarez. “I am here to ask the community of Albuquerque to ask the government to not allow to happen here what happens in Juarez,” she said. “Not to allow to have your women killed. Because in Juarez it is very easy for any person to kill a woman because they know the Mexican authorities will not do anything to
see Victims page 5
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