DAILY LOBO Free new mexico
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November 22, 2011
tuesday The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
SLATE DIDN’T ‘MARK’ SPENDING LIMIT Make Your Mark failed to report overspending for election; top-voted senator disqualified from taking seat Brandyn Jordan Fidel Rivera Malika Ladha Anthony Santistevan Joe Stevens Kayla Kutter Victoria Ann Archuleta Heather Cho Antonio Hernandez Valeria Garcia
Isabel Hees / Daily Lobo ASUNM senator-elect Brandyn Jordan sits with his slate on election night last Wedesday. Members of the Make Your Mark slate sit left to right: Tony Hernandez, Kayla Kutter, Anthony Santistevan, Brandyn Jordan, Heather Cho, Victoria Ann Archuleta.
•Red highlighted members face gross misconduct charges. •Green candidates were elected and are disqualified from speaking or voting in an official capacity during the first two committee meetings and first full Senate meeting. •All candidates must pay a fine of $97.26.
Photo courtesy of Make Your Mark Make Your Mark candidates: Slate members face a $97.26 penalty per person following a violation of ASUNM rules regarding campaign finance. The slate failed to report the amount they spent on fliers.
by Luke Holmen
The elections commission disqualified Jordan and fellow slate member Fidel Rivera, who Though ASUNM Senator-elect was not elected to a senate seat Brandyn Jordan received the most but could have filled the seat of votes in the recent senate elec- senators who resigned from their tion, he is disqualified from tak- positions, from assuming office, citing them for “gross misconing office. He and 9 other candidates from duct.” The commission also imthe Make Your Mark slate will be posed a fine of $97.26 on all ten fined about $100 each following candidates. Senator-elects from Make findings of financial misconduct, the ASUNM Elections Commission Your Mark are also barred from speaking and voting in an official announced Monday night. capacity during ASUNM Electheir first two tions Director committee meetClaire Mize said ings and first full the candidates Senate meeting. failed to report all Greg Monof their spending, toya, ASUNM neglecting to acattorney genercount for $64.84 al, said the dein fliers used for cision to charge campaign purjust two memposes. The un~Claire Mize reported $64.84 ASUNM elections director bers with gross misconduct was put the candibased on their dates over their role in the financial operations $200 allowed spending limit. “Their financial form was incor- for Make Your Mark slate. “Those 10 individuals, all 10 rect; they did not account for all their campaign material,” Mize said. were on one financial report,” he Jordan said Make Your Mark said, “and the two individuals in candidates plan to appeal the de- question, we assessed their gross misconduct on their testimony cision next week. “We did not purposefully mis- at the elections contest hearing report about the fliers,” he said. we had Sunday. They claimed “That is a mistake, it wasn’t inten- responsibility for the financial tional, and I believe it is a misin- dealings of those 10 individuals.” ASUNM President Jaymie Roybal terpretation. We are going to appeal it because we feel we are not said candidates lied during election in the wrong, and we are going to commission financial hearings. Roybal said limits on election see where it goes from here.” According to an ASUNM press spending allows for fairness in the release, the commission found election. “I think that the first thing that the 10 candidates had willfully withheld invoices of financial comes to mind, having been a transactions used in the cam- candidate and having seen a lot of paigning process, in violation of see Election PAGE 3 the ASUNM Elections Code.
holmen@unm.edu
“Their financial form was incorrect; they did not account for all their campaign material.”
Honors professor awarded U.S. Professor of the Year by Chelsea Erven and Luke Holmen
news@dailylobo.com Honors Biology professor Ursula Shepherd never intended to teach. “I wanted to be a great novelist, a doctor or a lawyer, never a college professor,” she said. “It’s an accidental journey I won’t take time to tell you about, but I will include one secret: I flunked out of college at 19, and the course that was the last straw was biology. Yet here I am.” Shepherd’s journey paid off Thursday at the White House as she became the first UNM professor to receive a U.S. Professor of the Year award. Shepherd is one of only four college professors nationwide to be honored this year. Honors professor Leslie Donovan said the award is likely the most prestigious award any UNM faculty will get this year, and possibly for several years to come.
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“This is the first and only time any UNM faculty member has been honored for this type of award at either the state or national level,” she said. Shepherd said the award validates her work as a professor. “I demand the best of all my students and of myself,” she said in a press release. “My classes are highly interactive, and I practice a form of guided discussion in which no student is allowed to hide for long.” Shepherd said her approach to teaching is an interactive one and she is constantly trying new things to help her students learn. “The most important thing is getting students to be engaged, be interested when they are in the classroom,” she said. “At some point I was desperate enough, and things were hard enough that I was willing to try anything. You have to be like a comedian, willing to make a fool of yourself;
learning doesn’t just happen sitting down in a classroom.” Honors program director Rosalie Otero said one of Shepherd’s most successful classes is the biodiversity program she teaches in Australia. “Those of you who have been fortunate enough to participate in one of Dr. Shepherd’s classes know that she does challenge her students and has high expectations of them,” Otero said. Shepherd’s former student Justine Garcia said she originally signed up for Shepherd’s Biodiversity of Australia class just for the opportunity to go to Australia, but she got more than she bargained for. “I experienced the magical and weird beauty of Australia and its flora and fauna, but I also learned how to investigate that beauty in a systematic and meaningful way,” she said. “Most memorably, I also learned Ursula does a very accu-
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rate imitation of a koala and that she is a pretty good wrestler — even in beach sand.” Garcia said the way Shepherd treats her students sets her apart from other professors. “Ursula’s treatment of undergraduates as mature and capable scientists allows them to develop advanced skills and take ownership in their projects,” she said. “A professor visiting Ursula’s lab once commented that her students were working on some of the most innovative and farreaching projects he had ever seen for undergrads.” Shepherd said her job is all about the students. “I believe every student who passes through my classroom has the ability to be outstanding,” she said. “It’s my job to help them find what they are passionate about. I love my field of biology — the deep questions about how the world works.”
Ursula Shepherd
Reception for
Ursula Shepherd Dec. 2 3-5:30 p.m.
Honors Center
All are welcome to attend
TODAY
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