Daily Lobo new mexico
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
wednesday April 23, 2014
Gongbay released, third suspect sought by Thomas Romero-Salas and Ardee Napolitano sports@dailylobo.com
UNM running back Crusoe Gongbay posted bail and was released from jail early Tuesday morning. On Monday, Gongbay, a 20-year-old UNM student, turned himself in to police shortly before 5 p.m. He faces two counts of sexual penetration, one count of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy. Gongbay’s bail was set at $50,000. Hours after his release, Gongbay posted a message from his Twitter account, @CrusoeGongbay. “Lol sometimes people just out here to get you when you got a future ahead of you,” Gongbay tweeted. UNMPD on Monday also arrested another suspect, Ryan Ruff, who is not a student at UNM. Ruff is still in custody and his bond is set at $100,000. Ruff has been in trouble with the law before. In Cheltenham, Md., Ruff was arrested once for fourth-degree attempted burglary and once for theft less than $100. Both instances happened in June 2011. The prosecutor decided not to file charges against Ruff in the attempted burglary case. Ruff pled guilty in the theft case resulting in
unsupervised probation that ended in Nov. 8, 2012. UNMPD is looking for a third suspect in connection to the rape in question. UNMPD has described the third man as 6 feet tall and 180 pounds with dark complexion, short hair on the sides and longer on the head.
Gongbay might face further University sanctions, as two UNM departments have started a separate investigation of the Lobo football player’s charges of kidnapping and rape. According to a statement from UNM’s Dean of Students, the Office of Student Conduct and the
Office of Equal Opportunity are conducting a joint investigation to determine “if the alleged perpetrator/perpetrators are found responsible” for the rape incident. But Dean of Students Tomás Aguirre said UNM’s joint
see Allegations page 2
by Thomas RomeroSalas sports@dailylobo.com @ThomasRomeroS
Sergio Jiménez / @SXfoto / Daily Lobo New Mexico running back Crusoe Gongbay runs on the sidelines during a game against Air Force on Nov. 8, 2013.
Athletics, library funding out of student hands SFRB surprised by Frank’s change to policy by Chloe Henson
news@dailylobo.com @ChloeHenson5 UNM President Robert Frank has taken away the Student Fee Review Board’s ability to make student fee recommendations for the Athletics Department and University Libraries. Frank made the decision to rewrite the SFRB policy in late March to take Athletics and Libraries outside of the jurisdiction of the SFRB. He recently rewrote Policy 1310, the policy that addresses SFRB procedure, to ensure the changes were made. Frank said he made the changes because the current student fee allocation process was occasionally confusing and unproductive. “It’s been a contentious process at times, and not terribly productive, from what I’ve seen in the past,” he said. “We think there’d be other ways to do it where we can have just as much transparency and just as much engagement from key stakeholders.” Associated Students of the University of New Mexico President Isaac Romero said he believed the process was healthy. He said the SFRB was able to meet with all the different entities on campus and learn about what they contribute to the University. “We believed that we were asking questions and being as deliberate with the entire committee and board, when going through not only
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 118
issue 140
Lobo team meeting emotional
Athletics and Libraries, but all of the organizations,” he said. “We wanted to make sure that we were thorough and making sure that we had justification for our students.” Last academic year, the SFRB recommended a per-student fee of $131.75 for Athletics in FY14. The regents increased the student fees to $165.20. During this year’s session, the SFRB decided to fund Athletics at $4 million, which amounted to about $169 per student, according to University records. Some members of the board were reluctant to fund Athletics that amount, but were willing to recommend the amount because they knew the Board of Regents would approve it, according those interviewed in an earlier article. Romero said he and Graduate and Professional Student Association President Priscila Poliana were called in for a meeting with Frank on Thursday. He said neither he nor Poliana knew what the meeting was about. “President Frank kind of started off the conversation, and then he handed us these documents, which pretty much said that he decided to follow through with removing Libraries and Athletics from the SFRB’s purview,” he said. This year, Athletics requested $4 million and Libraries requested about $1.33 million, according to a SFRB requests and recommendations document. Kevin Stevenson, director of strategic projects for the president, said
Frank had meetings scheduled with Poliana and Romero to discuss the changes earlier in March, but extra regents meetings that came out of the budget cycle had forced the administration to postpone the meetings with student leadership. Poliana said the changes came as a surprise because she thought she and Romero had agreed with Frank not to make changes to the policy yet. She said they had agreed to create a collaborative working group that would work on these changes through the summer and fall. “We talked to President Frank about our suggestions and recommendations, and what we agreed upon was that more involvement and more time was necessary in order to come up with recommendations that were more rounded,” she said. Poliana said she and Romero had met with Frank to discuss concerns that the process had grown too antagonistic. She said that during the Finance and Facilities meeting in November, Regent James Koch and Regent Gene Gallegos expressed similar concerns. Poliana said administrators decided to call a special meeting with students to try to come up with changes to policy that could address the president’s and the regents’ concerns. Poliana said that after the meeting Romero and she submitted recommendations to SFRB policy. She said they spoke with Frank and agreed a collaborative working group should be created to try to work on the policy
through the summer and fall. Romero and Poliana had drafted a joint statement to be presented to the UNM Board of Regents on behalf of themselves and Frank, Stevenson said. “As to the time frame, we concluded that changes during summer and early fall would not allow enough time for meaningful input,” according to the statement. “Consequently, both parties are confident that the collaborative working group can present a thoughtful recommendation to the Board of Regents by November 2014.” Stevenson said he and Frank had looked over the draft and thought it looked good, but it was never presented to the regents. He said he doesn’t know why the draft was not finalized. But Frank said he had not agreed to make changes during the summer. “I had asked them for their recommendations earlier in the year, and we agreed that I wouldn’t make a change during the summer,” he said. “That’s why I met with them at this point and said I was making this recommendation now, which is not the summer. I’m not sure they had quite the same take on our earlier conversation that I had.” Romero said he and Poliana were under the impression that the process would continue until fall. “Priscila’s and my understanding was that we were going to work on this through the end of the semester, through the summer until sometime in the fall,” he said. Poliana said that, regardless of the
see SFRB page 3
There were plenty of emotions at the New Mexico football team’s meeting on Tuesday. Head coach Bob Davie called a meeting with his team to talk about the situation of running back Crusoe Gongbay, who turned himself in to UNMPD on Monday and faces two charges of sexual penetration and one count of kidnapping. Gongbay posted bail and was released from jail early Tuesday morning. Davie didn’t into specifics of the team meeting. “(The players) understand the severity of this. They also understand that Crusoe has a done a lot of good things around here. He’s worked extremely hard,” Davie said. “A lot of emotions and that’s how I started it out. I said ‘I stand up here today with a lot of things and a lot of emotions myself.’ In some ways I feel responsible, in some ways I feel angry, and in some ways I feel mad. We understand the severity of it and so do the players.” Wide receiver Dameon Gamblin tweeted several messages on his Twitter account @D1_DREADHEAD about Gongbay’s situation. Gamblin tweeted that his “heart dropped” when he heard the news regarding Gongbay. “Like I said last night... bad things can happen to good people. We gonna be there for my man Crusoe. He gone beat this!” Gamblin tweeted. Davie said Gamblin’s reaction is a natural one for players. “These are young guys who care about each other a lot. I can understand why Damien Gamblin did that,” Davie said. “I talked to them last night about how everything we say needs to be said in our meeting room together as a team. I can understand a team saying that. We’ll address it.” Davie said he thought it would be inappropriate to comment on how Gongbay’s situation affects the football team going forward. “There are some young people’s lives that could be potentially changed forever because of this,” he said. “I’m uncomfortable saying that it’s more than that.”
today
77 | 44