NM Daily Lobo 102313

Page 1

DAILY LOBO new mexico

The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895

Off the road see Page 4

BRINGING BALKAN TO BURQUE

wednesday October 23, 2013

Law group accused of money mischief by Ardee Napolitano news@dailylobo.com @ArdeeTheJourno

William Aranda / Daily Lobo Randy Edmunds chats with the other members of Goddess of Arno on Monday afternoon. Edmunds plays guitar for the Balkan dance group. See full story Page 5.

Council nixes UNM poll spot by Chloe Henson

assistant-news@dailylobo.com @ChloeHenson5 Albuquerque’s City Council struck down an amendment that would have installed a permanent voting location at UNM at a meeting Monday night. City Councilor Rey Garduño proposed the amendment after speaking to residents in the city’s District 6, which houses the University, who voiced support for an on-campus location. According to the amendment, City Clerk Amy Bailey would have been directed by the City Council to “identify a suitable voting location on the University of New Mexico campus.” Bailey voiced concern over the additional effort it would take to place a voting location at UNM before the Nov. 19 special election. “I understand the argument,” she said. “If we were having the conversation nine months ago, I would have said, ‘No problem, plenty of time, we can figure it out.’ But at this point there are so many things out of our control in a limited time frame. It really concerns me, adding at the last minute.” The council voted down the amendment after a debate over the practicality of adding the location to the campus. According to the Albuquerque Journal, the amendment failed with 5-3 vote. Democratic City Councilors Garduño, Ken Sanchez and Isaac Benton voted in favor of adding the location, while Republican councilors Dan Lewis, Roxanna Meyers, Janice Arnold-Jones, Trudy Jones and Don Harris voted against the amendment. Bailey said among the factors she was concerned about were availability of space, communicating the location to voters and training people to work at the voting location. She said if the council instructed her to find a location, she would “put

Inside the

Daily Lobo volume 118

issue 46

forth all her resources” to prepare the voting center, but would not be able to guarantee results. “If you are telling me to do this, I am going to have to basically replan all of the work that we have, to dedicate all of my time, pretty much, to finding this place wherever it may be, which I will do if compelled,” she said. Councilor Jones also expressed concern over the lateness of the change. “To tie the clerk’s hands, by saying it must be on campus when we do not control that vicinity, it could put us in a real bind with our election that we’ve committed to have,” Jones said. But Jones said a location close to the campus would be suitable for students at UNM. “These are young people,” she said. “If they can get to campus, they can get within a block of the campus, because very few live on the campus.” After his amendment was shot down, Garduño voiced his disappointment. “We’re voting to essentially disenfranchise a society who wants to vote,” he said. “And that’s young people.”

Garduño said he would accept part of the blame for not identifying the lack of a voting location at UNM earlier. But he claimed he had addressed the situation in the past. “This is nothing new. I’ve been talking about this for quite a while,” he said. “I’ll take half the blame, if that’s what people want for not having seen it at the very outset that it wasn’t on there.” Councilor Janice Arnold-Jones suggested providing absentee ballots to students to make voting easier. “Since there seems to be some overwhelming hurdles, there might be some extra thing that could be done at the Student Union Building to make absentee applications available and know that they are there, because that would solve much of this,” she said. According to the city of Albuquerque website, applications for absentee ballots can be printed online to be sent into the Office of the City Clerk. Once obtained, absentee ballots can be either hand delivered to the office or mailed in for $1.12 by 7 p.m. on Nov. 19, according to the site.

Britney King / Daily Lobo Members of Albuquerque’s City Council read through the meeting agenda Monday night. The council did not approve an amendment that would have installed a permanent voting location at UNM.

Don’t pho with us

Promotion problems

see Page 6

see Page 11

UNM is investigating the Student Bar Association chapter for creating an unauthorized, off-campus bank account and misuse of the money therein, which came from University funds and from law student fees. According to a statement issued by UNM Tuesday afternoon, the University has notified various campus departments, including police, about the incident. “UNM is investigating expenditures made in this unauthorized account to determine if any violations of law or policy have occurred,” the statement read. “A meticulous review by UNM’s Internal Audit Department is currently ongoing. UNM police department has been notified of the audit and will review the findings to determine if further action should be taken.” The issue about the SBA’s funds arose after UNM Law School student Christopher Dodd filed a public records request asking for “any document indicating the approximate total dollar amount believed to have gone missing from the UNM School of Law Student Bar Association’s bank accounts” and obtained a list of bank statements Monday. The bank account was created by the SBA with the New Mexico Educators Federal Credit Union.

The statements, which showed the account’s transactions from April 2012, included expenditures at various stores, such as a $200.83 expenditure at Tiffany’s in San Francisco, a $146.74 expenditure at a Hyatt Hotel and repeated expenditures at Zen Nail Spa totalling $118. The statements also showed repeated transactions in bars, such as a $66.89 total bill at Zinc Wine Bar, and in coffee shops, such as a $51.01 bill at a Satellite. Utility and insurance transactions, including repeated expenditures at Qwest totalling $250.83 and a $202.70 expenditure at Geico, were present. Cash withdrawals, the single largest of which was $303.21, were also listed in the statements. In an email sent Monday, Dodd said he let the student body of the law school know about the document. “I felt that as the issue concerns our money, every student is entitled to see the records,” he said. According to the statement, UNM is also ready to involve state officials into the investigation. “As it required by law and University policy, UNM has also notified the (New Mexico) State Auditor of a possible misuse of funds and will send the results of the internal investigation to that office when it is completed,” according to the statement. “University Counsel and UNM

see Audit PAGE 3

Scientist: ‘we got some strange, early results’ UNM-NMSU team probes breast cancer gene by Stephanie Hoover news@dailylobo.com @stephchoover

As Breast Cancer Awareness Month kicks in, UNM scientist Eric Prossnitz and NMSU scientist Jeffrey Arterburn continue their ongoing fight against the disease. Prossnitz and Arterburn have been working together for about 10 years studying a new type of estrogen receptor, which would show potential ways to treat and diagnose breast cancer. “We studied and helped characterized … GPR30, which is a completely different type of estrogen receptor than the nuclear estrogen receptor that’s such an important characteristic for the diagnosis of what’s the best treatment of a breast cancer,” Arterburn said. Prossnitz, a professor of cell biology and physiology, and Arterburn, a regents professor of chemistry and biochemistry, have been working on uncovering this receptor with a team comprising members from both universities. The receptor could also be used to identify the presence of certain lung and endometrial cancers.

The two started studying the GPR30 receptor as a side project after Prossnitz learned about the receptor at a department presentation in 2002, he said. He said initial funding came from the Cowboys for Research Foundation and NMSU’s Tough Enough to Wear Pink campaign. He said some initial oddities especially piqued his interest. “We got some strange, early results that were sort of bizarre,” Prossnitz said. “It had to do with where the receptor was mostly expressed in the cell and so forth.” This inspired the researchers to continue with their research and start applying for grants, Prossnitz said. Grants have come from the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute. They have also received financial support of about $200,000 from foundations connected to UNM, he said. Prossnitz estimates that overall, his team has received just under $5 million from various sources to fund the research. Arterburn said the first thing doctors want to know when a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer is if it is estrogen receptor positive – that there are detectable levels of estrogen receptor protein in a tumor, which encourages the tumor to grow. And

see Cancer PAGE 2

TODAY

71 | 46


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
NM Daily Lobo 102313 by UNM Student Publications - Issuu