Daily Lobo new mexico
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
wednesday April 8, 2015 | Volume 119 | Issue 135
Nobel Prize nominee urges peace During speech at SUB, Catholic priest John Dear stresses need for nonviolent, grassroots activism By Lena Guidi
Nobel Peace Prize nominee Father John Dear encouraged nonviolent strategies for grassroots peace and justice movements during a speech at UNM’s Student Union Building on Tuesday. The lecture was followed by a panel discussion with community leaders regarding ways to mobilize people to work for interrelated social, political and environmental causes. Dear, a priest who has worked with activists around the world on various war and poverty-related efforts, discussed the framework for nonviolence outlined in his 35th and newest book “The Nonviolent Life.” He said that the current state of world affairs makes this framework more necessary than ever. “We now live in a world of unparalleled violence,” he said. Dear said military conflicts, environmental destruction, poverty and nuclear weapons proliferation are examples of issues that characterize global issues in the 21st century. He explained the three steps he has developed for living nonviolently, which are explored in “The Nonviolent Life.” “First, we all have to be nonviolent to ourselves,” he said.
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Nobel Prize page 2
Nick Fojud / Daily Lobo / @nfojud
Nobel Peace Prize nominee John Dear speaks to a crowd gathered in the SUB Atrium Tuesday morning, discussing topics of world peace and his experiences combatting violence. Dear is a Catholic priest, author, lecturer and peace activist who leads an annual peace vigil at Los Alamos National Labs against the use of nuclear weapons.
Court suspends State lawmaker says dispute ASUNM senator over Lottery is pure politics Hampton to appeal ruling over bias By Marielle Dent
(505)836-2810 FAX: (505)839-0475
www.gatheringofnations.com
The Associated Students of UNM Student Court suspended one of their senators on March 27 for voting on an appropriation based on personal bias. The court sided with a College Democrats representative who claimed Sen. Rebecca Hampton denied the student organization funds because of personal bias. The court found Hampton guilty of malfeasance by a 3-2 vote. Hampton has been suspended from office for three weeks. According to Torin Hovander, president of the College Democrats, Hampton proposed that ASUNM reduce their appropriation funds from $300 to nothing because of Hampton’s bias against the Democratic Party. “I believe this is a fundamental question of fairness,” said Hovander during the hearing. “Are all student organizations being treated by the same standard? Are the criticisms given in the ASUNM Senate meetings legitimate? When senators become senators they have certain beliefs, but whatever bias they have
should be left at the door.” Hampton identifies with a “non-binary in gender identity” and asked the Daily Lobo to avoid using gender-specific pronouns. Hampton did not make the motion to lower the organization’s funds but only voted to do so and was simply acting in the best interest of student fees and the students themselves, Hampton said. “I believe it’s an irresponsible use of student fees to make events that are only accessible or engaging to 1,000 students or a few thousand students when there are over 25,000 on campus,” Hampton said during the hearing. “It has nothing to do with me hating those who support Democrats, but I don’t support the Democratic Party because of its policies. I don’t think that those kinds of oppressive ideas should be perpetuated, propagated or promoted on campus.” Justice Seth Barany, writing for the majority, said that Hampton violated Article II Section 7 of the
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ASUNM page 2
April 24 & 25, 2015
By Jonathan Baca
New Mexico Sen. Michael Sanchez is a Democrat representing the 29th District. He has served the Legislature since 1992 and is currently the Senate majority leader. Sanchez introduced the original legislation that created the Lottery Scholarship in 1995, and he has been working to keep the scholarship accessible and able to pay 100 percent of tuition ever since. With the Lottery Scholarship facing a major shortfall, it is possible that next year UNM students who receive it may only get 80 percent of their tuition paid for. The Daily Lobo talked to Sanchez about the work he’s done to protect the scholarship and possible solutions for fixing it. You introduced a bill this year that would have taken unclaimed lottery prizes and added them to the scholarship fund. The bill seemed to have bipartisan support, but it died in the House. Was that frustrating? “It is a little bit. But you know, the legislative process is what it is. It hurts the students, and that’s what bothers me. But hopefully we’ll reintroduce it next January and hopefully they’ll take care of it. We’ll take care of it on the Sen-
Sen. Michael S. Sanchez
ate side, and hopefully they’ll do the same on the House side. It was a no-brainer to me.” The scholarship fund has been short before, but the state managed to make up the difference and keep the funding at 100 percent. Why has it fallen below full tuition coverage again? “The prior legislative session, I introduced a bill and we found another funding source to be able to pay 100 percent of tuition for all students. That bill was then amended on the House side — by a representative from Rio Rancho — that ensured that the students
wouldn’t get their full amount. It came back at the very last moment in the Senate for concurrence, and rather than students not getting anything at all, we concurred with it. But that Rio Rancho representative and some of his Republican friends and even some Democrats voted for that amendment, and they really hurt the students of New Mexico by doing it. I don’t think the Democrats really realized it, but I’m absolutely positive the rep from Rio Rancho understood it. I disagree with the amendment and still do to this day, because we had it covered through another funding source and they chose to ignore that. And that’s why (the funding level) is what it is today, because of that representative.” What other solutions are there to getting it back to 100 percent? “Well, one of the things is that the Board of Regents — not only at UNM but boards throughout the state — they’ve got to look at this issue in a realistic manner. They’ve got to stop using the New Mexico Lottery as a cash cow. I understand that New Mexico State University is going to raise their tuition. They continue to use the Lottery as a cash cow and I’m personally tired of it. There is a way that we can cap or stop that —
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Lottery page 6
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