DAILY LOBO new mexico
Not going anywhere
wednesday
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The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
March 24, 2010
Law students vote today on whether to leave GPSA by Andrew Beale Daily Lobo
The Graduate and Professional Student Association may lose about 345 members depending on the results of a vote today. The Student Bar Association, which represents UNM’s School of Law, called a vote to determine whether the law school students will
secede from GPSA to form their own organization. Law student Genevieve Graham, who helped with the planning stages for the vote, said some law students want to secede from GPSA to have more control over student government. “For quite some time now, GPSA’s interests have not been aligned with law school interests,” she said. “The law school students are capable of
governing themselves.” GPSA President Lissa Knudsen said if the law school secedes, GPSA will lose funding from the student fees brought in by the school, estimated at more than $8,500. “We would lose about 345 people at $25 a head,” she said. “We would also miss their expertise.” Knudsen said law school students make about double that money back in a typical year through GPSA
programs such as tuition assistance and specialized travel grants. “If they were to secede, it would probably benefit the other departments, because I think the law school people take the most money from us. But we would still miss them,” she said. “It’s important to keep all the campuses together.” Knudsen said the law school students would lose these benefits from GPSA if they seceded and GPSA won’t
be hurt by the $8,500 lost. “I hope they understand what we won’t be doing for them anymore,” she said. The election will be held by electronic vote, and the results will be binding, Graham said. She said that after the election, the proposed new organization will have to be approved by the Board of Regents.
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Flooding, maintenance close UNM’s three pools
Under pressure
by Tricia Remark Daily Lobo
Vanessa Sanchez/ Daily Lobo Senior Alexia Seebeck screen prints in the art building on Tuesday. Seebeck said she was finishing up her midterm project.
Summer is right around the corner, but students won’t be using UNM pools any time soon. The Olympic pool, Johnson pool and the therapy pool are all closed due to maintenance issues. A pipe in the Olympic pool’s maintenance room burst, flooding the room with water after a planned power outage March 14, said Robert Notary, Physical Plant Department associate director. This is the second time the Olympic pool has been closed since March 2009. The pool was closed during winter break for tile repairs. “The flooding didn’t cause any damages, but we’re still left with all this piping that needs to be replaced,” he said. Notary said Physical Plant Department representatives were at the building when the power was shut off and stopped the flooding immediately. A steam leak heated a length of pipe holding still water, Notary said. The water became so hot that the plastic pipe warped and caused the end of the pipe to explode. He said UNM is not responsible for the flooding, but it has not yet been determined who will eventually pay the estimated $20,000 bill. “Shutting off the electricity didn’t cause it, but it made the problem evident,” Notary said. “The root cause was the steam valve.” UNM chose K.L. House Construction Co. to complete the remodel last year, and Notary said the company’s work should still be under warrantee. President of K.L. House, Michael Brogdon said who pays the bill depends on who caused the damage. He said there is a possibility that UNM
caused the flood by shutting off the pool’s power. “If the University did something wrong, they’ll have to pay for it,” he said. Brogdon said there are others who may be responsible as well, including plumbers, subcontractors and engineers. “We’ve tried to simulate the outage on this valve several times, and we can’t get it to malfunction in the mode that we thought it did,” he said. “We’re still trying to figure out what happened.” James Todd, associate director of Recreational Services, said the Olympic pool may reopen on April 10, but the date is still tentative. He said that after all repairs are made, the pool must be turned back on. At that point, he said, there may still be other parts that were affected by the explosion and need to be replaced. “After we do that we’ll determine if there are any other things that need to be repaired,” he said. “We’re hoping there’s not.” Todd said many people have questioned why the pool is closed again. “People are concerned,” he said. “They’re concerned that the pool isn’t open and wanting to know why.” According to an e-mailed statement from Todd, more than 20 feet of piping needs to be replaced, as well as other mechanical equipment. Brogdon said one part must be reordered from Canada. The therapy pool was automatically shut down because it’s in the same building as the Olympic pool. Johnson pool has been closed since June of last year because its drains are no longer up to federal and state codes, Todd said. He said a reopening date for that pool hasn’t been set yet.
State’s slow adoption of medicinal marijuana draws criticism by Hunter Riley Daily Lobo
New Mexico’s medical marijuana program is gaining momentum, but some activists say it isn’t progressing fast enough to meet the needs of its patients. In December, the Medical Marijuana Advisory Board held a public hearing in Santa Fe to allow people to petition for more health conditions to be treated by the drug. Of the five health conditions on the
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Daily Lobo volume 114
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meeting’s agenda — including obsessivecompulsive disorder and hepatitis C — only one was approved by Secretary of Health Alfredo Vigil. The condition added to the list that allows people to apply for a medical cannabis card was inflammatory autoimmune-mediated arthritis. “With the other conditions, the research was very sketchy,” Vigil said. “And by that I mean I only use sources of information that I know to be reliable and scientific. I‘m a boardcertified physician, and I’ve been on the
clinical faculty of the medical school for many years. That’s the world I live in; that’s the way I approach things.” Linda Gordos, a doctor on the advisory board, said there aren’t enough reliable studies to reference, because the substance has been heavily regulated. “It is challenging for cannabis because it has been restricted, and essentially it has been restricted from being used in a lot of medical research,” Gordos said. “Some of what we deal with in the medical literature is testing that is
Where are we?
Hole in one
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Medical Marijuana Advisory Board Hearing March 30 Harold L. Runnels Building 1190 St. Francis Dr., Santa Fe 10 a.m.–noon For more info visit MedicalMarijuanaRadio.com
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