DAILY LOBO new mexico
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The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
September 21, 2010
Sex scandal still stings after three long years by Shaun Griswold shaun24@unm.edu
The Chronicle of Higher Education, a national publication, wrote an article about the breakdown of UNM’s shared governance after photos featuring an English professor and several graduate students surfaced on a sadomasochist website in 2007. The Sept. 12 article said creative writing professor Lisa D. Chavez encouraged her graduate students to get jobs with People Exchanging Power, an Albuquerque-based company that acts as a support network for people with sexual fetishes and offers phone-sex services and opportunities to rendezvous with some of its employees. Carrie Cutler, a graduate student in the English Department, said the debacle has left her uneasy about her standing in the department. “There is a lot of mistrust, a lot of suspicion and a lot of anger,” she said. “In this case, there are a lot of people in the department who try to blame the people who are saying there is a problem.” Before the incident, Chavez was Cutler’s dissertation adviser but was dropped when the allegations surfaced. She said her efforts to file a complaint with the University have gone nowhere. University officials didn’t respond to several calls or e-mails since last Tuesday. “I’ve been to the president’s office. I went to the Dean of Students. I went everywhere I could because I was diligently trying to go through the channels available to me. It is not easy for people to pay attention to harassment, at least in my experience here,” Cutler said. Cutler also tried to file a complaint with the Office of Equal Opportunity — UNM’s branch to report allegations of ethical breaches, workplace discrimination and sexual harassment— and complained of a hostile learning and working environments. “They were exceedingly hostile,” she said. A poet, Cutler said an effective creative writing program requires trust between students and their instructors. Without that, she said, she is unable to get the most out of
ITALIAN EXCURSION
the program. Her new adviser teaches nonfiction. On the website, Chavez posted under the pseudonym, “Mistress Jade.” Her advertisement said, “Do you want a biker bitch, an imperious goddess or a stern teacher ready to punish unruly students?” In one photo, she posed with then-graduate student Liz Derrington. While Chavez, who still teaches at UNM, was never found guilty of any wrongdoing. Still, three professors filed lawsuits about whether the University followed proper protocol when handling the situation. In an e-mail, Chavez said the situation should have been over three years ago. “It is only a few people who continue to drag down our department by their refusal to let this matter rest,” she said. English professor Sharon Warner was the director of the creative writing program at the time and was one of the first to learn about the allegations after receiving an envelope containing photos from the website and an anonymous letter complaining about the incidents. In 2009, Warner filed a lawsuit against UNM for breach of implied contract, breach of covenant of good faith and retaliation. She also filed complaints with OEO but was unsuccessful. She claimed the administration did nothing to remedy complaints brought against Chavez, and the English department suffered as a result. Warner claims UNM is procedurally required to acknowledge complaints she filed with OEO. Her lawsuit states that there is a Graduate School of Arts and Sciences policy that prohibits sexual relations between students and faculty. “The University needs to solve this problem, for the sake of the students,” Warner said. “They shouldn’t allow this type of dysfunction to continue for years and years. It’s completely irresponsible.” She said her husband has suffered from most of the retaliation. Because Warner is a tenured professor, the University cannot take her salary away but it can take her husband’s,
A gondolier takes a bubblegum break in Venice.
A view from the bar of a coffee shop in Naples
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Faiths unite to plan Peace Day festivities by Chelsea Erven cerven@unm.edu
When the United Nations declared Sept. 21 the International Day of Prayer for Peace in 2002, it said the day should be “reminding us that our permanent commitment, above all interests or differences of any kind, is to peace.” That’s why UNM’s Inter-Religious Council (IRC) is putting aside its differences and working together to bring the Day of Peace to campus, said Andrea Schoeny, campus minister of communications for the UNM Aquinas Newman Center. “The IRC coming together on this event is a showing that peace is possible between people,” she said. Today, UN representatives of all religious backgrounds from the IRC will be in tents under the northeast grove near the Duck Pond from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., offering
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Inside the
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information about the IRC and collecting donations for the Albuquerque Domestic Violence Shelter. Pastor Anne Morawski of the Lutheran Episcopal Student Movement said the IRC will hold a prayer vigil and pass out IRC brochures for each religious group. Schoeny said the prayer booth gives students, religious or otherwise, a chance to offer their prayers, thoughts and wishes for peace, and all peace wishes will be strung up between two trees by the Duck Pond. “It’s important for all people, no matter their religious convictions or ideology, to come together and recognize that peace is something important to the whole human race,” she said. Catherine Loweree, Aquinas Newman Center’s peer campus minister, said this is the first year students are involved in planning the Day of Peace. “This is just really fantastic because all the campus ministries are all so close,” she
A man smokes a cigarette during siesta in Florence.
Daily Lobo photographer Ryan Garcia spent a month this summer in a UNM art history program in Italy. The program offers an inside look at some of world’s oldest and most cherished pieces of art and gives students housing, some meals, a metro pass and other perks. This summer, students lived in Rome and visited Venice, Florence and other cities. However, the program is in need of increased enrollment to continue. Visit oips.unm.edu to apply.
Trapped underneath
Frenzied fixing
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