Daily Lobo new mexico
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Monday, O c tober 2, 2023 | Vo l u m e 1 2 8 | I s s u e 8
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
UNM is noncompliant with crime transparency law Daily crime log missing data, LoboAlerts never sent
By Lauren Lifke & Lily Alexander @lauren_lifke @llilyalexander
Federal law states that higher education institutions must have five specific categories of information in their mandated daily crime logs, which provide campus crime data to students. The University of New Mexico has two of the five specified categories. The Clery Act, signed in 1990, requires higher education institutions that receive federal funding to publish an annual security report,
provide timely notifications when crimes threaten the campus community and maintain a daily crime log. UNM’s LoboAlert system and daily crime log fall under its Clery Act Compliance Policy. The act says the log must include the nature, date, time, general location and whether the case is open or closed for all crimes reported to campus police or security. “The Clery Act requires that (the crime log) provides, in plain language, a description of an incident that happened or almost happened that was reported, (and) whether we can prove it or not as well as locations in plain language,” Clery coordinator Adrienne Helms said.
Of the required categories, UNM’s daily crime log features only the nature and date. The timestamp has been 00:00:00 on every incident for at least a year. UNM Police Department is in charge of updating the crime log, according to Helms and UNMPD Lieutenant Larry Bitsoih. The crime log contains any incidents that take place within UNMPD jurisdiction, even if they do not fit the list of federally defined Clery crimes, Helms said. On Sept. 15, 2023, students received alerts of a stabbing near the UNM Bookstore. Upon review of the crimes logged for Sept. 15 — when students received LoboAlerts
ASUNM President and Vice President disappointed in Senate’s vote
of the incident — none were listed as assaults, the proper nature of the crime. Only one listing could have described the incident, labeled as “informational.” The Clery Act states daily crime logs must be easily understood. “I know that our system is outdated. We did have a meeting about that and they’re in the process of updating that. And I see (the updates) definitely by next school year,” Bitsoih said. UNMPD sometimes lists the nature of a crime as “information” or “informational.” Bitsoih and Helms defined this description differently. “It’s probably not a crime, but we call it an information report,” Bitsoih said. “It might be something that’s
close to a (Clery crime) but it doesn’t fit the state statute. Or it could be simply someone reporting.” Helms explained “information(al)” on the daily crime log is pulled from police reports; officers will often write “informational” in the “offense” space on police reports to indicate people have to read the narrative part of the report for more details. Emergency notifications, or LoboAlerts at UNM, must be issued upon confirmation of a dangerous situation occurring on campus that poses an immediate threat to safety, according to Clery Center Senior Director of Programs Laura Egan.
see LoboAlerts page 5
Silent Lights, vibrant night
Bill to combine Senate and presidential elections failed By Karina Bolaños @DailyLobo
“I am incredibly disappointed in the Senate as a whole,” Vice President Mikenzie Chessman said, after the failure of Bill 9F on a 6-140-0 vote on Wednesday Sept. 27 during a full Senate meeting. Proposed to combine the Presidential and Senatorial General Election, Bill 9F would have done so by an amendment to the Associated Students at the University of New Mexico’s Constitution. The bill was sponsored by President Krystah Pacheco, Vice President Mikenzie Chessman, Senator Alfred Achusim and Executive Director of the Elections Commissions Heidi Garcia. Bill 10F, sponsored by the same individuals, goes alongside Bill 9F and would have done the same but would instead alter the law book of the Constitution. Both failed. “If you are opposed to a piece of legislation, talk to the author before we get here and spend all this time talking about it in full senate,” Chessman said. Discussions about the possibility of a “superslate” arose several times in the senate meeting. A slate is when a group of candidates run with similar platforms and support one another. A superslate is when this happens alongside concurrent senatorial and presidential elections. This could make it harder for candidates
to be elected if they were not a part of the superslate. “If we fail this bill, there would be no threat of a superslate at all,” Achusim said. These bills were in an effort to improve voter turnout, Pacheco said. In the spring 2023 Presidential Election, 476 students voted; In the senatorial election, 162 people voted. During the public comment, Garcia spoke about past voter turnout statistics from prior elections, both with and without a combined election. In the spring of 2016, ASUNM held combined elections and had a voter turnout of 1,525 people. In the spring of 2017, the elections were separated and had a voter turnout of 2,416 people for the presidential elections and a turnout of 1,551 people for the senatorial election. Senator Hope Montoya said she discussed this legislation with students on campus and they felt doing more outreach and marketing would allow ASUNM to reach more students. Senatorial sponsor of the bill shared these thoughts. “(This bill) won’t necessarily increase voter turnout the way polling stations would,” Achusim said. Several senators, including Senator Gabriel Gurule, said instead of combining elections, the Elections Commission should be better funded by ASUNM, alongside more polling stations and further outreach to students to improve
see ASUNM page 5
Ella Daniel/ @ella_daniel7/ Daily Lobo
Lobo Louie joins students as they dance at Silent Lights on Thursday Sept. 28. (See pg. 2).
“Bless Me, Ultima” and the strange magic of storytelling
By Detroit Kallunki @DailyLobo
51 years ago, Rudolfo Anaya’s most famous book, “Bless Me, Ultima,” was published. For the first time, many people saw themselves represented in a literary form. Anaya celebrates the complexities of Chicanx identity as well as the New Mexican experience in a way that has not been done on a broad scale before. The National Hispanic Cultural Center has partnered with the University of New Mexico’s English department for the past two years in September to screen the 2012 film adaptation for the past two years in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month,
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according to associate UNM English professor, Melina Vizcaíno-Alemán. “The Rudolfo and Patricia Anaya Lecture on literature in the Southwest opens doors to the exciting collaborations taking place across UNM, the NHCC, campuses and communities,” Vizcaíno-Alemán said. Poet Laureate is an annual threeyear position awarded to a storyteller by the New Mexico State Library to support literature. This year, Levi Romero, Poet Laureate of 2020, delivered a reading of an essay about his relationship with Anaya, as well as the impact that “Bless Me, Ultima” has had on the identities of Chicanx people, bilingual people and storytellers across the world. “Since its publication in 1972, ‘Bless Me, Ultima’ has inspired
countless people across this country and around the globe – both young and old – to read, write and listen with a sincere appreciation for the cuentistas. ‘‘Those storytellers graced us with a special presence in our lives,” Romero said. Romero uses the term storytellers instead of writers, poets or authors to embrace those who hail from storytelling or oral traditions, as Anaya did. Linguistic identity, Romero said, played a large role in the cultural connection with Anaya’s book. “For native Spanish speakers, (‘Bless Me, Ultima’) was a hallmark of linguistic affirmation, written in our own language,” Romero said. Reading “Bless Me, Ultima,” Ro-
see Storytelling page 5