DAILY LOBO new mexico
Urlacher retires see Page 3
summer May 28-June 2, 2013
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
Softball team aids tornado victims
Lobos collect donations to take to Oklahoma by J.R. Oppenheim
assistantsports@dailylobo.com @JROppenheim One week into a donation drive to benefit tornado victims in Oklahoma, New Mexico softball coach Erica Beach said the support provided has come as a surprise. The Lobo softball program kicked off the drive May 21, one day after a massive tornado tore through Moore, Okla., destroyed homes and killed 24 residents. Donations will be collected through Thursday night and will depart for Oklahoma Friday morning. Beach did not have a full tally Monday morning of donations received, but stacks of bottled water, boxes filled with clothing, stuffed toys, nonperishable food and other disaster relief items fill the team’s indoor hitting facility at the Lobo Softball Field next to The Pit. “We knew four hours after just starting, before we even had our press conference and halfway filled out locker room, we were in for a surprise,” Beach said. “Once the story broke the entire community — not just the city of Albuquerque but the whole state of New Mexico — has come out. People are giving anything they can.” An online donation page was created at GoFundMe.com/lobos4okc. As of Monday afternoon, the site had generated $1,050 in cash donations. The goal is $5,000, but Beach said she would like to receive at least $1,000 more than that to cover fuel costs to Oklahoma. Donations have arrived from several New Mexico cities, Beach said, including Truth or Consequences, Santa Fe, Las Cruces, Santa Rosa, Edgewood and Albuquerque. Other universities, like New Mexico State, have even reached out, she said. “We’ve had everything from trucks full of water to a little 8-year-old girl bring a case of water in,” Beach said. “We’ve had so many different types of people reaching out.” Volunteers are needed, Beach said, to help prepare the donated items for shipment and load them onto trucks Thursday night after 7 p.m. Beach, assistant coach Lyndsey Angus and former Lobo
see Tornado PAGE 3
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 117
issue 154
William Aranda/ Daily Lobo From left, Chelsea Einerwold, Derek Watson, Erica Beach and Lyndsey Angus go through clothes and other items that will be donated to the victims of the tornado in Moore, Okla. The UNM softball team started taking donations within days after the EF5 tornado struck the Oklahoma City suburb on May 21.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon charter revoked By Ardee Napolitano news@dailylobo.com
UNM has revoked the chapter of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) following allegations of sexual assault against the fraternity and its subsequent suspension last month. In a press release published by UNM Friday, the University stated the SAE chapter was disbanded because of two Student Code of Conduct violations committed during a party at the fraternity house on April 1. Violations included the use of alcohol on campus and consumption of alcohol by minors. The fraternity chapter will not be able to be reinstated until Aug. 1, 2017. The fraternity has until June 5 to appeal this decision to the dean of students. According to the press
release, SAE members admitted consuming alcohol at the party and did not register the party with the University prior to the event. Two underage women also confirmed that members of the fraternity provided them with alcohol, which they consumed. The fraternity was not found responsible for the sexual assault allegations by the University. The release stated that the allegations were merely “results of the action of an individual and not the chapter as a whole.” Robert Burford, student conduct officer of UNM’s Dean of Students Office, said the sexual assault allegations are still under investigation. He said the office decided to disband the chapter because less harsh punishments imposed by the University on the
chapter in the past did not change the chapter’s habits. “One thing that our office had to do is to work with them in previous years,” Burford said. “It doesn’t seem that the sanctions that we took in the past were effective. So we had to take a more severe approach to sanctioning.” The fraternity, which was immediately suspended following the party it held in April, had received a social suspension until December last year because it held an unregistered party last fall. This meant they weren’t allowed to hold social events in the fraternity house until the end of the social suspension. In October 2006, an SAE member was arrested for charges of rape, which allegedly occurred in the fraternity house. In August 2007, another member of SAE was arrested and
was charged with criminal sexual penetration and sexual contact with a minor. UNM suspended the fraternity after the second incident. UNMPD Public Information Officer Tim Stump said police are conducting a separate investigation about the sexual assault allegations. He saidUNMPD is currently conducting laboratory work to assess collected evidence. Stump said UNMPD does not have a specific timeframe for its investigation of the fraternity. Burford said he expects to see changes in the actions of the SAEchapter because of its revocation. “I hope that during their time away, they would reflect on what they’ve done in the past,” he said. “So if they’re back in the future, they wouldn’t do it again.”
Student loan interest rates may rise Rates due to double July 1 if Congress doesn’t act
by Nicholas Salazar news@dailylobo.com
UNM students may be faced with more financial woes than just the recent tuition hike if Congress fails to act on the interest rates of student loans. Barring Congressional action, the 3.4 percent interest rate on federal Stafford student loans is set to double to 6.8 percent on July 1. That rise was scheduled to happen last June, but Congress suspended the increase for a year. Last week, the Republicancontrolled House of Representatives
passed legislation that aims to solve the long-term problems of the interest rates, but the legislation would potentially raise those rates to 8.5 percent. That figure becomes possible because the bill ties the student loan interest rates to market rates, and adds an additional 2.5 percent on top of that figure. Under the legislation, the Congressional Budget Office projects that the rates on those student loans would rise to 5 percent by 2014, and 7.7 percent in 2023. The bill heads to the Senate, where is expected to fail due to fierce opposition from Senate
Tomato fight
Baseball winners
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Democrats, including Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM). In a statement sent to The Daily Lobo, Heinrich said he urges Congress to keep student loan interest rates at their current levels. “Congress must act to keep interest rates on student loans from doubling this summer,” he said. “We need to give students a fair shot at succeeding in a tough economy, not saddle them with debt.” Heinrich is considering a piece of legislation in the Senate that would extend the current interest rate of 3.4 percent until 2015.
“Earning a college degree shouldn’t be a luxury, but (should be) something that every American family can afford,” he said. “I’ll always fight to strengthen the middle class and work to make higher education more accessible to all New Mexicans so that every student who wants a college education can get one.” An extension of the current low interest rates could be welcome news to students at UNM, including one who has already had to retool her financial plans in the face of the tuition hike that
see Interest PAGE 3
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