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Thursday, O c tober 31, 2019 | Vo l u m e 1 2 4 | I s s u e 2 3
ASUNM considers defunding Guide to City school paper
Council elections
By Alex Hiett & Alyssa Martinez @amart4447 @Nmal1123
After lengthy discussion — and in a room packed with Daily Lobo staff — the Steering and Rules Committee of the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico (ASUNM) failed a constitutional amendment that would terminate student government funding for the Daily Lobo and two student-run literary magazines. The bill was introduced and authored by Senator Matthew Zank, a former employee of the Daily Lobo, according to the Daily Lobo Editorin-Chief Justin Garcia. The bill failed to advance to a full Senate vote, with four committee members voting against and one member absent. Zank presented the bill as a way to help salvage ASUNM’s budget, which Finance Chair Gregory Romero described during a recent ASUNM meeting as a “financial crisis.” Romero edited the bill and, according to Zank, previously supported the idea. In ASUNM’s Constitution, Student Publications is allotted 8.5% of ASUNM’s general fund “in support of the operations of the Student Publications Board.” Student Publications consists of the Daily Lobo, Best Student Essays and Conceptions Southwest. Student Publications employed 95 students and two full-time staff members in 2018-2019 fiscal year, according to documents Zank presented in the meeting.
By Bianca Hoops @bianca_hoops
Ellie Aikman / @eaikman1230 / Daily Lobo
ASUNM Senator Mathew Zank during his authorship speech for bill 18F, on Oct. 30, 2019. Zank, a former Daily Lobo employee, proposed eliminating ASUNM’s funding support of student publications.
The bill was originally presented by Zank as an attempt to be more “fiscally conservative” because of the ASUNM “budget crisis.” Zank added that “newspapers are dying” during his introduction of the bill.
“I think they should be getting their money from some other place in the University,” Zank said. “The goal isn’t to hurt the paper: The goal is to make them more fiscally responsible.”
Only ASUNM President Adam Biederwolf and a Daily Lobo reporter were present at the start of the meeting, but as it went on, other senators and Daily Lobo staff fil-
see ASUNM page
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New scholarships to address teacher shortage in NM By Colin Peña @penyacolin The University of New Mexico is the recipient of two new state scholarships designed to address the shortage of teachers at all grade levels of the New Mexico public educational system. A study by New Mexico State University estimated that there were 644 teacher vacancies in New Mexico in 2019. The study hypothesizes that some factors contributing to this shortage include a comparatively low starting wage for educators and the dependence of teaching positions on student test scores in the state. The teacher shortage has forced several school districts to resort to urgent measures, such as contracting foreign teachers to fill longtime vacancies. The Grow Your Own Teacher
(GYOT) and Teacher Preparation Affordability (TPA) scholarships were passed by the New Mexico legislature in its spring 2019 session. The scholarships are similar but have distinctly different requirements. GYOT requires the recipient to have worked as an Educational Assistant for 2 years. TPA requires the recipient to be working toward their first teaching certification. Both require New Mexico residency and eligibility through the FAFSA and provides $6,000 per year for up to 5 years. “The really exciting part about this (is)... these two are stackable,” said Smith Frederick, the operations director at the Center for Student Success. “If you happen to be that rare individual who has two years of EA and it’s your initial licensure, we can stack that right on top.” According to Frederick, the
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needs of a teaching degree — such as student teaching and classroom experience — are often time-intensive, making “it almost impossible for most of our students to work the part-time job they need and do their schoolwork.” Previously, it was common for students to delay their degree to work and save money. “We have yet to have a single student withdraw due to that issue this semester,” Frederick said. When asked how the scholarships will affect enrollment in the College of Education, Alyssa Gonzales, a student recruitment specialist, said she expects an increase in enrollment that will begin in the spring, but anticipates new faces to come in the fall. The current impact of the scholarships can be measured by how many previously enrolled students are taking advantage of the new funding. According to Gonzales, in the 2019 fall semester, GYOT has been awarded to four students for around $11,000, and the TPA has
been awarded to 47 students for around $124,000. There are several students who are eligible for both and receive up to $12,000 a semester. “UNM did receive a million dollars — which we’re not near — but the fact that we are able to award this many students this quickly, I think is phenomenal,” Gonzales said. The scholarships do not mandate that recipients stay in New Mexico to teach — a method other occupations have used to ensure the local area is served. “One of the biggest challenges we have is, oftentimes, our students can make significant differences in salaries: It can be as much as $13,000 (more) just by crossing a state line,” Frederick said. Frederick said the new state measure to increase teacher salaries will also help in making New Mexico more competitive in attracting teachers. “Starting salary until this year
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Teachers page 2
This year, voters within Albuquerque’s District 6, which encapsulates the University of New Mexico, will decide between candidates Patrick Davis and Gina Naomi Dennis for a seat on the City Council. In interviews with the Daily Lobo, both candidates said they want UNM students to know that their vote can really make an impact on the community and the University as a whole. Councilor Davis, the incumbent, said if he wins reelection his primary focus will be increasing the number of police officers on Central Avenue. “Two years ago, I passed a law that required APD to bring back bike patrols and extra patrols on Central around the UNM campus,” Davis said. “Last year, I added a million dollars to the city’s budget for additional police officers for Central.” Alternatively, candidate Dennis said the community doesn’t need more officers but instead a decrease in drug addiction to prevent crime. Dennis said officers are not there to prevent crime but rather help with the aftermath. “Our addiction rate is so high, 80-85% of crimes are committed by someone who is high or trying to get high. If we can lower our addiction rate, then we lower our crime rate — we don’t need a gazillion police officers,” Dennis said. When it comes to UNM, Dennis said there should be easy access to healthy, non-expensive food, fair treatment of all students and an administration not engaged in its own political agendas. Dennis said one of her priorities is fixing the Albuquerque Rapid Transit system. “We should restore our Route 66, bring business back, make A.R.T. functional, give people the ability to turn left again on Central and move the bus lanes to the side of the road,” Dennis said. In addition to adding more police officers, Councilor Davis said he is planning to bring a shopping center to South Campus. Davis filed to legislate this project with Councilor Isaac Benton of District 2 in partnership with UNM to bring more shops closer to students. “This would be a huge new shopping center that can have big anchor stores like Target, Costco, some movie theaters and new restaurants, to be developed in the
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City Council page 2
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