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Monday, D ecember 9, 2019 | Vo l u m e 1 2 4 | I s s u e 3 3
Strikers demand emergency decleration By Amanda Britt & Liz Pritchard
@AmandaBritt__ @DailyLobo Students, staff and members of the University of New Mexico community called for the University to declare a state of climate emergency on Friday afternoon. University President Garnett Stokes was not in attendance to hear that message. The climate strike included a march from Johnson Field to the outside of Stokes’ office in Scholes Hall. UNM LEAF — a climate group — and Fight For Our Lives led the march in order to present Stokes with a letter demanding a regenerative campus, investing in education on climate change action and the elimination of UNM’s investment in the fossil fuel industry. Despite ralliers’ efforts, Stokes did not come out of Scholes Hall to receive the letter. “It would be cool to see our executive division come out,” said Laszlo Gonzales-Aller, a sophomore at UNM. He said it was especially frustrating growing up and not being able to voice what he stands for through the voting process. UNM LEAF and Fight For Our Lives advocated that the University needs to divest from fossil fuel companies. The organizations said by doing so, it would cut off the finan-
cial resources the fossil fuel industry uses to build fracking sites around New Mexico — cutting the funding that lobbies against the policies which protect the people and the planet. In 2015, the UNM Foundation, which oversees the University’s investments, asked its consultant to research how much of UNM’s $408 million endowments is invested in fossil fuel companies, according to the Albuquerque Journal. Although what constitutes a fossil fuel company is difficult to define, a retired electrical engineer from Intel told the Journal that typically 5% to 10% of an endowment lies in fossil fuel companies. At UNM, that would amount to between $20 million and $40 million. “You can’t invest in a newer generation if you’re also investing in other things that are going to destroy the newer generation,” Gonzales-Aller said. Marchers also demanded a stop to the use of natural gas generators to power the campus and, instead, giving students the resources to learn how to be environmentally conscious and begin using regenerative sources. Emese Nagy, a junior from Amy Biehl Charter High School, spoke to the crowd on behalf of the students at her school who wanted to see a change in UNM’s policies regarding climate action. Nagy said fracking is poisoning the air and water, de-
Amanda Britt / @AmandaBritt__ / Daily Lobo
High school and college students march through the University of New Mexico’s main campus for climate justice and to declare the University in a state of climate emergency on Friday Dec. 6, 2019.
stroying ecosystems in New Mexico. “By the time I get my college diploma, I’ll be handed a death certificate as well,” she said. Nagy said she got involved in environmental activism by joining the environmental club at her school and began attending meetings, going to the strikes and planning actions. She said the short term goal would be getting UNM and New Mexico to be a leader in stopping the climate crisis. “Since UNM is the biggest university in the state, it would set a really good example, not only for the state
UNM adapts to enrollment woes By Amanda Britt &
Bianca Hoops
@AmandaBritt__ &
@bianca_hoops
University of New Mexico student Madelyn Lucas has been a New Student Orientation (NSO) leader for two years. During the last two summers, Lucas would get to main campus early Monday morning and chauffeur dozens of incoming students around UNM until Thursday evening. Lucas said she hasn’t noticed a de-
cline in the hundred or so incoming students she has worked within her two years as an NSO leader; however, in her other job as a student leader of the undergraduate student government, she grapples with it every day. Since the fall semester of 2012, student enrollment has plummeted by one-fifth (21.68%), according to data from UNM’s Office of Institutional Analytics (OIA). The decline is in response to national trends and campus events, according to Provost James Holloway — which has led to budget
Graph Courtesy of Office of Institutional Analytics (oia.unm.edu)
Inside this Lobo
shortages, departmental scale back and a drastic shift in life for all UNM community members. “That’s significant,” Holloway said. “That’s a challenge we’ll have to work on.” Holloway started at the University in July 2019 but said he was aware of it even before he started as provost. His previous school, the University of Michigan, had stable enrollment trending upward, according to Holloway. Still, he said that enrollment is at
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but other schools in the Southwest,” Nagy said. Others at the rally were concerned with a lack of education to the younger generations of students surrounding climate change. “What we’re taught is the truth, but it’s not as clear as it is,” said Mariluz Lebkuechner, a 16-year-old student from the Public Academy for Performing Arts and organizer for Fight For Our Lives. “They don’t tell us you have 12 years to change this, so I made it clear that that is the situation we’re in.” Organizers said they hope to
meet with President Stokes by the end of January 2020 to continue discussing the need for a regenerative campus and shift the cultural conversations regarding the climate crisis. Amanda Britt is the photo editor at the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted at photoeditor@dailylobo. com or on Twitter @AmandaBritt__ Liz Pritchard is a freelance news reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted at news@dailylobo. com or on Twitter @DailyLobo
LARPing builds community in ABQ By Alanie Rael & Andrea Solis @AllyRael @Drearooo Heroic sword fights, champions dressed in handmade armor, assassins lurking through a battlefield. Actions of these sorts seem to be straight out of a medieval storybook, but for one Albuquerque community, these stories come to life through live-action role-play — or more popularly known as LARPing. Every Saturday, non-profit group Amtgard of Albuquerque - Pegasus Valley, takes to Taylor Park to engage in medieval battle games that consist of combat weapons made of foam to replicate swords, daggers, arrows and other feudal weapons. Members dress in garb of the middle ages, sporting leather or metal armor over their arms and chests, costumes to represent their roles within the group and anything else they deem appropriate to wear. Dressing and battling aren’t the only means of self-expression in Pegasus Valley. According to the group’s website, “In addition to the fighting, (they) strive to better (themselves) in creating new pieces of costumes, armor, music and art.” The community of Amtgard has become a safe place for hundreds of
individuals who have joined to meet others with similar interests. For Pegasus Valley member and scout, Josephus Edmundson (or Salem Mordai to those in Pegasus Valley), dressing in his custom-made armor during Saturday battles is his opportunity to be himself in a community of like-minded individuals. “Some people are loners and they just can’t find their group. I feel like (Amtgard) allows them to get their group, their people,” Edmundson said. The Amtgard recreational organization is not singular to Albuquerque. It began in Texas in 1993 and has grown through make-believe Kingdoms, Shires, Baronies and Duchies spanning across American cities and other parts of the world. Once a year, Edmundson said that participants from all these Kingdoms and make-believe civilizations join together in a Gathering of the Clans somewhere in the U.S. to battle, feast and engage in one large celebration of all that Amtgard stands for. “In Amtgard we have multiple Kingdoms,” Edmundson said, “I’ve met people all the way from Alaska to Hawaii to North Carolina, just all over the country going to these Gatherings of the Clans.” LARPing began in 1977 when Dagorhir, a DC area full-contact me-
see
LARP page 2
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