A graduate student in the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department was killed Monday night after being hit by a car while walking through a campus-area neighborhood.
Elodie Brenas, 21, was a French transfer student who was preparing for her first semester as a teaching assistant for the French program.
Brenas was struck by a vehicle driven by a 22-year-old female UNM student as she neared the corner of Maple Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at about 8:30 p.m., said Trish Ahrenfield, spokeswoman from the Albuquerque Police Department.
Ahrenfield said no foul play was suspected in the accident and alcohol was not involved. Brenas was taken to UNM Hospital where she died shortly after midnight, Ahrenfield said.
Warren Smith, chairman of the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department, said he received a phone call alerting him of the accident shortly after 10 p.m., but by the time six co-workers and friends had assembled at the hospital, Brenas was dead.
"She had been admitted to our graduate program only a few months ago, so I had not had the chance to get to know her very well, but her death is a great loss to our department and the University in general," Smith said. "She was clearly a person who was kind and affected everyone around her in a positive way."
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