by Ashleigh Sanchez
Daily Lobo
Communication, education and support are key in battling hate crimes at UNM.
That's the conclusion a group of students came to after a GPSA-led discussion Monday. The graduate student government hosted the forum to discuss a proposed hate crimes resolution to be presented to President David Schmidly.
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The dialogue comes after a culmination of events earlier this semester.
A student took down a Mexican flag from a pole outside Scholes Hall on Sept. 17, tore it and took it to the Air Force ROTC office.
On Sept. 14, police arrested a man suspected of attacking more than 20 Indian students in the past several months.
Another incident occurred at a football game against NMSU Sept. 8, when a man mocked Miss Native UNM in the University Stadium parking lot.
"The kicking people thing, it affected people at the University," student Cheryl Bryan said. "As soon as it went up on the GPSA Web site, the guy was caught, and people were concerned. So, notification would be important."
Student Travis McKenzie said communication was lacking in past incidents of alleged hate crimes.
"There should have been some kind of way to let the University know an in-depth version of hate crime occurrence," he said.
ASUNM Senator Sebastian Pais-Iriart said communication wouldn't be enough.
"In the UNM mission statement, it promotes diversity of campus, but it's hypocrisy when UNM does not punish those who violate that diversity of UNM," Pais-Iriart said.
Members of the group said the University needs to educate as well as punish people who commit hate crimes.
"I cringe when I hear about zero tolerance," student Chris Ramirez said. "It doesn't protect us. It makes people more violent. It's not just about me. It's about keeping everyone else safe. I want to see change, not punishment."
Pais-Iriart said education might not work on some people.
"If you still commit a crime, why should they educate you again?" he said. "You have seminars and stuff. Education is too weak for me."
Ramirez said he wants hate crimes and hate speech to be clearly addressed in the student code of conduct.
Bryan said the University should require courses in diversity.
"Here, you can hear people's pain, and you don't get that just living on campus," Bryan said. "At least it kind of gets them started."
The group decided that UNM needs to support policy to address hate crimes.
"I'm not asking for a dictatorial policy, but some balance is required, so you deter behavior or speech," student Bhavana Upadhyaya said. "There are people who suffer from these instances over and over again. Our system should be geared toward those who are experiencing this."
Student Carolina Ramos said the destruction of the flag is a good example of how UNM has not dealt well with acts of hate.
"You come to the safe place at school, and the flag is being destroyed, and all the focus is on speech rights," she said. "I know we did the flag-raising. It seemed not enough."
Student Aimee Gonzalez said the discussion was good, but it needs to involve the entire UNM community.
"People aren't here because they just don't care, and we need to get them to care," she said. "I want someone to be in charge who I can go to, and they will react immediately, punish and make sure it doesn't happen again."
GPSA will discuss its recommendations at its meeting Saturday.
