The Executive Council of Students, ECOS, is CNM’s student government group, explained Colin Stapleton, Outreach Officer.
“It’s members organize student activities, and work with the administration to improve the student experience at CNM,” said Stapleton.
The CNM Chronicle recently asked the new officers of ECOS, why the joined the Counsel, and to highlight of some of their goals as members, during their term.
Alex Crossland, the current President of ECOS, shared that he first started going to ECOS meetings because he was interested in student government and the activities they helped provide for CNM students.
“I decided to join because I wanted to be part of a team dedicated to helping students and clubs,” said Crossland.
As President, one of Crossland’s main goals is to ensure effective oversight of student money, to make sure that student difficulties are heard by the CNM Administration and help to support student activities, according to Crossland.
Imane Bahji is the current Vice President and she joined ECOS because she believes the student body must have a vocal and active student government on campus to represent their interests and needs, said Bahji.
“I want to be part of that process,” said Bahji.
Bajhi said that as an ECOS member, wants is to make sure that attending CNM is a memorable experience for all students.
She wants to assure students that their concerns are listened to and met with action in a timely fashion, said Bahji.
“I love to play team sports. It serves as a balance to schoolwork. Before COVID-19, you could find me playing pickup basketball or soccer games at UNM every week. With social distancing, I’ve had to make adjustments. So, for the past few months, I try to go for a quick run before most people are awake. But that is easier said than done,” said Bahji.
Colin Stapelton, the new Outreach Officer of ECOS, said he joined to be more involved.
“I initially joined ECOS to learn more about student activities at CNM. I believe that student clubs, and activities, are some of CNM’s most valuable community-building resources,” he said.
ECOS is heavily involved in organizing, and funding, these student activities, said Stapleton.
As an ECOS member, Stapleton said h e hopes to continue growing student activities.
“I also would like ECOS to become more active in student advocacy, particularly to help students who are struggling with administrative issues. I believe ECOS is currently an underutilized resource, and I would like to increase its effectiveness,” said Stapleton.
He is interested in acting, and film production, and CNM has a great community for both of these activities, Stapleton said.
Stapleton shared that he has been heavily involved with CNM’s Improv Club, and that he recently started the Camera Acting Club, to help students further participate in these activities outside of class.
Both clubs are currently inactive because of the shutdown, said Stapleton.
Stapleton added, “We hope to resume them as soon as possible.”
ECOS is a great way to learn about the various student activities at CNM, and ECOS membership can be a resume item, for future employment, said Stapleton.
“ECOS is always recruiting new members,” said Stapleton.
The next two ECOS meetings are scheduled for Friday August 7 and August 21 at 2:00 pm, said Stapleton.
All meetings are currently being held online. Students can access the ECOS meeting room typing the following URL directly into their browser: meet.jit.si/ecosmeeting, said Stapleton.
CNM offers many different clubs. However, with a student body of over 25,000 students it can be difficult to stay in the loop.
Not all of the clubs that are available at CNM are listed on the CNM website so we at the Chronicle researched to find new clubs that students might not be aware of.
Listed below is a list of CNM clubs accepting members this semester.
Club: Sunflare Photography Club
The Sunflare photography club taking a picture of club president, Hannah Choy, while she takes a photo of them.
When and where: From 3:00pm-5:00pm on most Fridays at 4501 Juan Tabo Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87111 unless stated otherwise. Club meetings are announced via Facebook and email.
Club activities: The club goes to different locations such as Oldtown, Downtown Albuquerque, and the Bio Park to take photos. Sometimes they go out to eat and visit photo galleries, said club president, Hannah Choy.
Shot by Hannah Choy during one of the Sunflare’s photo walk in Oldtown.
Why students should join: “Students should join because our club is a good place to learn and practice photography skills, to make more experiences to put on resumes, to learn teamwork, to get networking opportunities, to gain leadership and to have lots of fun,” Choy said.
Contact information: Students interested in joining can contact Hannah Choy at hchoy@cnm.edu.
Club: Executive Council of Students (Student Government)
When and where: 4:00pm-6:00pm on Fridays at the ECOS office, BT3-b. (The portables near Trio and Taxhelp in the bookstore parking lot).
Club activities: The Executive Council of Students goals are to increase CNM’s sense community, provide opportunities for CNM students, provide fair representation of all students and bring those issues to the CNM administration, and to help distribute information about CNM to the students, said Council President, Jimmy Thompson.
Thompson is also hoping to provoke enough interest to support a CNMpics (CNM olympics) to host a series of events that are athletic, fun and all inclusive, he said.
Why students should join: Students should join because it not only increases one’s sense of community at CNM but it ensures a sense of community for everyone, Thompson said.
“ECOS works to represent the entire student body, no matter how small or diverse a population may be. The greater participation we have will result in a more varied governing body with a more extensive direct outreach to the student body and all persons on campus in general,” he said.
Contact information: Students who are interested in joining the Executive Council of students ca contact Jimmy Thompson at jthompson120@cnm.edu.
Club: Anthropology Club
Chandra Germain examining a Neanderthal skull at one of the Anthropology Club’s meet and greet events.
When and where: Noon on the first Friday of each month in the Main campus cafeteria. The first meeting of the semester will be on Friday, October 6th.
Club activities: In the past the Anthropology club has held Meet & Greet events, participated in the Westside Fall Festival and College Days, attended conferences, organized field trips and demonstrations, created campus displays, held fundraisers, and provided community service, said Sue Ruth, Anthropology instructor.
Why students should join: “Students should join if they have an interest in anthropology and want to get more involved at CNM”, Ruth said.
Contact information: Students interested in joining can contact Sue Ruth at sruth2@cnm.edu.
Students can also visit the CNM Anthropology Facebook page and click the “join group” button to get updates on events related to the club.
Club: Phi Theta Kappa
When and where: The upcoming general meeting is scheduled to take place on October 17. The upcoming officer meeting is scheduled to take place on October 4th at 2:00pm. PTK members also volunteer with East Gate Church food pantry on the first Saturday of every month.
Why students should join: The benefits of being a PTK member include; being able to apply for transfer scholarships and academic scholarships in their majors, having an opportunity to participate and lead community service initiatives, having the opportunity to fulfill leadership positions, and being able to study topics which relate to local community and how it relates to the student’s own personal professional life.
Contact information: For more information, students can contact the public relation officer Frozan Popal at fpopal1@cnm.edu or the PTK student’s president Brittiana Padilla at bpadilla77@cnm.edu.
Club: Art Club
Art Club flier. Jennifer Woehrle is the newly elected club president.
When and where: 4:30pm every Friday in room N12 on Main Campus
Club activities: We host workshops centering on various mediums and practices of art, anything from figure drawing to linocut printmaking, said the art club president Jennifer Woehrle.
Why students should join: Students should join if they are interested in art, or just in learning something new, Woehrle said.
Contact information: Students can join by showing up on a day that the club meets or they can email the art club president Jennifer Woehrle at jwoehrle@cnm.edu, or the art club vice president Carolina Kessler-Cocina akesslercocina@cnm.edu.
If these clubs don’t interest you, check out our summer club story here or check out the list of clubs on the CNM website.
If your perfect club doesn’t exist yet, create it! Click here for more information.
Elections for nine open positions in the Executive Council of students will be held on Friday September 30, said Tisha Hudetz ECOS president.
The open positions include: budget officer, administrative officer, satellite representatives for Montoya, South Valley and other campuses and 4 council members, Hudetz said.
Students interested in joining the council can fill out an application form at the dean of student’s office or the student activities office on main campus, Hudetz said.
The commitment for all ECOS members is a 2-year term, she said.
The council are looking for students who are able to represent the diverse nature of the CNM student body, Hudetz said.
The requirements to become a member of the council are as follows: the willingness to be an active student representing on at least one CNM standing committee; have some degree of leadership experience including leadership on the job, volunteer experience, or involvement with other student activities; the willingness to be introduced to the student body in the form of an article written in the CNM Chronicle and the ability to maintain a 2.5 GPA minimum, Hudetz explained.
“As representatives of the student body, we are held to a high standard. Active participation and serious consideration are key,” Hudetz said.
A committee made up of one student from the current council, one student who is a member of another CNM student organization, one faculty member and the Dean of Students, Hudetz stated, will choose new council members.
Current council member Tim Turner is in the running for the budget officer position, Hudetz said.
“I am looking forward to what the future will bring,” she said.
Tisha Hudetz, president of the Executive Council of Students returns to the council after being on maternity leave for 8 weeks.
In her absence, vice president, Shaun Patterson served as interim president.
“Being back has been an honor. I am so proud of the incredible work that was done in my absence by a truly dedicated team,” she said.
Hudetz is thankful to the Executive Council of Students for their support during her leave, she said.
“If not for the consistency of the council deliberations and efforts as well as the continued support of the Office of the Dean of students, I would not have had the opportunity to truly share time with my new son and family,” she said.
Shaun Patterson has resumed his duty as the Council Vice President.
“As a full time working woman, a mother of 2 now, a wife, a student here, and a passionate advocate for women’s rights, I honestly don’t know where she finds the time and energy!” he said.
Shaun feels blessed and honored to be able to serve as Tisha Hudetz’s vice president, he said.
Hudetz is glad to be back and looking forward to the future of ECOS, she said.
The Executive Council of Students has begun its annual election process this July and its current members who are now running for office have proven to be a capable group of folks promising that, no matter the outcome, the voice of the student body will be represented properly and efficiently, said President of ECOS and Criminal Justice major Carrie Ratkevich.
Ratkevich said four nominees have been chosen for the election which is scheduled for July 11, and that she is satisfied with the candidates because she knows that they are each qualified and driven to do what is best for the student body of CNM.
“I am really happy to see that the members we have do care about things that are going on and they do understand the amount of effort that will have to be put in. Regardless who wins, I will be satisfied knowing that,” she said.
The four nominees each have different plans and ideas for what they would like to see happen during their time in office, yet Ratkevich is also confident that each of them understands the main purpose and goal of ECOS and are driven to pursue that goal, which is a promising prospect, she said.
“I think they are all serious and they have different viewpoints so it is really going to push them further into doing things that are the most good for the most students and as long as they have the students in mind, I think everything is going to be perfect,” she said.
The election process, Ratkevich said involves nominating members at least a week before the actual election and only official ECOS members are allowed to be elected and vote.
The people who are nominated are required to have a mission statement and answer any questions that the members feel are important, she said.
Ratkevich said that the election process is taken very seriously because ECOS holds a lot of responsibility as the representation of the students’ voice, and that means electing officers who are fit for the job.
“It should be an important thing on campus for us to be able to invoke positive changes for the student body with the administration, so it is important that we take this job seriously, thus elections are important. There is a lot of work you have to do so it is important that you have a good solid officer too,” she said.
The people who get elected will not take office until the beginning of the fall semester, so the time between the election and then will ensure that new officers learn everything that is needed to get a running start in the fall, she said.
Any student can become a member of ECOS by having a GPA of at least 2.5, two letters of recommendation from staff or faculty, and by filling out an application from the ECOS office located at Main Campus, Ratkevich said.
Ratkevich said she looks forward to seeing who wins the elections and knows that ECOS and the student body will be in good hands no matter what the outcome will be in the fall.
“We do not serve anybody but the students. That is our purpose here and I think all of them know that and take that job seriously,” she said.
Thomas Saunders, Running for Administrative Officer and Communications Officer of ECOS
Welding major, Thomas Saunders is running for Administrative Officer and Communications Officer, he said.
Saunders would like to become an officer of ECOS who represents the voice of the other trades students such as himself, he said.
“What I bring to the table is I am obviously a trade student, so I am more of a blue collar voice of the group. I would like to represent all the trade students—all the welders, the machiners, the carpenter, and be their voice,” Saunders said.
Saunders said when he becomes the Administrative Officer he will be willing to do everything and anything that ECOS needs him to do and is confident that he will serve to the best of his ability, he said.
Saunders has been a member for less than a month and said he is greatly qualified for the position as administrative officer because he is experienced and skilled with administrative work such as making purchase orders and event requests.
He is also running for communications officer because he said that student issues and communication with the school are a priority to ECOS, just as he is passionate about opening a dialogue where students can feel free and comfortable to address their concerns.
Saunders understands that ECOS is the “echoed voice of the students” and he originally joined the organization because he wanted to make sure that his fellow trades students’ voices were being heard and put into consideration, Saunders said.
He sees becoming communications officer as a great chance to seek the thoughts of the students at CNM, he said.
“Ask them (the students) ‘hey what do you think about the school, what do you think could be better, and what do you think about your teachers?’ Start hearing their voices because I know a lot of students, particularly in the welding program complain left and right about this and that, and sometimes their voices are not heard, so that is kind of what I want to be for them,” Saunders said.
Saunders’ currently has one main desire for bettering the school and that is for communication to become something that is improved upon, he said.
Saunders said he sees a lot of communication issues, especially in the trades departments where teachers and students do not communicate well, or where students are afraid to confront certain issues involving instructors or safety violations.
“I want to see more communications open up and see more friendly ground in the trades department because it is everybody versus everybody, and it should not be like that. We should all work together one way or another,” Saunders said.
Ana Martinez, Running for President and Vice President of ECOS.
Psychology major, Ana Martinez said she is running for President and Vice President of ECOS.
She has been a member of ECOS for more than 2 years and said she believes that her lengthy involvement has given her the experience needed to become a leader for the organization.
“I would want to be president because I think that with ECOS we can do a lot of things. So, what I want to do is push a little more and be able to accomplish every idea,” she said.
Martinez has also had experience with the responsibilities as Vice President and Treasurer and has helped with many presidential responsibilities, she said.
“Vice president is something that I have been doing for this last term, so I know how to do it, I know what to do, and I know the responsibilities of the position,” she said.
One idea that Martinez is very passionate about is to create a spring fling during the spring semester so that students can take a break after their midterms, she said.
Martinez envisions the spring fling as a carnival-like setup that could also allow the possibility for different student organizations to have a chance to have their own fundraisers during the event, she said.
“I would like to see the spring fling so students could get some relief after the midterms. Right now we are talking about the idea and thinking about it but next term I am really going to push it and talk about details,” Martinez said.
Martinez said that her experience with ECOS has showed her all of the ins and outs of being an officer in the organization and she believes she has learned how to handle the many responsibilities of being a leader with the organization, she said.
“I have seen three presidents with all the responsibilities they are doing and all the stress that they have and I think I can handle it now better than the previous terms,” Martinez said.
Phillip Cox, Running for President and Vice President
Criminal Psychology major, Phillip Cox is also running for President and Vice President and said he sees being elected as an opportunity to better the circumstances of the CNM’s student body, which has always been something he cares about as a student.
“I definitely care about the livelihood of the students at CNM. It has always been something that, as a student, I have always had an interest in and I really want to make sure that the interests of the students are being represented at the higher levels of our particular college,” he said.
Cox said that if he made office, his first goal would be to get more attention focused on student government so that more students can take advantage of the great things ECOS can do for them.
“The first thing I plan to do in office is to bring more awareness to student government.
ECOS has a lot of power before authority and I want students to become a part of it,” he said.
Cox is currently serving as the Administrative Officer of ECOS, which involves getting correspondents’ contributions for events and fundraisers, and keeping tabs on officers by making sure that they keep up with attendance and essential paperwork, he said.
Cox said that though he has had a lot of experience in politics as far as student government is involved, what he believes is more important is his desire to make sure that the voice of students is loud enough to be heard by the right people, he said.
“I think that people voting for me will definitely provide them with a much louder voice in school. I definitely want them to feel as though, if they have issues, talking to me as their president, they know it will get addressed in some way, shape or form,” Cox said.
Cox believes that the most important responsibility as a leader in ECOS is to be a representative to the students and to make use of every option available to reach out to them, he said.
“It is finding out exactly how the students feel about policies, their situations or whatever is going on in campus and making sure it is represented to the leadership of the school. That is my primary responsibility,” Cox said.
By Angela Le Quieu, Staff Reporter | Photo by Angela Le Quieu
The Executive Council of Students wants to introduce themselves to the student body at CNM, and inform students about their group, including what they will bring to the school at the upcoming ECOS night, said Carrie Ratkevich, Criminal Justice major and President of ECOS.
ECOS plans to host a meet and greet type function on Friday, April 11 at 5p.m. in the Richard Barr room at the Student Resources Center, she said.
“We are going to have free food, pizza, who doesn’t love free food right,” Ratkevich said.
The purpose of ECOS night is to give students a forum to speak with the student council about any concerns they might have at school, to develop relationships with the administration, and to give students, who may be interested in student government, a chance to find out more about the organization, Ratkevich said.
Phillip Cox, Criminology major and Administrative Officer said that the evening will help to give a face to the student representatives, and to give people more exposer to what the CNM student government does.
“I think ECOS is under appreciated, I don’t think a lot of students know exactly what ECOS has to offer,” Cox said.
Ratkevich said that many students do not realize that CNM has a student government, and the event on April 11 is one of the things that ECOS is doing to change all that.
The student government has worked in many ways to better CNM and the surrounding community, Ratkevich said.
Projects that ECOS has worked on include safety walks around campus to identify things like trip hazards and areas with lighting issues, and also helped to change where motorcycle parking was in the PPD lot after many fender benders occurred last year, because of poles installed around the previous parking area, she said.
Ratkevich said that they organized the CNMunity Day in the 2013 spring semester, in which several clubs volunteered at local non-profits around Albuquerque.
“I know some people went out to the farm and had to clean up whatever, they had to plant plants, water plants, or they helped organize the Re-store. So just different things that make people feel good about us and make us feel good about our community,” Ratkevich said.
The work that ECOS does for the community is the main reason why Ana Martinez, Psychology major and Budget Officer, joined the group, she said.
Martinez said that ECOS has been an opportunity for her to give back to her community here in Albuquerque, just how she had also given back to her community in Mexico.
“I like this, because it’s my way to help the students,” Martinez said.
Cox said that he joined to help reach out to students because an active student government can help change things for the benefit of the students.
“So our primary thing right now is to improve membership; because once we have more members we’ll have the strength to go out and really do some really wonderful things for this community, make some very positive changes,” Ratkevich said.
Currently the membership in ECOS is low and the group hopes to get more members by informing students about their organization, and by adding incentives beyond the $100 scholarship for active members, Cox said.
There are requirements for joining ECOS such as an application, being voted into the group, as well as a 2.5 GPA requirement, and there is also a limit of 15 members, Ratkevich said.
“But it’s the satisfaction you get from just helping your fellow students, that you can’t really replicate with any other organization on campus,” Cox said.
Students interested in ECOS can attend the event on April 11 or students can go to one of the groups meetings, which are regularly held on Fridays at 4 p.m. in the portables at room ST-12A, and Ratkevich said the meetings are open to all students who wish to speak or inquire about the student council.
By Daniel Montaño, Staff Reporter | Photo By Daniel Montaño
Stephen Martos, president of the Executive Council of Students and member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, can sum up his experience at CNM in two words: growth and change, he said.
Although Martos graduated in the spring 2013 semester with degrees in Psychology, Criminal Justice and Liberal Arts, he is staying on as president of ECOS until the beginning of the fall semester when he will hand over the reins to Emily Sarvis, Biology major, as he moves on to UNM to earn his bachelor’s degree in psychology, he said.
“CNM is my life. I don’t work school around my life. My life is all at CNM, my friends and everything. So I’m excited about going to UNM, but I’m nervous because it’s such a completely different world,” he said.
Martos entered CNM unsure how to approach his future, which classes to choose and what career to go into, but grew up, gained responsibility and found direction while at CNM, especially through ECOS, which motivated him throughout his college career, he said.
“Being president of ECOS is something I never thought I would do when I graduated high school, and now the goal is to continue on and see what other trouble I can get myself into,” he said.
Martos plans to move on to Law school after finishing his bachelor’s degree, but isn’t setting anything in stone just yet, because he wants to make sure he is able to put to good use the empathy and willingness to help that he has gained through ECOS, he said.
He plans to minor in political science while at UNM, and if he gets the opportunity, he hopes to get involved in local government to make a positive change in the political process, he said.
“Whenever I find out that there is something someone is struggling with, my first reaction is ‘How can I help’ and what can I do to make this better” he said.
Martos has always had an internal drive to help people, but ECOS refined that feeling, he said.
ECOS was also the motivation to actively pursue positive change in his future and gave him the drive to become the person who he is now, he said.
“I think that I’m a lot more responsible, and I feel like I’m a greater person overall. Looking back I didn’t have an idea of the greater things happening around me, but I don’t know if that’s just what happens when people get older — they look back and want to say, you have no clue what’s coming up,” he said.
Although he is now working towards a future where he can help people and make changes for everyone’s benefit, Martos had originally planned to become an aerospace engineer before coming to CNM, he said.
“I looked at New Mexico Tech, and realized that I hated math, which isn’t good for an engineer, so I switched over and came to CNM,” he said.
Martos said coming to CNM was the best choice he made in his quest to find direction because from that point on things began to fall into place on their own and organically evolve.
After feeling his way through introductory classes and remaining largely uninvolved, he was introduced to Phi Theta Kappa and ECOS through friends, he said.
“I kind of stumble right into it. Having people who drug me along to meetings gave me a lot more purpose and a lot more focus. So I became much more involved and from that point it made me grow up from being a high school kid,” he said.
Once involved with student organizations Martos began getting into volunteer work, and as president of ECOS he was directly involved with helping students overcome obstacles at school, he said.
“That’s one of the best feelings that I’ve had, standing up for student issues and student rights, just being there as a venue for the students,” he said.
As far as regrets go, Martos doesn’t have any besides wishing he could have been even more involved than he already was, but he is satisfied with the differences he did make, he said.
“There’s always room for improvement. I wish I could have done more somehow, made more of an impact,” he said.
As the outgoing President of ECOS, Martos wants to encourage as many students as possible to find direction in the same way he did, he said.
“Join ECOS!” Martos said.
To join ECOs students must be enrolled for at least three credit hours and have maintained a 2.5 GPA. For more information students can go to student activities in the SSC to pick-up and submit an application.
The Executive Council of Students has a new officer team ready to take the reins in the fall 2013 semester, said Stephen Martos, current president of ECOS.
ECOS held elections Friday, May 31 and all officer positions were filled except for that of vice president, the vote for which was postponed until Friday, June 7 because one of the candidates was unable to attend, Martos said.
Emily Sarvis was elected president and said that she will draw on her experience as a member of ECOS to establish an active council.
“Helping students is important and we have taken steps as a group toward doing that, but I feel like we could do more. We’re here for the students and we are students so I think that should be one of our main goals: to get out there and talk to students to see what they need so that CNM and its students can be more successful,” she said.
Despite the lack of a vice president selection just yet, Martos said that as president he has worked with the people who have been elected for a year and he is confident that the team selected so far will work hard for CNM students.
“I’m very happy that we have all these great people coming up into our positions and I really look forward to seeing ECOS grow. It’s been a process to bring this group up to where it can really help the students the most,” he said.
Ana Martinez was elected treasurer and said that she is excited to start her position.
She will make use of her experience in her father’s store, where she helped to manage money, in order to be an effective treasurer, she said.
“I’m good with numbers and I’m very organized. I hate to see money unorganized,” Martinez said.
Bianca Cowboy was elected into two officer positions, Public Relations and Administrative, and she is also running for vice president.
Cowboy will choose which position she will accept after the vice presidential elections are concluded, she said.
No matter which position she ends up in, Cowboy said that she will apply her experience working with students as a work study in enrollment services to help establish strong relationships between ECOS and students, faculty and staff.
“That’s just something that ECOS needs to move forward with. We need to build relationships with administration faculty and staff so that we can organize more events that will have their support as well,” she said.
The current officer team will continue to serve for the summer semester, Martos said.
Looking back over his presidency, Martos said that he is going to miss ECOS, because it has grown to be a large part of his life ever since he joined two years ago.
“Moving on is something that is part of growing and beginning new chapters, but this is always something that I’m going to look back on fondly,” Martos said.
For more information on the Executive Council of Students or to apply for membership, pick up and submit an ECOS application at Room SSC 201, Student Life Office at Main campus.
Inaugural CNMunity day attracts many students, orgs
The Executive Council of Students is trying to create a semi-annual CNMunity Day, since the first event received so much support, Stephen Martos, Criminal Justice major and president of ECOS, said.
The event gathered about two dozen student volunteers from student organizations to help at four local non-profit organizations: Contact Tree New Mexico, Rio Grande Community Farms, Restore and Mandy’s Farm, he said.
“Our new goal is to make it a bigger and better event and hopefully have it held twice a year,” he said.
Some of the participating student organizations were Anthropology club, Phi Theta Kappa-Alpha Upsilon Chi, Chemistry Society, American Indian Science and Engineering Society, Art Club, TRiO Achievement Group and Math League, Martos said.
The point of any news article, other than to inform, is to create civil discourse. Issue 26 of the CNM Chronicle has done this more so than any other edition of the paper in its 18 years of publishing. This and the following four pages have been dedicated completely to the responses we have received, both negative and positive.
It is important to note, however, the not all discourse remained civil. On the Central New Mexico Community College Facebook page, some of the conversation became nasty. This was never the intention of the paper.
Many people who commented negatively about the paper did not wish to have their comments published because of the cruelty of some newspaper supporters.
These commenters said that CNM had been in the right to shut down the paper and to confiscate copies; that the staff of the Chronicle should be fired; that the paper had been offensive, especially to those who were religious and that the paper exercised extremely poor judgment in creating an issue focused on sex. One commenter wanted to let us know that the sexual position Chit-Chat was creepy and completely inappropriate.
While we could not convince those people to allow us publication of their comments, we wanted to ensure their voices were heard.
