Tag: Letter to the Editor

Letter from the Editor

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Dear Chronicle Readers,

The CNM Chronicle is proud to announce that we are invested in the future of our publication and about to embark on a new adventure. We are officially going to become a fully digital publication and will no longer be in a bi-weekly printed format. We are hoping that this transition will allow us to provide our readers with more timely information about events and news around all CNM campuses.

This process will also allow us to invest more in the staff and workplace of The Chronicle. The elimination of having to pay for print will allow us more room in the budget to provide us with better training opportunities as well as upgrades to equipment and supplies that are used by Chronicle staff.

We want to invite all of our readers to please continue to follow us on our journey and experience the outcome with us. We thank all of you for your patience as we embark into the digital age of media and want to remind all of our readers that we have and always will accept public input and content no matter what format we are in. We encourage you all to keep reading and writing and are looking forward to hearing from you in the future.

Thank You All,

Daniel Johnson, Editor in Chief

Letter to the Editor | Student submission

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Dear sir or Madame;

I get ridiculed in class all the time. Whether it is a poorly hidden look or outright comment. I am fed up. But change doesn’t happen of its own accord. After all evil needs to thrive for good men to do nothing. I just figured that maybe if people realized that people’s life experiences are different and that words truly do have power, then maybe, just maybe people would stop and think before making fun of others plights.
I loathe eating out of dumpsters.

This is my story, my experiences, my life. Why am I writing this?  To be honest it’s for purely selfish reasons. I’m in college, and am on the verge of my family and I being homeless….again. And people being people the cruelty oozes out like some hate filled sack that just can’t contain the evil side of human nature. I let my classmates know my story, and the only consolation I got was a classmate advising me on which cardboard box would be best suited for the rain, followed of course by a snicker from other classmates. I just wanted someone to listen. So here I sit getting ready to poor the sadness and depression that comment made me feel on paper. But where does it stem from? Why did his comment affect me so much? I guess in order for me to figure that out I have to review my life….and perhaps by writing it all down someone else can learn something. What that is I don’t know….but for
now writing this is my way of getting my emotions down on paper rather
than getting upset.
When I was two years old my brother and I were adopted by a wonderful set of parents after we were taken out of our biological mother’s home due to abuse. They were kind, loving, and generous. But I suppose the psychological damage my brother and I suffered had already taken its toll. I don’t know why….I can’t even begin to explain the reason but my brother and I were rotten. We stole, lied, and were just all around evil children. I can never apologize too much for my actions. Yet despite all our horrid actions my adoptive parents never lost their love for us.
High school for me was a nightmare. We grew up in a tiny little town
in New Mexico. My brother and I were incessantly bullied and made fun of. I remember a time in elementary school, I was in class and …yes I was acting up and talking….but the teacher grabbed me threw me under the desk and placed his foot on top of me and made me stay that way for quite a long time. That was the beginning of my hardcore rebellion I suppose. Funny how something that seems like such a small thing can effect someone. Even to this day I remember the pain in my chest as the weight of the teachers’ foot pressed me into the ground, the horrible smiles on my classmates’ faces, the ridicule and embarrassment.  So all through elementary school and middle school and high school my brother and I were mercilessly bullied. I remember every instance vividly even still.
Well needless to say I dropped out of high school. But my mind by that time was ruined. I had no way of releasing any anger or depression in a constructive manner so I turned to drugs and crime. In one night I broke into the elementary school and the high school. I stole whatever I could. Then a few nights later I broke into the post office. I am most certainly not proud of what I had done. I was a messed up kid trying to express myself in a world that had shown me nothing but cruelty.
At the age of sixteen I ran away from home. I started hitchhiking, and did that for a couple of years. I hitchhiked from one end of the U.S. to the other and back again.  At some point I made my way to Klamath Falls, Oregon. I was about eighteen at the time and I was sleeping in a homeless shelter full of old F.T.R.A.  (Freight train riders association) a gang of train hobos (yeah sounds funny but definitely
not anyone you want to mess with). And me being only eighteen I was naturally hanging out with the only other teenager there.
As the days went by we got restless. Two homeless teens just looking for adventure. So one day we decided to ride the rails together. I can’t tell you how many times I almost (or rather probably should have) died. But God had other plans for me. He was the first true friend I ever had. We eventually met another guy. He was from Alaska and had plans to return. Well heck I was born in Alaska and we all three became good friends. Unfortunately the latest friend was heavy into smoking crack and his habit eventually migrated its way to me. I was so cracked outa my mind I don’t remember the town, but one night we found an abandoned cabin beneath a bridge ( I think it was in Oregon but I was so out of it in those days I can’t remember) and one of us had received quite a large sum of money from a relative. So of course rather than get food or shelter we bought crack. Here we were in an abandoned cabin smoking the living daylights out of crack. We smoked so much our lighters all went dead. So we went to a store and stole some candles and a lighter. We got back to the cabin and lit the candles and smoked even more crack. It was horrible.
One night after a crack binge we decided it was a great idea to try and make some money. But how? I don’t remember whose idea it was but for some reason our consensus was that it’d be a great idea to break into the police impound lot. So we grabbed another guy we knew and went to the cabin to plan (if you can call smoking crack and haphazardly slapping together a course of action planning). That night we scaled the fifteen foot tall fence into the impound lot.  We traversed the motion detectors and started opening the cars. After just a couple of minutes I’m lying on the ground trying to avoid the motion detector, crawling to this car to open it when I look up to see a cop car on the corner of the next street over. He was sitting there flashing his headlights….All of a sudden flood lights and headlights
illuminate the night. “Walk toward us….we have dogs” I hear an officer say on his blow horn. We head to a corner of the fence and start crawling up and over it. I turn to Robert and say “I’m going to
run….if I run will you?” I did not wait for a reply. As soon as I hit the ground I took off. I cleared a path through ten feet of thorn bushes with my face but the combo of adrenaline and crack made me not even care. Just an example of my many horrible acts.

I eventually wound up back in New Mexico and enrolled into T.V.I, the local community college. At the time my father had let me know that my mother was dying and he needed my help. So I returned home to care for my mother.  My father helped me get into T.V.I. and supported me. But me being the little brat I was screwed that up too. I ended up going to prison for burglary and arson. While in prison I experienced torture of a whole new breed. The minute I was behind bars I stopped being a human being. I had no rights other than the right to endure. Fights, rapes, killing….that was my days….wash rinse and repeat. I was raped by a guard and when I reported it the retaliation was swift and decisive. I was sent to Isolation, where the abuse continued. The ACLU would not hear me no matter how many letters I wrote them. No lawyer would hear me out either. Then came the “bowling for inmates” game.
The Correction Officers would suitcase an inmate (hog tied with arms and ankles behind your back) and would toss or “slide” you across the floor toward a wall. They tossed me really hard. The closed head injury they caused me made me suffer Hypothermia at first (the worst would come later). So they took me to the hospital were the docs put me in a “bear hug” (a blanket with warm air pumped through it). I suffered a heart attack in the process. Then I was transported back to solitary (Only this time it was the medical solitary…still not any better though). One day I woke up and tried to stand….my left side flopped around…I was left side paralyzed! The department of corrections paralyzed me! Of course no lawyer or the ACLU or anyone else would hear me. Now paralyzed the same CO that raped me saw an even better opportunity to play his sick games. He would have two other inmates carry me from my solitary cell in the back to a suicide watch cell in an even more isolated section and have his way with me till his heart was content. I made the mistake of reporting it… I wound up in the Penitentiary of New Mexico Super max. Just another reminder of my place. After months a case manager comes in and says to me “I have no idea why you’re here. Your file says you’re a level two minimum security inmate. I’m going to transfer you.” Better late than never I suppose. So I spent the remainder of my sentence at the medical center
in Las Lunas prison. While there the docs did numerous test and countless trips to the hospital. I was told that I would never walk again.
I was released from prison on august 8, 2008…8/8/8…the luckiest day and year according to Chinese religion. Here I was…walked into prison on my own two feet….rolled out in a wheelchair and told I’d never walk again.
I lived at Joy Junction homeless shelter for a while, and decided I needed to change. I found God while I was in prison and placed all my life at Gods feet.  I decided that God would direct me all my days from here on out. First step….relearn how to walk. I went through what I can only describe as the most intense pain imaginable for a year. It felt as though I had no skin or muscle on my feet. Like every step was straight bone on ground. God would not let me give up though.
I met my wife one day and my perspectives changed again…..for the better. She also believed in God, and when I realized I loved her I made her a promise. I promised her I would make it right.  She was
homeless as well so I had my work cut out for me. I enrolled into CNM (formerly TVI) and worked very hard.
I am now on the dean’s list, in the Phi Theta Kappa national honor society, and will graduate soon…..but a couple of hitches. I’m on section eight housing and the apartment I live in was found in violation by the Housing Authority. And I have nowhere to go. So here I am…after all this hard work to change myself, to be a productive member of society and I have fought and worked so hard for my family and it all might be for naught. I’ve already been turned down for jobs because of my felony, and now my family’s shelter is threatened….what to do? I honestly don’t know…..but hopefully now perhaps people will understand why the comment I heard today about what cardboard box to get for my family to sleep in hurt so much. Did writing this make me feel better? Yes ….it did. Can anything be learned from this?
Maybe….if you let it, it will teach you that people can change if given the chance. That everyone deserves an opportunity. And above all that words …whether said in jest or not….truly can affect people. Walk a mile in someone’s shoes, before saying something callous.
Be kind to one another.
Thanks,
Joe, CNM student

Letter to the editor; Mid-Eastern Foreign Policy Flaws

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This letter was submitted by a CNM student expressing their opinions on foriegn policy in the Middle East are those of the individual writer and do not necessarily represent the beliefs of the CNM Chronicle or its staff.

Dear Editor:

I am sure we all are concerned about the crises that are occurring in the Ukraine and in the Middle East as these seem to be our major flash-points for a future major war unless we can defuse them ASAP.

This letter deals primarily with Israel vs. the Palestinians and, to a lesser extent the rift between secular Arabs and moderate Muslims vs. the religious fanatical brand.

A well-thought out article in the latest PROGRESSIVE magazine (Author un-named; September, 2008) sets forth how the growth of religious fanaticism on all sides: the new ISIS (Iraq and Syria); orthodox hardline Jews in Israeli who have taken over that country’s armed forces and government; hardline Christian Neo-Conservative fun­damentalists in the U.S.; etc. increases the danger of the current conflict spilling over into outright world war.

One of the biggest ironies in this story is that Israel, despite its stronger demo­cratic values for Israeli citizens, has had foreign policy relationships since 1948 that contradict its once cosmopolitan progres­sive Judaic western values. It supported Apartheid South Africa that also came to power in May or June of 1948 despite the fact that several whites in South Africa still had the same pathological hatred against Jews as they did against non-white people. Several white South Africans before and during the Second World War openly sup­ported Hitler despite South Africa’s alli­ance with the British. Israel also supported the violently anti-Semitic Galitieri regime in Argentina prior to its 1982 overthrow following the Falklands War. Indeed, one of the Argentine dictatorship’s chief victims, a Jewish person named Jacob Timmerman who described his ordeal in PRISONER WITHOUT A NAME; CELL WITHOUT A NUMBER, came down very harshly on Israel’s practice of siding with anti-Semitic and other repressive rulers over the world. The hardliners in Israel falsely accused Timmerman of being anti- Israeli, a charge that Timmerman indig­nantly denied. In addition, Israel along with some other western powers, helped mass Ugandan murder Idi Amin come to power when they trained him and his army how to kill and torture their enemies more effectively. As long as Amin confined his victims to black leftists, Israel never pro­tested. Not until Amin made the mistake during the 1972 Olympics in Munich of killing several Israeli athletes did Israel and the rest of the West started yelling, “bloody murder,” against Amin.

Israeli soldiers are divided among them­selves about whether or not to serve in Gaza instead of only inside Israel’s pre-1967 borders. Several have risked courts-martial and prison for their refusal to serve in Gaza. Also, alle­gations that Israeli soldiers may have received orders to use Palestinian civilians (including children of both genders) and unarmed POW’s as human shields is very disturbing. Additional allegations that the Israeli military command is killing its own Israeli combat soldiers to prevent them from being taken alive by the Palestinians is also very troubling. Apparently, Israel’s command fears that any Israeli soldier taken prisoner by the Palestinians might make embarrassing political statements that could damage Israel’s international standing.

The West, who depends on Middle Eastern oil, has chosen since the 1940’s to align itself with violently anti-Semitic and anti-western regimes like Saudi Arabia (before 9/11) instead of with progressive more leftist regimes like General Nasser in Egypt (pre-1970) or with Iran’s Mossadegh (pre-1953). The West allowed its over-dependency on oil to cause it to support rulers who, despite their previous alliances with us, despised our democratic way of life in the West. Osama Bin Laden may have developed his anti-western hatred as a result of our supporting anti-democratic elements in Saudi Arabia like the Saud Royal Family. This country also once supported Saddam Hussein prior to his August, 1990, decision to invade Kuwait. Hussein was just as bad before, as he was after August, 1990.

The point is that religious fanatics often pose a greater threat than secular nationalist fanatics in that the religious group is gener­ally more irrational than the secular group.

Those of us who believe in a sensible foreign policy that protects our people WITHOUT entangling us into any reckless warfare (especially one involving ground troops) need to assert ourselves now!

William R. Delzell

Reader-Writer (DRC).

 

Letter to the Editor – In response to Volume 20 Issue 1 ‘Aviation students want their teacher back’

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To the Editor:

I recently read the article on the Aviation Maintenance program printed in the May 20th issue of The Chronicle. I found it to be a very one-sided, unjust, and poorly researched article.

I am a 2014 graduate of the program with a unique perspective, being the only woman in the program for 2 years, as well as a having a very successful overall experience. I graduated with a 4.0 and several awards under my belt, and I was hired on with a very high-profile company before I even completed the program.

Seven semesters and over 1900 hours were spent with all three program instructors, yet I was not contacted about the situation for the article. It appears that only students who are currently in the program, and who are only in their second semester, were interviewed. I understand that these students are those who brought attention to the issue at hand, but proper journalism requires a look at more than one position to provide a quality and well-supported story.

While I realize that the primary point of this article is to point out the abrupt suspension of Jason Manzanares, how it affected the students, and how they are being kept in the dark about why, I have several opinions based off of far more experience than theirs about how the program and other instructors were portrayed. They were not fairly nor accurately represented.

How Jason Manzanares is portrayed in this article by the opinions of less experienced students than myself is not what is important to me. Although, personnel issues are a matter for the administration. If, as in this circumstance, an instructor is suspended for example, it is for a reason. That reason is not always everyone’s business, and a lot of the time that’s what’s best for everyone. We don’t always get to know why. Yes, as students, we are affected by it, but as is with life, all we can really do is take care of ourselves.

What is important to me is the complete disregard for truth and respect and the lack of proper investigation performed by this newspaper. The Chronicle took only one opinion and published it, without interviewing a wider range of people with first-hand knowledge and more experience.

The AMT program has not been falling apart, but gaining strength, in the time since I started in 2012. The curriculum has grown and adapted within parameters to better meet the needs of the stu­dents. One such very recent example took a very concerted effort from the students, instructors, the Dean and Associate Dean of ATC, testing facilities and the FAA to improve a testing situation that had proven restrictive and problematic for student progression. As this problem has finally been resolved, no future class-including those whose protests are in the article-will have to experience it. As far as the instructors who are remaining in the program, they are owed an apology and due respect.

How an instructor for the program, with field experience from Lockheed Martin and Eclipse, can be referred to as a “substitute” and lacking in “skill level” is offensive and laughable. The students are basing their opinions off of a comparison, not of knowledge, but of how bored they are. Not all teachers are the same. Some are more animated than others. You are there to learn from them, not necessarily to be entertained. That is just a bonus. The lectures can be long, and there’s only so many ways you can run through it. But they are necessary and unavoidable. Students need to learn theory before practice. If this design does not suit them, they can always take the non-academic route and get on-the-job training and eventually test by way of field experience, but they won’t have the certificate or degree that they can earn through CNM.

I owe, as well as do my fellow classmates, much of our successes to Jeremy Frick and Dave Ortiz. I personally had not only very capable and knowledgeable instruction from them, but they served as mentors for me as well. They are professional, clear and direct, and have plenty of time and industry experience that they are more than willing to share with the students. They are very approach­able and accommodating and all a student needs to do is ask for direction, help, extra projects or practice, etc. My classmates and I were continually informed of scholarships, job openings, employ­ment search engines, letters of recommendation and even had help updating our resumes to fit the industry. Outside of the basic curriculum, I was supported and encouraged through things like the SkillsUSA AMT competition on both the state and national levels. I practiced extensively in the lab with anything I needed supplied, including advice and help. Upon returning from the national competition, the instructors worked with me to develop better projects to more fully prepare future competitors.

I credit these instructors, this program, and the administration (in addition to myself) with my success. The Chronicle may have thought to include some of this contrasting and knowledgeable per­spective, had they taken the time to find out that it existed. It is my very strong opinion that you consider writing an update or new story that offers a more accurate representation with views from people with more experience on the subject.

Sincerely,

Lexy Snell

Letter to the Editor on Boundaries, Rape Culture and Sexual Harassment

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This last weekend I had the distinctly unpleasant experience of being on the receiving end of sexual harassment from a women to myself, a man.

I have never knowingly or deliberately engaged in wolf-whistling, lewd catcalls or “copping a feel” myself and to find myself on the receiving end and having my crotch grabbed by someone I barely knew was shocking to say the least.

I have come to a painfully personal understanding that the worst part of such an experience is that while I was horrified and paralyzed by the shock, my body responded to the woman’s groping of my person. This is a very painful reality that any victim of sexual harassment or assault must deal with, and that is that we cannot fully control our bodies sexual response no matter how much we might wish to or try to fight it.

Sometimes you hear in the media or from people that someone was “asking for it” when a victim speaks out about this. To say this is a flagrant lie is putting it far too mildly.

I struggle with social interaction for the most part and tend to feel very awkward around people I do not know and in this instance, I was so stunned that I was not able to give voice to my objections of being treated this way. I was not wearing revealing clothing or engaging in flirting. Yet society would say, “he must have done something to deserve it.” That is complete and utter bullshit.

Nobody and I mean NOBODY, deserves to have their personal boundaries or body violated in any way, shape or form whatsoever. Unless someone explicitly and emphatically says that yes, they do want to engage in sexual activities with you, leave them alone. Either ask outright, or do not bring it up at all.

No one has the right to another person’s body and to suggest otherwise is stating that the person who was sexually harassed or raped does not have the right to their own body or life. Everyone in this world, has the right to live their own life as they so choose. If someone wants to be promiscuous, that is their choice. If they are like me and feel that sexual intimacy is not to be a casual thing that too, is their right.

I do not care who you are, how much money or power you have, if you are male, female or transgender. You do not have the right to violate another person’s body or boundaries. For whatever reason, our society pretends that such things are acceptable to engage in. These invasions of people’s space and bodies never have been “okay”, and never will be.

Until we can actually learn to respect one another’s choices and boundaries culturally, we cannot claim to be a mature or civilized species for only barbarians with no regard for others engage in such activities of violation.

 

Jamison Wagner

Letter to the Editor, Issue 37, Volume 19

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The First Amendment, which guarantees free-speech rights, is fundamental to the highest ideals of American constitutional democracy and our nation’s system of higher education. However, no court, constitution, law or leader can guarantee any right once and for all, forever into the future. Even constitutionally protected rights need to be monitored, pro­tected, and every attempt to whit­tle away at them must be vigor­ously challenged.

Free speech rights at CNM are under threat. Last year, the CNM administration temporarily shut down The CNM Chronicle and suspended the staff over the publication of its “sex issue” and then reversed its decision less than 24 hours later after a deluge of public attention. More recently, new collective bargaining agree­ments for full-time and part-time faculties contained language designed to prohibit the CNM Employees Union (CNMEU) from using “College resources… for any union business of any type, a political campaign for an indi­vidual candidate, an issue or an organization.” In administration’s initial proposal to the part-time faculty negotiating team, of which I was a member, The Chronicle was identified by name as one of those “resources,” though it does not appear in the final collective bargaining agreement.

It is no secret to anyone famil­iar with the CNM that this admin­istration is obsessively concerned with protecting and polishing its public image. Nothing in the new faculty contracts directly attempts to limit an individual faculty mem­ber’s free speech right, but it is naïve to think they are not threat­ened. The contract clause I quoted is vague. Could it be interpreted to prohibit a union official from responding to an inquiry from a Chronicle reporter? Perhaps. After the new contracts were reported on in the news media, CNM offi­cials issued pronouncements in which they affirmed their support for individual free-speech rights. What is a reasonable person to believe? Is the truth more likely to be found in the actions of CNM administration or in their state­ments once their actions have been exposed to public scrutiny?

CNM faculty, staff and stu­dents are on a “slippery slope,” by which I mean an action or law, initially restricted to a specific situ­ation or group, like The Chronicle or CNMEU, which opens the door for a much broader and pos­sibly illegal application of the same restrictions. For that reason, it is in my self-interest to defend the free-speech rights of The Chronicle and CNMEU because any curtail­ments of their rights brings CNM one step closer to an attempt at restricting my individual right to free speech. Similar logic compelled the American Civil Liberties Union in 1978 to defend a neo-Nazi group’s right to stage a public political rally complete with swastikas in Skokie, Illinois, where a significant portion of the residents were survivors of the Holocaust. The ACLU’s argument, which was savagely criticized at the time by many of its own mem­bers, was that protecting the free-speech rights of a group as odious as the neo-Nazis was necessary to guarantee the free-speech rights of all Americans.

CNMEU and The Chronicle may be the only organizations associated with CNM that admin­istration cannot completely con­trol. At the moment, I am less concerned about the union than I am for The Chronicle because I believe the newspaper has already been targeted for elimination. My suspicion is fueled not by any state­ment made by an administrator, but by what has already been done: three months after The Chronicle was shut down last March CNM launched The Suncat Times, which is described on the college’s website as a “student newsletter” distributed by email.

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty” has been attributed to the abolitionist Wendell Phillips, sometimes to Thomas Jefferson, though a similar statement was made as early as 1790 by the Irish political figure John Philpot Curran. The statement is as sound today as it was in the 18th and 19th centuries and I hope it will heeded by liberals and conservatives, liber­tarians and socialists, people who support unions and people who oppose them, as well as friends of The Chronicle and people at CNM who never read an issue.

Seamus O’Sullivan, Ph.D.

Part-time faculty, politi­cal science and sociology

Letter to the Editor: Disability Resource Center Not Much Help

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Dear Editor,

I have been a CNM student since the fall 2011 semester. I hope to graduate at the end of summer, with my Elementary Education degree. I am on the Dean’s list, with a 4.0, so I definitely work hard to do well in my studies.

Since April of 2010, I have been listed on the UNOS trans­plant list for a kidney. While I have had some impact from my inher­ited disease, it was not getting in the way of my studies. However, towards the end of 2013, I found myself getting a few phone calls with kidney offers. While these first few didn’t pan out, I knew my time was near. In anticipation, I vis­ited the disability resource office at Main in early January. I first had to be scheduled for an orientation to even determine if I would qualify. This appointment was set for the 24th, three weeks after my initial contact. I attended the orientation and it was determined that yes, I just might qualify.

Mind you, I knew I would really only need a few weeks of leeway in my courses, as I had mostly chosen online classes this semester, in anticipation of this surgery occurring sometime in the semester. My appointment to meet with a counselor was scheduled for the 30th. I was nervous, but hoped to make that appointment.

As luck would have it, I got ‘the call’ on the 28th at 5 pm, and had my kidney transplant surgery on the 29th at 2 pm. The surgery was a success and I am on the road to recovery. This is the good part. The next is not.

I called the disability office, to let them know I would not be able to make the scheduled appoint­ment and why. The first person I spoke with on Tuesday could not think with what to do, how to handle my call or assist me in any way. In frustration, I hung up. On Wed, prior to surgery, I called again, in an attempt to do some­thing. Again, no help. The office will not do phone interviews, and I was told to schedule myself once I recovered. However I am on immunosuppressant drugs, and heavy doses right now, so cannot be on the germ-filled campus that is CNM. I tried to tell the person this, but again, no understanding. I asked to have my husband attend the appointment and fill in for me. No go.

So, in spite of the promise of assistance, I have had to work on my own, with my instructors, to make any concessions. Fortunately, all but one has been very amenable to assisting me and I should be able to make up any missed course work.

It is time of the disability office to look at its policies and procedures. Not everyone has a learning disability, which they seem to be able to handle well. Some of us have temporary medi­cal disability, and need to be able to have the assistance of the office in order to make our time at CNM productive. A simple phone inter­view would have made all the dif­ference. I ask the administration to relook at their policies to see what can be done to truly service the students of CNM.

Kim Wagner

Letter to the Editor in response to Volume 19 Issue 20, ‘Part-timers seek more respect’

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Dear CNM Chronicle,
Thank you for turning the spotlight on the working lives of Part Time Faculty at CNM. Chronicle reporter Daniel Montano did a great job gathering different perspectives on their compensation and working conditions. It’s really a pity that CNM representatives are unwilling to comment meaningfully on a story that focuses on the people who teach more than two-thirds of the classes at our campuses. Prior to being hired as a Full Time instructor in SAGE, I spent two years teaching as a part timer and I can remember the uncertainties associated with the position. I taught unfamiliar courses on short notice and waited anxiously to see if I would be fortunate enough to get a schedule for the next semester. And my paycheck was a lot smaller than it is now. It’s time that CNM administration acknowledged the contributions of Part Time faculty.
There are more than 750 Part Time Faculty teaching classes at CNM this semester. Information the Union has gained through surveys of these employees indicates that more than a third of this group seeks to make their living solely from employment at CNM. Labeling these employees “Part Time” is a damaging misnomer. It creates an impression that these are transitory employees who ‘fill in’ for the institution when needed. In fact, many of the faculty have taught at CNM for years and often teach more courses annually than their “Full Time” counterparts. Given the ratio of Part Time to Full Time faculty at CNM a student could quite likely complete a 2 year Liberal Arts at the College and take all of their coursework from Part Time faculty.
Recently CNM President Kathie Winograd has publicly stated that CNM needs to address the competitiveness of Full Time Faculty compensation “to attract and retain great employees”. As Union President I couldn’t agree more. But why no mention of Part Time Faculty? This is the group of employees that does the heavy lifting of the teaching load at CNM. Shouldn’t there be an urgent focus on attracting the best faculty at CNM across the board? As I stated in the article, underpayment of Part Time faculty is part of a national problem. The Governing Board and CNM administration should act locally by seeking to compensate, hire and retain the best faculty period. The students at CNM deserve no less.
Andy Tibble

 

Letter to the editor

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Dear Editor,
While going to pick up my wife’s Pharmacology book that she had ordered about a month and a half ago in used condition, I was perturbed that it had never been delivered. I then made the decision to pick up a new copy.
After making my way to what I thought was the back of the line, some disgruntled people were glaring at me from behind some merchandise and it became clear that I was standing right at the front of the line. I thought it was funny that a bookstore employee was standing right there and said nothing.
When waiting in line for twenty five minutes and watching two different employees standing behind a cash register and not taking any customers, I began to grow extremely irritated that there were only a total of two cashiers helping people with about twelve or fifteen registers closed down with nobody behind them.
Halfway through my transaction, I asked to speak to a manager. The manager came over and I remarked that I had been standing in line for forty minutes and that there only seemed to be three cashiers working the registers with other employees milling about not helping customers get on their way a week before the semester was about to begin. Taking an attitude with me instead of owning up, she reported that she had two or three cashiers call in absent this morning.Upon leaving the building and realizing that I had left my sunglasses in the car, I was also highly annoyed that the exterior of the building is white, which blinded me momentarily as my eyes adjusted to the tremendous amounts of light being reflected off of the building. It drove me nuts that they spent loads of money on a new building but couldn’t afford to pay cashiers to operate the registers. Their prices are gouging and the service has mostly been terrible.
I can factually say that I will NEVER use Follett again for ANY of my or my wife’s educational needs. Follett needs to get a clue and smarten up. Half.com and Amazon have my family’s business from this point forward.
Student, Scott Gagnon

Letter to the Editor

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A trip to the ‘new and improved’ Main Campus bookstore proved disastrous this past Tuesday. I would not have imagined beforehand that the move would be such a dismal failure. In fact, I was looking forward to seeing some improvements. Unfortunately, that was not the case. First of all, the location of the bookstore itself could not have been more inconveniently placed; tucked away in an obscure nook between the R.P.M. building, the parking lots adjacent, the constantly flowing traffic of University Boulevard, as well as a number of inexplicably placed tracts of loose, shifty, landscaping stone that seems purposefully positioned to dare one to haphazardly stumble over them for a more direct route. However, on the list of things wrong with the new CNM Main Campus Bookstore those minor flaws are way down near the bottom in terms of significance.
The line for returns, refunds and buy-backs, which is not very clearly marked, as evidenced by the number of people I observed standing in line for several minutes before finally realizing their mistake upon reading a piece of copier paper labeling the line, that had been clumsily taped to the wall. Also, said line is outside and seeing as this is Albuquerque, with its a 278 days of sunshine annually, means that students are now being forced to stand out in the constantly blazing sun, or conversely as it does happen here as well, the bitter cold. Finally, after sweating profusely for 20 minutes, we, by which I mean the other poor souls in line with me, at last got around to the windows where employees were obviously overtaxed by the volume of students due to the start of the semester, which I may remind you has been a problem at the Main Campus Bookstore for years.
That being said, one would have thought that this problem and others like it would have been addressed with the relocation of the bookstore. Sadly, it seems that is not the case. I even overheard one of the employees at the windows complain to another, as he excavated her from underneath a mounting stack of returned books, that there hadn’t even been a phone installed for them to call for backup, and that they don’t have a phone to call for assistance at a cashier’s station is simply unacceptable. Finally, it was my turn, and I noticed a posted assertion that it is common for the bookstore to buyback books from students for as much as 50% of their original price, which seems to imply that it will at least be in that neighborhood,
Would it be that difficult to have posted a brief summary of the average rates? Seeing as it is too much to put up a sign that clearly denotes the line in which one actually needs to stand, I suppose that is the case. As is, they seem hard-pressed even to send an employee outside with a piece of paper, tape, and a sharpie. Anyway, I sold my Dugopolski 5th edition College Algebra book to them for $17 and on the CNM Bookstore website, used, it is $145. Now, if the Bookstore is able to flip my book for $145, a full 89% more than what they gave me for it, I would at least expect that such an enormous profit margin would provide for making a better bookstore, one that is not cluttered, chaotic, inefficient, and physically uncomfortable to go to.
The sheer number of glaring problems are enough to encourage the discontinuation of my patronage unless I see some evidence of change for the better.
Student, Joseph Wagner