Local News

Some Highlands University students are complaining about their meal program.

Two of them addressed the Board of Regents last week, contending that the Cantina is not catering to students’ needs. Student body president Greg Rael brought up many of the same issues during an earlier meeting of the student affairs committee on March 7.

Anthony Jaramillo said he paid $1,179 for the 10-meal plan, which comes out to $5.90 a meal. He said others on a different plan pay $7.37 a meal.

Noah Lujan says his class at Sierra Vista Elementary is ”the luckiest class in the whole world.”

The second-grader in Theresa Chavez’s class said they are always doing fun projects. The kids have spent the last several days up to their elbows in paper-mach paste making Easter Baskets.

“The children are doing a hands-on art activity making their own Easter baskets. Mixing water and flower to make the paste the kids then dip different colors of paper into the mix and then put the paper around a balloon and let it dry,” Chavez said.

Alta Vista Regional Hospital may not have followed its own policy in handling a rape victim in November.

The hospital is supposed to provide alternatives to rape victims when they arrive at the emergency room, said Joan Krohn, a member of Women’s Health Advocates, a group of nurses, social workers and residents.

The local hospital has rape kits that help prosecutors prove rapes, while St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe has nurses certified in examining sexual assaults, she said.

Nancy Long has replaced Rosanna Vazquez as New Mexico Highlands University regent. The Santa Fe attorney said her law firm, Long, Pound & Komer, of which she is president, represented the university of many years.

“I really grew to enjoy the people here and got to know a lot about Highlands, so I’m really happy to return as a regent,” Long said.

Long took the chairmanship of the Academic Affairs Committee Monday and said she’s taking the post with an open mind and a desire to take a fresh look at things