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Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Photo (not of the student in this story) by Nathan Wells
Tensions flared on the University of New Mexico campus this week after the Daily Lobo published a photograph of a student on the front page of its Wednesday edition that erroneously identified her as an undocumented immigrant. The paper issued both a correction and an apology today, but El Centro de la Raza program manager Meriah Heredia Griego told the Independent that potential repercussions remain, and that the incident raises concerns about student confidentiality, especially for undocumented students. UNM enrolls students regardless of immigration status so there is a population of undocumented students on campus.
The student, Crystal Quiñonez, was studying at El Centro de la Raza, a UNM support center for Latino students, on Tuesday when a photographer asked to take her picture for a multimedia project.
The student’s photograph was used on the front page of the Lobo to promote its online project about undocumented students, with a subhead that stated “Special investigation: undocumented students.” The caption identified Quiñonez as undocumented, when she is in fact a U.S. citizen.
How did this happen? News Editor Pat Lohmann explained in his apology:
Every video multimedia piece promoted on the Daily Lobo’s front page this year used a photo taken as a still from the video itself. In this case, however, the image used to promote the piece was a photo taken separately of a student studying in El Centro de la Raza. I operated under the assumption that the young woman in the photo was featured in the movie and, therefore, was an undocumented student who gave permission for her likeness and name to be printed. As a result, I wrote that she was an undocumented student.
After protests by El Centro de la Raza and Latino students on campus, the paper pulled the multi-media project from its Web site. In her correction and apology, Editor-in-Chief Rachel Hill said that every staff member involved in the mistake would be suspended without pay.
Still, the mistake highlights the issues facing undocumented students.
“She could be threatened and targeted for violence or hate acts,” Heredia Griego said regarding the potential repercussions despite the retraction.
Plus, the incident raises questions about student confidentiality, she said. The multi-media project included the number of undocumented students enrolled at UNM, which the journalists got from a school official. The issue of deportation is very serious for undocumented students, she said, and the release of that information raises concerns about the security of student’s personal information.
In his apology, News Editor Pat Lohmann said he understood some of the potential problems the mistake could cause, writing: “I take the issue of undocumented students seriously. I understand that students are not protected from questioning and potential deportation because they are on campus.”
El Centro also issued a statement, in which it bluntly stated the dangers of identifying students as undocumented and the potential harm to El Centro itself:
… In an instant and needlessly, she became targeted. The UNM undocumented student population and El Centro became immediately threatened. …While we are far from satisfied …we ask our community to work together and support our Latino UNM students.
Heredia Griego said El Centro welcomes the retraction and the apology offered by the Daily Lobo editors, but the consequences to the student remain. In the future, she said, the hope is that journalists will “hesitate” when writing about sensitive subjects like immigration, to make sure they get it right.
“We look forward to working with the Lobo and other press about the struggles [faced by undocumented students],” she said, “But we hope that when writing about this sensitive subject [in the future], that they’ll hesitate, and make sure they have the appropriate sources and touch base with the community.”
