Albuquerque Journal

Firm To Work On UNM Rift
Faculty member, student posed for risqué photographs
By Martin Salazar, Journal Staff Writer

The University of New Mexico has tapped an Albuquerque consulting firm to help mend the rift that developed in its English Department after a faculty member was caught posing in sexually suggestive photographs with a graduate student.

“The university is, first and foremost, a place where students, faculty and administrators alike constantly engage in learning. It’s now time for all of us to learn anew the lessons of repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation,” UNM President David Schmidly told English Department faculty members in a letter last month.

The company retained by UNM — Keystone International, Inc. — met with English Department faculty last week and even brought in former UNM Faculty Senate President Jacqueline Hood to help find middle ground between Associate Professor Lisa Chávez and her supporters and those who find her actions unpardonable. So far, Keystone has charged UNM $7,924, university spokeswoman Susan McKinsey said.
Some faculty members, however, are rebuffing the attempts to broker peace, noting the irony of the professor in a pedagogy class posing on a sadomasochism Web site with a graduate student whom she was supposed to be teaching how to teach.

Some are refusing to take part in the consultant’s “facilitated discussions.” Others — including a well known Native American professor — are contemplating leaving over UNM’s handling of the matter.

“How can I stay? I don’t think I can stay,” said Joy Harjo, a full professor in the university’s creative writing program and a well regarded Native American poet who left the University of California Los Angeles for the chance to work for her alma mater. She said she’s bothered there were no consequences and that the university was dismissive of those who expressed concern.

“Bottom line here is that there’s something of integrity being sacrificed, and that’s what is most disturbing to me,” she said.

Sharon Warner, who resigned her post as director of the nationally recognized creative writing program in protest of the university’s handling of the Chávez situation, said several faculty members, including her, are looking for employment elsewhere.

Warner said she attended Friday’s “facilitated discussion” and considered it unproductive.

Chávez, who has returned to the classroom after a sabbatical, did not respond to a request for an interview sent to her e-mail.

In his letter to English Department faculty, Schmidly said he took the allegations concerning Chávez seriously. He said he disapproved of her actions and that he warned her both orally and in writing that such behavior will not be tolerated. But he also said multiple reviews of the situation found that while Chávez used poor judgment, her actions didn’t rise to the level where she should be referred to the Faculty Senate Ethics and Advisor Committee for possible disciplinary action.

Chávez — known as MistressJadeinWebpostings— had been moonlighting for People Exchanging Power, a group based in Albuquerque that advertises conversation for cash. According to the UNM investigation, the three students who posed reported that their activities were consensual. One photo depicts a scantily clad Chávez helping to hold down her gagged student. An ad characterizes Mistress Jade as “a stern teacher ready to punish unruly students.”