UNM offering self-defense, safety courses

The University of New Mexico will offer personal safety and self-defense workshops to students in response to three recent on-campus attacks on women, according to a news release.

The UNM Women’s Resource Center and office of the Dean of Students are teaming up with local nonprofit IMPACT Personal Safety to offer the workshops this week.

They come after three attacks of women on campus this year alone.

The first two involved women who were groped while on campus on separate occasions. UNM police have not arrested any suspects in those cases. The third case involved a university professor who was beaten after calling police on a man who was on the ground and inebriated.

In the first incident, on Jan. 27, a woman who had been running at Johnson Field was attacked while leaving the area. According to police, two African-American men grabbed the woman, held her down and groped her. The second incident, about a week later, involved a woman who was walking near Castetter Hall after an evening class. That woman reported having been groped by a white man who also has not been caught.

The workshops, this Thursday from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the student union building and on Tuesday, March 26, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in Hokona Hall, will focus on personal safety and self-defense.

A third workshop will be held on Wednesday, April 3, from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the Nursing and Pharmacy building on North Campus, room 257.

UNM will offer a 20-hour “women’s basic course” that will focus on psychological strategies and mental readiness, verbal de-escalation, physical self-defense skills and others. The course will be offered for $50 and will be held on April 6, 7, 13 and 14 from noon to 5 p.m. in UNM’s Advisement and Enrichment Center.

The workshops and course follow a student forum in February at which students and university leaders discussed safety issues on campus following the gropings. But that was before a university professor in the education department was beaten on campus.

A student who was present told the Journal the attack could have been avoided had police responded sooner. She said the professor had called for help after spotting the man on the ground, but police didn’t respond for at least 10 minutes. At one point the man, 21-year-old Jory Boone, got up and charged at the professor, the student said. When police arrived, Boone was on top of the professor beating her with closed fists, according to a report. Boone was charged with three counts of misdemeanor battery and has pleaded not guilty.

For more information on the workshops or to register for the 20-hour course, contact the Women’s Resource Center at 505-277-3716
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal