Students mobilized in opposition to ASUNM failing a resolution that would allow the use of stun guns on campus with a rally in Smith Plaza on Monday.
"The reason we created the rally is because not a lot of students are actually aware that stun guns are banned from campus or that (the) resolution was even up for discussion. That's the problem with ASUNM; there's a lack of transparency of what senate resolutions are going to be discussed. We are trying to create more of a transparency and be the actual link that ASUNM claims to be," said Vivianne Gonzalez, a member of Young Americans for Liberty.
Most demonstrators held signs driving home the issue of student safety in general rather than solely the use of stun guns.
One of the protesters, Langston Bowens, a junior international studies and economics major, said the question is not whether stun guns will defend students.
"The basic premise here is we have students on this campus that have been routinely assaulted, we get the alerts all the time," he said. "There are people that are robbed, that are sexually groped, this is a real concern. The issue is the idea of protection. Something needs to be done to protect students on this campus. Stun guns is one idea, but this issue is deeper than just that."
Students at the rally also held signs, some of which read "Don't Tread on my Stun Guns Rights Bro!", "Keep Calm Stun On," and the like.
Several demonstrators were also critical of comments made by ASUNM Sen. Justin Cooper. During debate of the resolution, before it failed, Cooper suggested that the membership numbers of student groups supporting the resolution was inadequate.
"There are 21 students for Young Americans for Liberty, 10 students in Young Americans for Freedom and only 20 students in College Republicans, and there are nearly 2,500 students opposing this law just between (the) Residence Hall Association and National Residence Hall Honorary, as well as the Women's Resource Center, serving way more than 51 students. For three organizations out of 466 student organizations wanting this resolution to pass, I don’t think that directly relates what the students are asking for," Cooper said at the meeting.
Some members of those organizations said they feel that ASUNM is disregarding the minority vote.
"The fact that we have a senator that will stand in front of the entire senate and say that a handful of students don't matter is unacceptable," Bowens said. "Students would not be out here protesting if we didn't have a senator saying that 20 people do not matter. No one would be out here commenting on this if it were not for those comments that he made."
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ASUNM Vice President Alex Cervantes said ASUNM is focused on its constituents, and believes every senator represented them objectively.
"Each senator is assigned an organization that they represent, so those that were at the meeting this past week. The senator for the organizations making these claims stood up in his closing comments and spoke for his organizations' needs, and they did not explicitly line up with his personal views. He voted in a way that would protect his organization, and I believe every senator there that night represented the 22 organizations they are in charge of," Cervantes said.
Gonzalez said the purpose of the rally was to make a statement to both ASUNM and University students.
"Why are we going to limit our students' liberty and rights to protect themselves?" he said. "We are keeping ASUNM accountable and conducting a peaceful protest to create some awareness that is going on in the community."
Denicia Aragon is a staff reporter with the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com on Twitter @dailylobo.
