The Graduate and Professional Student Association celebrated its 40th anniversary Thursday by paying homage to the group’s beginnings, which were mired in controversy.
In 1969, the University threatened to expel a graduate teaching assistant for reading a poem containing profane language to his English class.
This event sparked uproar in the graduate student body, which then organized to form the Graduate Students Association and later the GPSA.
The celebration Thursday honored past and present GPSA officers and featured graduate students’ artwork, which was hung along the walls of the GPSA office.
Bill Pickens, the GSA’s first elected president, said the organization formed out of necessity four decades ago.
“There were no general rules, regulations or procedures defining the roles or protecting the rights of graduate student researchers or teaching assistants,” Pickens said in a speech at the event. “Essentially, all were subject to whatever decisions or discipline was meted out by faculty or administrators.”
The first administration was trying to get GPSA off the ground during a tumultuous period in both the country and the University’s history, Pickens said.
In 1970, President Richard Nixon ordered the invasion of Cambodia, and four students were shot and killed at Kent State University while protesting the overseas involvement. As a result of protests and chaos on the UNM campus, a number of people were injured and the New Mexico National Guard was called in, he said.
“The GSA was born into a stormy environment, unprecedented at the relatively quiet UNM,” Pickens said. “This required us to work together closely with the undergraduates and offer a constructive and responsible voice when lots of others were losing it.”
Annie Shank, GPSA president for academic year 1998-99, said she remembers seeing students in Albuquerque protesting the teaching assistant’s possible expulsion.
“I was hitchhiking across the country, and (Albuquerque) was one of the stops,” Shank said. “There was a protest going on, so I mean of course, I’ll hold up a sign for anyone that’s got a good cause. I was into free speech.”
Shank said GPSA was still fighting for graduate student representation when she was president. One of the main issues she fought for as president was accessible child care for graduate students.
“Graduate students on the UNM campus tend to be a bit older than typical graduate students,” Shank said. “They need child care and they need it badly. I fought with the Board of Regents on that issue and they didn’t like me very much at all.”
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Current GPSA president Lissa Knudsen said while the child care issue still has not been resolved, she is proud of what GPSA has done with research grants.
“Our grants process is running seamlessly now. It’s just been converted to online,” she said. “We have departments that have never applied before applying, so we’re getting departments that have been historically underserved involved.” Knudsen said Thursday’s event hosted more senatorial and gubernatorial candidates than she had ever seen attend a GPSA event. Some of those honored at the event were GPSA members, including Brian Colon, former chairman of the New Mexico Democratic Party, state Sen. Michael Sanchez and Ken Walz, Albuquerque Journal editor-in-chief.
As the organization moves forward, GPSA will need to make responsible decisions while keeping the state of the economy in mind, Knudsen said.
“These are hard times,” she said. “And that makes our decision-making, all the way down to student government, something we need to be thoughtful about — fiscally responsible about — and we need to proceed in a way that we can provide the maximum amount for the students while keeping those things in mind. It’s time to start keeping good clean books and making hard decisions.”
