More than 30 graduate students packed into the GPSA office Monday, hoping to hear their student leaders discuss a no-confidence vote in UNM’s athletics administration. The students who attended could only find space to sit on the floor or stand as their elected representatives wrestled with the important issue.
This contrasts sharply with typical Graduate and Professional Student Association meetings. Council chairs historically have had to bend over backwards to find meeting times that encourage students to go; they often have asked for a show of hands from council representatives to determine whether quorum can be reached at their next meeting.
But this time, students were eager to engage in the democratic process. Concerned about the actions of UNM administrators, graduate students turned to GPSA to voice their opinions. But instead of support, these students found bureaucracy.
After more than two hours, all that was resolved at the meeting was that GPSA would have a special election — online, at a later, undecided date — for students to vote about the issue they showed up to discuss.
At the first sign of disagreement, the GPSA administration set aside the questions of exactly what students will vote for, when the vote will happen and other fundamental aspects of such an election. Rather than working through the argument, the GPSA administration readily sanded down the teeth of their resolution and accomplished exactly nothing.
Graduate and professional students actually showed up at a GPSA meeting, only to be greeted by the same bureaucratic machinery they were hoping to dismantle.
Hopefully, the GPSA will consider their methods before inviting students to their next meeting.
