A group of about 40 UNM students stood outside of the School of Architecture and Planning to demand access to its resource center yesterday.
One week ago, students and the department's shop supervisor, Fred Mahinfarahmand, protested the restrictive hours of the shop and what they said was ill treatment of Mahinfarahmand.
Students say they paid $15 per credit hour in fees to access the resource center, but it has been closed to students all semester.
The center provided large-size printers, computers and other design equipment for architecture and design students.
Sandra Ortsman, a graduate student in community and regional planning, said administrators told her and other students the center needed to be closed down because of limited funding in the department's budget, and nothing could be done to keep the center open.
She said students have been using Kinko's for their schoolwork and paying much more there.
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"It just makes our program look bad," she said. "To graduate from a program that doesn't even have a resource room doesn't shine well on us."
Ortsman said none of the money students had left over in accounts at the center has been refunded.
Associate Dean Gabrielle Gutierrez declined to comment on Thursday about the center's closure.
Ortsman said students held a meeting with school administrators in hopes of understanding why the center was closed down. She said administrators at the meeting said they could not discuss details of the center closing.
Gulliver Scott, a community and regional planning student, said he doesn't want students' fees refunded. He wants the center reopened to students and said the next step after protest may be direct action.
"It wouldn't be too hard to lock down this building," he said. "To shut down this school seems like a viable alternative."
He said other efforts to reopen the center include writing letters to other administrators.
"We try to attack it on multiple fronts," he said.
