by Ashleigh Sanchez
Daily Lobo
There is tension on the Student Fee Review Board between the presidents of UNM's student governments.
ASUNM President Ashley Fate said GPSA President Joseph Garcia scheduled funding-request hearings without getting approval from
the board.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
But Garcia said he doesn't need its approval to set the hearing dates because he is the board's chairman.
The board holds hearings near the beginning of the spring semester every year for campus organizations and departments to request funding.
The board makes recommendations to the University for how about $8 million of student fees should be allocated.
Fate said the board agreed to have campus organizations request a hearing date on their funding applications.
"We agreed to put check boxes and proposed dates, both weekend and weekday, to find out what was best for the groups," she said.
Garcia scheduled the hearings for Tuesday,
Jan. 22, the first day of the spring semester, and Tuesday, Feb. 1.
Garcia said he did what was best.
"I understand she's upset," he said. "It's hard for people to get away from their families on weekends. My main goal has always been to increase student involvement."
Fate said holding the hearings on weekdays - especially the first day of classes - burdens students because they must choose between the hearing and their classes.
"This is the student review board, and students' classes come first," she said. "We're open to finding a compromise, but he went totally against what the board had agreed to do."
Garcia said the hearing schedule is up to him because he is the chairman, and he met with the board several times to discuss the issue.
Fate said the hearings are
usually held before the spring
semester starts. They were on weekends last year, she said.
She said that in the past, the chairperson has brought proposed dates to the board, which then set the schedule.
A recall petition for Garcia's presidency was presented to GPSA on Saturday. He said the tension on the review board is similar to what he experienced in GPSA.
"People are trying to remove me because of things that happened in the past," he said. "Now, the board can't move forward because we're stuck in the way things have traditionally been done."
Fate said Garcia should not have acted without the board's consent.
"Really, the schedule isn't the issue," she said. "The issue is the butting heads. I've told Joe that we need to find a way past this and work together."
The presidents of GPSA and ASUNM chair the board in alternating two-year periods.
If Garcia is removed, there is no protocol for who would be chairperson.
"We don't know what will happen," said Debbie Morris, director of the Student Activities Center. "There's no precedent. It's never happened before."
Garcia said it's unlikely he will be removed as president of GPSA.
Morris said the board will work out the schedule, but it's not going to be perfect.
"There isn't going to be a good time for these," she said. "People are busy on the weekends and working or at school on the weekdays."
