ASUNM sent a resolution that would allow the UNM community to take Veterans Day off back to committee during its first meeting Wednesday.
Sixteen senators voted in favor of sending the vote back and four voted against. The same resolution passed during the Graduate and Professional Student Association meeting Saturday.
The resolution asks the University to give students Veterans Day off, even if Nov. 11 falls on a weekend.
The Steering and Rules Committee will vote on the resolution Wednesday.
Zack Mutchler, president of Student Veterans of UNM, told the ASUNM senators that each person deserves the opportunity to decide how they want to spend Veterans Day.
“Observance is a personal thing,” Mutchler said. “Some people at the University are saying that veterans should do some kind of memorial service. While that would be nice, it’s not a replacement, and it’s not acceptable to force someone to observe that way.”
Mutchler said the Regents will ultimately decide if UNM students are given a day off in observance of Veterans Day, but he wants to get the support of the student body beforehand.
He said Veterans Day is one of the most important days to the 1,300 veterans enrolled at UNM.
“We surveyed every veteran we could at this University — which was close to 600 — and their No. 1 biggest issue was not having Veterans Day observance,” Mutchler said.
Alyssa Rivera, a senator in her first term, voted against the resolution because, while she supports observing Veterans Day, she said the resolution itself was not specific.
“I thought that it was a really good resolution and I thought that Veterans Day should definitely be recognized,” she said. “But I didn’t like that the resolution didn’t contain a practical solution as to where that day off should go.”
The resolution suggested using a snow day, but didn’t have a specific method for determining a day that would be observed.
Rivera also said she voted “no” because of the exaggerated phrasing of the bill.
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“I felt that some of the language was a little too poetic for my taste. It was very flowery,” she said. “There were parts of the resolution that implied that the ‘true heroes’ of the United States are the veterans and, while I do see them as heroes, I don’t know if the entire student population would agree that they are the ultimate heroes of this country.”
Third-term senator Laz Cardenas, the Student Veterans ASUNM representative, said he had no issues with the bill’s language.
“An important matter such as Veterans Day — I thought that it was justified,” he said.
Since GPSA passed the resolution, Mutchler said his organization didn’t expect ASUNM to send it back to committee.
“There were a few of the senators who didn’t like the wording on the resolution, which is a little strange to us because GPSA passed it without any questions or problems whatsoever,” he said.
