On the heels of a GPSA special election addressing UNM Athletics, members of the undergraduate governing body weighed in, supporting a different view.
The ASUNM Steering and Rules Committee passed a resolution 3-1 giving support to almost everyone in the Athletics Department – leaving out, but not condemning, Athletics Director Paul Krebs and UNM coaches. The resolution will go before the full Senate next Wednesday.
According to the resolution, the ASUNM gives its “full support to the more than 500 undergraduate student-athletes, the approximately 100 student employees, and 20 graduate assistants and interns staffed by the Athletics Department.”
The resolution cites a number of factors that go into the support — a flourishing basketball and ski team, a combined 3.14 grade point average of student-athletes and a 49 percent graduation rate — 11 points higher than the general student body. The resolution cites much of the same evidence Krebs gave to the Albuquerque Journal praising his program.
Sen. Sean Mallory, who drafted the resolution, said it was written in response to a comment GPSA council chair Danny Hernandez made to the Daily Lobo on Monday, urging ASUNM to “chime in.”
Last week, the graduate population voted to urge the administration to divert student fees from Athletics, launch an investigation into the head football coach Mike Locksley/assistant coach J.B Gerald incident, and voted no confidence in Krebs.
“I feel that this special election focuses on a few specific instances that happened a while ago that, for the most part, have been resolved and moved on,” Mallory said. “It is putting a drag on the Athletics Department that does a lot for the campus.”
The resolution that made it out of committee is an indirect response to the GPSA special election. Yet a key paragraph, which was stricken in a 3-2 vote (committee chair Leon
Vigil made the tie-breaking vote in favor), addressed the special election directly.
The paragraph states: “The recent special election held by (GPSA) holds a distorted perception of the student body’s feelings towards its Athletic program, student athletes and the funding they receive through student fees”
Sen. Lazaro Cardenas, who proposed to strike the paragraph, said he didn’t want to support a resolution criticizing GPSA.
“I am concerned about going after GPSA for what they hold, and what they believe in and what they feel they are doing right,” Cardenas said.
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Another piece was also removed. In the original version, the resolution gave full support to Krebs. That line was removed with a 3-2 vote.
“I support the student (athletes) 110 percent,” Cardenas said. “Yet the administration had some iffy kind of things this past semester that I don’t agree with and I don’t condone.”
Yet the resolution does list the accomplishments of Lobo Athletics since 2006 “under the leadership of Paul Krebs.”
Mallory – the only senator in committee who voted “nay” to the revised version – said he voted against his own resolution because he didn’t believe it addressed the two key points he was trying to make.
Students can’t support the Athletic program without supporting the administration, including Krebs, Mallory said. He also said that GPSA’s idea to siphon student fees away from Athletics would hurt the wrong people.
“I feel that GPSA doesn’t understand that when they attack student fees, they are not hurting coaches or presidents. They are hurting students,” he said.
Mallory said he will attempt to work the paragraph addressing the GPSA election and the support for Krebs back into the final resolution in full Senate next Wednesday.
Unlike GPSA, ASUNM is voting on a resolution rather than holding a special election. Yet Mallory said if the Senate decides that a special election is due, it will have one.
Hernandez said GPSA usually doesn’t pass resolutions without going to the voters, and the ASUNM resolution doesn’t reflect the entire undergraduate student body.
“I believe they have 25,000 constituents they have to check in with,” Hernandez said. “All I have to say is that a quarter of our students voiced their opinions on the matter. And what we did represents our constituents. They can’t say the same thing.”
Mallory said he’s fairly confident the resolution is representing the undergraduate student body, but he didn’t rule out a special election.
“I do feel that the undergraduate student body supports these things,” Mallory said after the meeting. “I may be making a generalization, and that may be something that needs to be brought up at a full Senate meeting. And if the rest of the Senate feels necessary, we will take a special election of our own to see exactly what the student body feels.”
*ASUNM Senate Meeting
Wednesday
6 p.m.
Lobo room A&B in the SUB
