Two of UNM’s literary magazines had to wait to receive funding until last week because the GPSA had to run through legal measures in order to send the money, Martin said.
“This isn’t the sort of thing that has a 24-hour turnaround,” Martin said, “But now that everything is in place, there shouldn’t be a problem next year.”
The GPSA provides funding to both “Conceptions Southwest” and “Best Student Essays” but during the last Student Publication board meeting on Sept. 26, Jim Fisher, business manager for Student Publications, said the GPSA had not been living up to their promise.
According to the bylaws listed on GPSA’s website, the organization is supposed to provide between 1 and 1.5 percent of its budget to provide funding for the magazines.
During the meeting, Fisher said for the past three years, representatives for the magazines had to petition for the funding, although they were supposed to be guaranteed automatic funding according to the bylaws and the work of a former GPSA Student Publication liaison.
The GPSA did approve the funds after a financial council meeting on Sept. 27, and according to GPSA documents the funds were sent to student accounting on Oct. 2, more than six weeks after the beginning of the fall semester.
Martin said the funds were delayed because the bylaws had to be officially ratified by their legal counsel.
Fisher, however, said the pub board was promised that the bylaws had been ratified last school year, but funds were still unavailable until representatives went through the full request process.
“I think it was true that at one point in time they weren’t approved because of some legal conflicts,” Fisher said. “But this is completely opposite of what we’ve been told.”
Lauren Wade, ASUNM presidential representative to the Publication Board, said she thinks GPSA should have provided the money because it was posted publicly on GPSA’s website that the money would be made available.
“If it’s in their bylaws online, that means it was passed by their legal counsel,” Wade said. “If they put it on their website, that’s basically stating it was an approved item.”
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Representatives from the Student Publication Board were in contact with Martin, but Fisher said they received inadequate response.
“We were in contact with the GPSA president (Texanna Martin) who pretty much just completely blew us off,” Fisher said.
According to an email sent by Martin to administrators in the Student Publication office, Martin did make the pub board aware that the funding would be unavailable until after GPSA’s financial council met on Sept. 27.
Martin also invited the editors for both student magazines and representatives from the pub board to the Financial Council meeting, but said she never received a response.
“They never sent anybody,” Martin said. “They never even answered our emails.”
BSE editor Melissa Rinkenberger did not respond to interview requests. Conceptions editor Jordan Burk declined to be interviewed for this article.
Now that the bylaws have been officially ratified by the legal council and the funding has passed through GPSA’s financial committee, the money should be available for both publications without much ado starting next year, Martin said.
Daniel Montaño is a staff reporter at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com, or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
