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GPSA backs protest

Council members: Allow (un)Occupy to assemble on campus 24/7

GPSA voted Monday to support the (un)occupy Albuquerque movement and condemn University administration’s actions in dealing with the movement’s presence on campus.

The resolution, which passed 13-2-1 at an emergency GPSA council meeting, called for the administration to allow protesters to occupy UNM 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It said the administration was out of line when it made the decision last month to forcibly remove protesters from campus, a move that resulted in more than 30 arrests.

(un)Occupy has since obtained a permit to assemble on campus between the hours of 5 a.m. and 10 p.m. on weekdays and between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekends. Protesters must renew the permit each week.

Megan McRobert, GPSA Student Support and Advocacy Committee chairwoman, co-authored the resolution and said she thinks it sends a clear message to UNM administrators.

“We put in some teeth, specifically around calling for the administration to extend the permit to 24 hours a day,” she said. “That’s a pretty radical request that requires the suspension of University policy.”

McRobert said she considers herself part of the (un)Occupy movement because she supports protesters’ goals, but said she hasn’t attended the protesters’ general assembly meetings. She said protesters asked her to act as a liaison between the movement and GPSA.

GPSA President Katie Richardson said she hopes the UNM community will join GPSA in support of the protesters’ right to assemble on campus.

“I hope GPSA will soon be joined by the rest of the campus in asking administration to extend the permits to 24 hours a day, seven days a week and affirm the right of the (un)Occupy movement to protest on campus,” she said.

UNM President David Schmidly said in a University-wide email Monday that UNM will do its best to compromise with the protesters.

“While we cannot permit camping on our grounds, we are happy to make space available to (Un)occupy New Mexico at Yale Park … according to a reasonable schedule of hours that has allowed both sides to find consensus,” he said. “All personal property must be removed each night: We can’t protect it against theft, and our grounds and maintenance crews can’t work around it.”

Protesters had established a permanent base of operations at Yale Park, an area that became known as “Camp Coyote.” The current permit prohibits 24-hour occupation, kitchens, electricity and amplified sound in Yale Park.

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GPSA’s resolution calls it “unjust” for UNM to cite an increased transient population on campus as a reason to shut down the protest, calling the transient community a “crucial part of the 99 percent that (un)Occupy Albuquerque seeks to represent.”

UNM spokeswoman Cinnamon Blair said the removal of the protesters was not a direct result of the transient population on campus. She said reports of intoxicated individuals at the camp and violence against protesters were cause for concern among the administration.

“This was kind of an escalation of some violent events,” she said. “I think part of the issue was that some of the people involved in the police reports were transients or were known to campus as such, so that’s how it came about, but it wasn’t just blatantly saying transients are the reason alone.”

GPSA Representative Jee Hwang said he was reluctant to condemn the administration’s actions, even though he didn’t agree with the administration’s decision to forcibly remove the protesters.

“I felt like it’s stuff that’s a little bit outdated and already sort of been addressed by other organizations,” he said. “And I don’t believe that GPSA needs to jump on that bandwagon … I feel like maybe what we should do in this resolution is talk about what can we do from here.”

GPSA Representative Matthew Makofske voted against the resolution because he said he thought it reflected a specific political agenda and was not the best interest of UNM’s graduate student body.

“This statement that we’re making is very political,” he said. “It’s taking sides … but is that what we’re supposed to be talking about? Is that what we’re representing and what we should be doing? I feel no.”

Makofske said he personally agrees with the movement, but didn’t think the majority of UNM’s 6,000 graduate students would have agreed with the document.

“I don’t feel that this is something we should be doing as elected officials and elected delegates of the graduate students of UNM,” he said.

ASUNM passed a senate resolution Nov. 2. that acknowledged the movement as a “comprehensive example of the potential for experiential education surrounding lawful, peaceful and effective practice of grassroots expression.” The resolution did not, however indicate whether ASUNM supported the protesters’ presence on campus or the administration’s actions in dealing with protest.

It also did not specify what future measures the administration should take with regard to the (un)Occupy movement.

The resolution encouraged continuing dialogue between the protesters and University administration.

“Both academically, it’s crawled into our curriculum, teachers are talking about it in classes, and physically, you walk by it and it’s there,” said ASUNM Sen. Caroline Muraida, who co-authored the resolution.

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