The Graduate and Professional Students Association will meet next week to discuss a no-confidence vote in Vice President of Athletics Paul Krebs.
All graduate students are invited to attend the meeting in the SUB on Monday.
On top of sending a message to the athletics administration, GPSA Council Chair Danny Hernandez said a no-confidence vote could influence the Student Fee Review Board to stop giving a portion of student fees to the athletics program.
“I want to continue to send out a message that we have a serious problem here at UNM,” Hernandez said. “The problem has started with Schmidly and Krebs. These are our tax dollars and student dollars that are being spent on incompetence.”
According to Debbie Morris, director of the Student Activities Center, the Student Fee Review Board allocates about $1.5 million to the Athletics Department — 16.5 percent of their $9.2 million budget.
In a statement to the Daily Lobo, Krebs did not directly address the possibility of a no-confidence vote.
“I stand behind the body of work and the accomplishments of the Athletics Department over the past three-plus years,” he said.
In a press release, GPSA President Lissa Knudsen said recent acts of violence by people in the Athletics Department are indicative of deeper problems. Knudsen cited two incidents: head football coach Mike Locksley’s physical altercation with assistant coach J.B. Gerald and women’s soccer player Elizabeth Lambert’s punching and hair pulling in a game against BYU earlier this month.
“The recent cover-up of the Locksley-Gerald incident coupled with the egregious lack of sportsmanship displayed by Lambert exemplifies a lack of leadership within the UNM Athletics Department,” Knudsen said. “An effective leader is transparent with information and thoughtful in their actions to protect the institution and the people in that institution. It’s time for the students to weigh in on this.”
Knudsen said student fees should be diverted from athletics and all Athletics Department search committees should have a GPSA-appointed voting member.
The GPSA passed a resolution in early October urging the University not to fire Locksley after the Sept. 20 altercation, which occurred during a coaches’ meeting. The resolution said Locksley should get a second chance and go to anger management.
Hernandez said the subsequent actions of athletics administrators are the basis for the GPSA to vote on a no-confidence resolution.
“The impetus for the original Locksley resolution was that we’ve had a lot of bad coaches in the past, so why was it that the first black football coach that we have gets slammed?” Hernandez said. “The new situation is that UNM is actively covering up (the incident with) destroyed records, the vice president saying he doesn’t know UNM’s policy on violence and Schmidly saying, ‘That’s OK’ — that kind of thing.”
GPSA member Desi Brown said at the GPSA council meeting Saturday that the vote next week should include language promoting administrative accountability.
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“I think that a focus that maybe should be put into play is really making some recommendations into accountability, because right now there is no accountability,” he said.
*GPSA meeting
Monday
12:30 p.m.
SUB Room 1021
*
