UNM administrators temporarily allowed the (un)Occupy movement a new permit for campus, but protesters said the change is just the beginning of the dialogue they want with University higher-ups.
The permit is valid to Friday and grants protesters the right to occupy Yale Park from 5 p.m.- 10 p.m.
Protester Benjamin Hansen said he thinks administrators granted the permit for their personal gain.
“It’s still less than what they granted us before,” he said. “I believe the reason why they granted us this much is because they’re expending a lot of resources trying to keep us from having our general assembly meetings here, and so in order to save face and save resources, they’re allowing this much.”
Student and protester Elaine Romero said she hopes the temporary permit is the first step in working with UNM President David Schmidly.
“I think it’s the beginning of an excellent opportunity to have conversations with President Schmidly,” she said. “We’re very excited about it and we’re really looking forward to him coming out and participating, so we can move forward and work together to solve some of the huge challenges we have going on in Albuquerque and New Mexico and our country.”
According to a press release from the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU helped protesters obtain the new permit.
“We are pleased that the University and the (un)Occupy protesters have reached an agreement that upholds the people’s First Amendment right to use public space to assemble and protest the government,” said Laura Schauer Ives, ACLU of New Mexico Managing Attorney. “The ACLU of New Mexico will continue to closely monitor the situation to ensure that these rights remain intact.”
UNM spokespeople could not be reached for comment as of 6:40 p.m. Monday night.
