The GPSA Council passed next year's budget and elected Bill Dials as its next council chairman during its monthly meeting Saturday.
Dials had been running for council chairman unopposed until Brigette Buynak, a law school representative on the Graduate and Professional Student Association Council, decided to run as a write-in candidate at the last minute.
After the meeting, Buynak said she had been thinking about running for three months but did not campaign because she thought she might be going away next semester. She said she recently decided she wanted to stay in New Mexico, so she told election chairman Tony Long before the meeting that she wanted to be a write-in candidate.
Buynak has been a GPSA member for a year and is involved with the Graduate Research Development Committee and the group's lobbying effort. She said she wanted to bring a woman into one of GPSA's top positions, diversify the organization and get funding from outside sources.
Buynak said she doesn't know Dials very well.
"I think he'll try to do his best," she said.
Dials said after the meeting that he was a little surprised by Buynak's decision to run, but felt prepared for the competition because he had been campaigning. He mentioned that the current council chairman, Hector Balderas, decided to be a write-in candidate the day before last year's election and won.
"I told her I respected her decision," he said of Buynak.
Dials will officially fill his position on the last day of school.
"I'm happy," he said. "It's not all over - it's the beginning."
During the same meeting, the council passed next year's budget, which is $197,500.
The budget includes $79,000 for pro-rated benefit allocations, which are funds that go to chartered graduate departmental organizations. The Student Research Allocation Committee will give students more than $26,000, and graduate students are eligible to receive up to $500 of that money per academic year.
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The Finance Committee has allocated $9,991 to non-departmental organizations, including $594 to the Agora Crisis Center, $1,000 to Conceptions Southwest, $600 to Best Student Essays, $2,200 to the New Mexico Public Interest Research Group and $1,475 to the UNM Chinese Student Friendship Association, among other groups.
The council also voted to suspend by-laws that give the Daily Lobo $1,500 per year.
Kim Nolan, a Latin American Studies representative of GPSA, said the Daily Lobo should not get $1,500 because it does not publish stories about her organization and her organization cannot afford the newsaper's advertising rates.
Annie Shank, an English department representative of GPSA, said the Daily Lobo needs the $1,500 for its emergency funds, even if the newspaper has a large budget. She said council members should not vote to cut Daily Lobo funding just because they think their groups are not getting proper coverage.
"We can't keep thinking, `What's in it for me?'" she said.
