by Caleb Fort
Daily Lobo
Debbie Morris, director of student activities, said there has never been a problem with different people filing a charter for the same student group - until now.
The UNM chapter of the College Republicans was supposed to meet for the first time this semester on Aug. 31 at 7:15 p.m.
However, earlier that day a group of students who were not elected officers in the group filed a charter for the College Republicans listing themselves as the officers.
At about 4:30 that afternoon Mary Jones, who was listed under the new charter as the treasurer, sent an e-mail to all members of the group canceling the meeting.
"The College Republicans is under new leadership," she said in the e-mail. "The meeting set for tonight, scheduled by the exiting executive board, is canceled due to unexpected circumstances."
The e-mail listed Jones as treasurer, Justin Maier as president, Amanda Navarro as vice president and Kaeran Alo as secretary.
Rodney Dunn, political director for Phara Forsythe, president, said the e-mail took him by surprise.
For several other members of the group, the first sign that something had happened was when they arrived for the meeting, and the reservation for the room in the SUB was canceled.
Maier said there are about 800 people on the e-mail list for the group.
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The officers that Maier's group tried to replace were Forsythe as president, Alexandra Rose as vice president, Julie Berkey as secretary and Alex Hughes as treasurer.
The purpose of the Aug. 31 meeting, called by Forsythe, was to elect officers for the year and to vote in a new constitution.
The group led by Forsythe filed a charter for the group on Sept. 14.
With two sets of officers trying to control the same group, Morris said the Student Activities Center will mediate between the two groups. She gave a memo to both parties on Sept. 20 saying the group should hold an election for officers within one month.
"I'm sure you are aware that it does not serve your organization well to continue this internal conflict that has divided your membership," Morris said in the memo. "I hope you will convey this to the new officers so they can fully address the issue."
Morris said as far as she knows there has never been a similar situation at UNM, so the University does not have a policy for dealing with it.
Morris said Forsythe's group of officers is still in power.
"They are the officers of record as far as we can tell," she said. "They did not abandon the group, and there is no reason you can come and take them over."
Maier said he filed the charter because he and several other members were unhappy with the leadership and direction the group was taking.
He said the group's officers had become so inactive that the group was no longer legitimate. The group also was not fit to represent Republicans, because it did not follow its constitution, he said.
"If the organization failed to meet regularly, and didn't even follow its own constitution - first of all, they're pretty bad Republicans, and in our mind the group ceased to exist," he said.
He said the constitution states the election for officers must be held between April 1 and April 30 every year, but Forsythe postponed the election until summer.
Maier said Forsythe put off the election because she did not think her friends had a good chance of being elected in the spring.
Forsythe said the possible results of the election had nothing to do with it being delayed. She said she did not hold elections in April so the group could rewrite the constitution over the summer to include positions for more officers.
"I know that they had concerns about our election being put off, but I wish that they had come and talked to me about it," she said. "We were planning on holding fair elections at the meeting that was canceled."
Morris said Maier should not have filed the charter.
"The real issue is you can't take over a group," she said. "The group existed. You can't just come in and say 'I'm so-and-so, you have to follow me now.'"
Bob Cornelius, a member of the group and chairman of the Reagan Freedom Society, said he agreed with Maier's actions.
"In my mind Justin and his group wanted to pick up the ball and take it from there," he said. "They had the initiative to get things done, and that's why I support what they did."
Forsythe said the group has not followed its constitution for several years, because it is poorly written and outdated. There is no date of adoption in the constitution, but she said it is probably about 20 years old.
The constitution, which is two pages long, allows five officers. It doesn't allow a way to abolish or revise the constitution, Forsythe said.
Morris said Forsythe's group proved it was active during the spring. She said they filed a budget with ASUNM, sent out several e-mails to their members and met several times.
"There is no evidence that this group had become defunct," she said. "You can't take over something that still exists."
Scott Darnell, state chairman of College Republicans, agreed.
"They were as active as they had been and as they needed to be," he said. "Their level of activity reflected the level of activity across the state and across the country."
