Editor,
I'm a teaching assistant in the English department at UNM. I've been warned about the problems I could encounter while teaching English 101, but I was neither warned of nor had I anticipated an incident that took place in my classroom on the morning of last Friday.
I was getting ready to begin class when a young woman walked into my classroom. She said that she was with the UNM chapter of New Mexico Public Interest Research Group (NMPIRG). She told me that the English department gave her permission to go to classes and talk about voting. While this woman had my attention, my students became restless and loud. She said her presentation would only last five minutes, and I said OK.
The young woman asked my students to raise their hands if they were not registered to vote. Several students raised their hands and she asked them to keep their hands up while she handed out voter registration forms. Upon hearing this, I promptly told my students they should only register if they wanted to. Half of them placed their hands down. At the close of class, I returned to my office and checked my e-mail and my English department mailbox and I realized that I had been fooled - the English department hadn't authorized that visit.
To set the record straight, I am not against people registering to vote. What I am against is people using underhanded techniques to register UNM students to vote. I am also against people falsely representing themselves to gain access to my captive audience of 18- and 19-year-olds. In retrospect, I can see how tempting it would be to take advantage of my audience of unregistered voters, but I had never looked at my class in this way.
My students are at UNM for an education. That education was encroached upon Friday morning. My classroom time is valuable, and I am upset that it was taken advantage of.
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I am also upset that someone would take advantage of my position as a teaching assistant. As a new TA, I know I'm not as savvy as other University-level educators. I believe this is why my classroom was targeted. I've e-mailed NMPIRG, asking them about this class visit and have not heard back. I never would have anticipated this kind of deceit from an organization such as PIRG.
Jennifer Schaller
UNM staff
