by Joseph Garcia
Daily Lobo guest columnist
Recent disagreement within GPSA comes down to one thing: money.
The accusations that I have mishandled graduate student fees are unfounded. The recent arguments in GPSA have been focused on the perceived "exorbitant" student fees each student pays in order to hire a three-quarter-time staff person. The exuberant fee in question here is $2, something that most, if not all, graduate students would call spare change in relation to what each student paid in student fees this year.
Graduate and professional students paid $418.12 per student in student fees this year, totaling $2,070,331. Exactly $72.50 of our fees went to the Athletics Department. Overall, the Athletics Department received about $1.5 million from the Student Fee Review Board. SFRB is a board that decides and sends recommendations to the regents informing them on how we expect our money to
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be spent.
Last year, graduate students appointed to the board successfully fought to reduce the amount athletics received by $50,000 from the year before. Of those, $11,500 was graduate and professional students' money. Considering that an average graduate student assistantship is about $12,000, our efforts must be applauded.
Even though the undergraduate portion of the SFRB accepted our efforts and reasoning for this reduction, that was not the case with GPSA itself. In contrast to our actions of keeping the cost of student fees down, GPSA council chose to focus on an administrative position rather than finding ways to wisely use their constituents' hard-earned money. Consequently, recommendations from the SFRB were ignored both by GPSA representatives and the administration itself.
Whatever the case, because of our efforts, the SFRB appeared in the Daily Lobo last year on multiple occasions questioning the ways in which student money was used. Bringing these issues to light was primarily due to the efforts of one graduate student who was not allowed on the board due to internal politics and the status quo, which has dominated the SFRB for over a decade. It was the efforts of those appointed to the board that the traditionally secret process of allocating student fees became public knowledge.
The board is comprised of three graduate students and four undergraduate students.
Last year, outnumbered and without the chair, we secured a vote requesting a freeze in our fees. I have actively fought for this process to be open and public. And as this year's SFRB chair, I will establish the necessary framework that will achieve this objective. As a result, in spirit of transparency, especially when it comes to the use of $8.1 million, all SFRB meetings will be publicized and open to the public so students can participate in fee allocations. The board will have time for public comment, and we will allow questions from
the public.
I want graduate and professional students to discuss the SFRB and the legislative priorities of the University at our next meeting. We need to work together because millions of dollars of student money are being allocated and decided upon by undergraduates and the administration.
We need to act.
In 2004, athletics received $750,000. By 2006, that number had almost doubled to $1.25 million, and now athletics receives $1.5 million. The vote last year should have stopped any increase, but GPSA's lack of focus resulted in a $12.84 increase that went directly to athletics. The amount of money GPSA allocates to departments and for all GPSA expenses totals $25, which is less than the increase athletics received in
three years.
Are we going to allow an argument over $2 destroy all the work we have done over the past 18 months? We must focus on the $418.12 and not $2 that has been used to divide our organization and discredit our efforts.
The SFRB dedicated hours to develop recommendations for the regents as to how we want our fees to be used. The regents will not listen to our demands if we do not have a unified voice and if we do not come together for a greater good.
If this recall is about money, then we need to focus on the figure that is more than 200 times the amount allocated for office operations. If the money graduate and professional students pay is to benefit graduate students, then we need to focus on how the SFRB manages that money.
The regents anticipate fracture, apathy and ignorance by students and SFRB members to perpetrate this situation. Graduate and professional students must demand change in how our money is handled. And most importantly, we must stand united in this endeavor if we are to see this change happen.
GPSA can and will demand that our wishes and concerns are heard and respected by the UNM administration.
Joseph Garcia is a graduate student and GPSA president.
