Select few caused turmoil at GPSA recall discussion

Editor,

I think Monday's front page headline completely missed the importance and significance of the GPSA meeting.

As someone in attendance, I can say what I saw warranted a completely different story and certainly a different headline.

In my mind, what should have been the story was all but 10 of the 60 graduate students in an overflowing room supported a president who is being recalled by the initiative of a few.

Perhaps the fact that the attendance was outstanding should have been the headline, because until Joseph Garcia took office as president of GPSA, a council meeting was not likely to see more than 20 representatives.

But the Daily Lobo headline and story stressed the petition recall, which was supported by an underwhelming minority of graduate students at the meeting. Many unfounded accusations were thrown at Garcia during the meeting. The most outlandish was that he's responsible for GPSA Council meetings taking too long. The problem with this argument is that it's the Council chair who is responsible for running meetings, not the GPSA president.

The pattern I did notice at the meeting was one of four or five of the same people would attack or nitpick agenda items submitted by friends of the administration. It was obvious that the small group of Garcia detractors had their own agenda - to make the meeting as rancorous as possible and to stall the process.

In one case, a person requesting funding for several so-called minority groups was grilled mercilessly and asked by Garcia's detractors to submit the demographics of the people the funding would serve - something that isn't done when the funding is requested for nonminority causes.

But when administration supporters claim detractors are primarily motivated by Garcia's ambitious social justice agenda, they are shouted down by both the small minority who oppose Garcia and the Daily Lobo.

Something prominently mentioned in all Daily Lobo articles on this subject is that Garcia defied the GPSA Council by hiring two graduate students and not hiring a three-quarter-time staff person. What continues to be missing from Daily Lobo coverage is the fact that the GPSA constitution clearly states that the president shall "employ, discharge, and assign duties to all GPSA employees," not the GPSA Council.

Another thing that continues to be missed by most, but not all, is the injurious effects these skirmishes are having on GPSA and graduate students. Important work isn't being done, time and energy is being wasted, and people are being needlessly hurt by fruitless personal attacks.

Although two of the short list of people behind the recall are members of the GPSA Conflict Resolution Committee, it hasn't occurred to them that a less violent solution to the conflict is readily at hand. As I understand it, an offer to use an alternative method of dispute resolution has been offered to and categorically rejected by Garcia's detractors.

T.D. LeNoir

College of Education graduate representative