Editor,
The GPSA president and council chairs receive a lot of money for what they do. They receive tuition reimbursements and large stipends. In fact, a big percentage of the GPSA president's tuition is paid by you and me.
I've been a graduate student at UNM for the past 2 1/2 years without ever noticing GPSA. However, this year, that has been almost completely unavoidable. This is due to one reason: the complete circus it has become.
This sort of spectacle is embarrassing to UNM. To GPSA President Joseph Garcia and the GPSA council chairs: As a graduate student constituent of yours, you have completely failed me and anyone like me.
All I see in the news is the infighting in GPSA. I hear of recall petitions being signed by graduate students, and then the council votes summarily to not have a recall. I hear of meetings where the yelling outweighs the negotiating 10-to-one.
I have read the former elections chairwoman's response to a complaint concerning the election. It does nothing to tell us why things happened and instead only serves to further the it's-not-my-fault-it's-your-fault attitude of the GPSA administration.
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What I do not hear about is anything that the GPSA is doing to help me, or any other graduate student for that matter. Let's get one thing straight: I absolutely do not care whose fault the GPSA infighting is.
But here's an idea: In exchange for the money and stipends that are awarded to the GPSA by students, instead of blaming other people, the president and the council should fix something. I, along with the rest of the student body, deserve something better than "the other side didn't want to go to mediation, so it is their fault."
Sorry, that's not good enough. That sort of response makes you look bad, it makes the GPSA look bad and it makes the UNM graduate student community look bad.
Garcia, I am sure this attitude of you against the world makes you feel very cavalier and important, but it is quite simply hurting the council, the GPSA and the school at large.
I am not advocating you step down or cede control to the opposition, but please do something to fix GPSA. I get the feeling that fixing GPSA might involve something other than your own ideas, so please be willing to work with people you disagree with, at least more so in the future than you have in the past.
And to the GPSA board at large and in entirety, regardless of whether you agree with Garcia, you need to do something to fix this problem. The graduate student body pays tens of thousands of dollars every year to finance GPSA. That money comes out of students' pockets, and this year, that investment is under your watch. Please do something to make our investment in GPSA this year something other than a waste.
If that's not possible, maybe it's time for the separate graduate schools to look at leaving GPSA. I know that I, for one, would like my money to be used for something other than a whining contest.
Nathan Cobb
UNM student
