ASUNM will hold a town-hall meeting in the SUB Atrium on Oct. 15 for students who have questions about which Student Services departments will be split or moved during the creation of the Student Success Center.
The center will be housed in the old Lockheed Martin building, across from CNM on University Boulevard and Avenida Cesar Chavez.
ASUNM President Ashley Fate said she and GPSA President Christopher Ramirez have partnered with the President's Office to address the influx of student concerns about the center.
"We're getting a lot of students who have a lot of questions about what's going to happen," Fate said. "We know that there are a lot of questions, so we can answer those, and if there are concerns we can address those also."
Carmen Alvarez Brown, vice president for enrollment management, said she intends to alleviate stress in the enrollment departments by supplying students with a virtual one-stop shop where they can call in or chat with an adviser.
But on Tuesday, Brown told the Daily Lobo that admissions and financial aid would move out of Mesa Vista Hall.
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Thursday evening, Brown sent an e-mail to students "in an effort to clarify information" published in Wednesday's Daily Lobo, saying plans for the Student Success Center were tentative and that UNM hadn't decided which departments would stay on Main Campus.
On Friday, Brown showed the Daily Lobo a tentative floor plan for the Student Success Center - dated Thursday - which depicted a front area for dealing with students' needs and back offices for processing enrollment, scholarships and other services.
A floor plan for the reorganization of Mesa Vista Hall wasn't available, she said.
Brown said students will be pleased with the center once all the details have been laid out.
An employee in the Bursar's Office, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of getting fired, said he and other employees were told Wednesday that they could lose their jobs if they wrote letters to the Daily Lobo or spoke to a Lobo reporter.
"We were told that they could not guarantee that there would not be repercussions or consequences if we talked to anyone," he said.
He said Marianne Presser, manager of student accounts receivable, said this to employees the morning the article "Student Services to relocate in spring" appeared in the Daily Lobo.
"The story was going to break, and the manager of student accounting made the announcement, and when a suggestion was made that somebody might want to write a letter (to the Lobo), it was just, 'Do so at your own peril,'" he said.
Presser said her words were taken out of context.
"What it was is that I was explaining that an article went out in the Lobo that morning and our staff meeting was first thing in the morning, and I said, 'If any of you have read this article, I just want to let you know that Bursar's is not part of Student Services,'" Presser said. "'At this time there is no indication that we're going to be moving down to the Lockheed Martin building.'"
Presser said she told her employees that some students were unhappy about the move and that if employees wrote letters to the Lobo expressing their opinions, they might be subject to backlash.
The employee said Presser's clarification of her statement is an attempt at backpedaling.
"She and the Bursar have repeatedly made that kind of joke over the course of their tenure - jokes or other comments that have given me and a few others the idea that they really do not have the students' well-being at heart," he said.
Some of the Student Services staff may be disgruntled over the move, Brown said, but the decision to combine forces in a new center is in the best interest of students.
Brown said she is open to student feedback because her goal is to make sure students have a good experience with enrollment services.
"I really want students to give me their input," she said. "I would like to hear from them and how we can better our services to them."
Fate said she will meet with Brown today to discuss the Success Center and virtual one-stop shop.
Fate said expanding the University's online services will be beneficial for students.
"We're a commuter campus and would really benefit from being able to access information from any remote location, rather than having to commute to campus to get that information when it's trivial things like changing your address," Fate said. "I think that will save students a lot of time and hassle."
Brown said her main goal is to make enrollment services more efficient and convenient for students.
"We don't want to inconvenience people," she said. "We don't want people who usually do business on the Main Campus to go to the Lockheed Martin building. They will not be turned away from anywhere. That's my goal."
