Members of Black GPSA brought back the Freedom Ride to protest the Legislature's proposed budget cuts to UNM's ethnic minority centers.
About 20 students, staff and faculty members took the 90-minute Rail Runner trip to Santa Fe on Wednesday. They went to represent centers such as El Centro de la Raza, African American Student Services and American Indian Student Services.
"Freedom Ride came as a brainchild from, in the spirit of the '60s, Freedom Rides down South," said Michelle Touson, Black GPSA president and organizer of the Freedom Ride.
State Rep. Miguel Garcia was commuting to the Roundhouse during the trek, and he said he was impressed by the protesters' efforts.
Garcia said ethnic centers aided him in his University experience and that cutting them would handicap student success.
"Going through the University system, I've seen the significant impact that these student service programs have," he said. "And to cut them is like cutting off your hand and still trying to go about life and everyday business as though nothing happened."
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Upon arriving in Santa Fe, the Freedom Ride group spent the morning visiting legislators in their offices. They argued that eliminating ethnic centers would have immediate and long-term effects on the University.
"We're rolling up north to let our concerns be known, to let them know that the cutting of the budgets of ethnic centers is not only about recruitment of ethnic minority students but the retention of ethnic minority students," Touson said.
Garcia said he supports faculty, staff and students opening a dialogue with legislators to find creative ways to solve funding problems. He said the University has failed to prioritize and should reconsider the "bloated" salaries of its upper administrators.
"I applaud students, the staff, the University personnel and professors that stand up and make that stand . that this is not acceptable, that we're sacrificing viable initiatives, viable programs but yet not looking into the inner dealings of the University," he said.
Christopher Ramirez, GPSA president, was at the Roundhouse lobbying to change the budgeting process of UNM's ethnic centers to ensure they would get money from the state every year.
"If we take these programs seriously and understand that they are pivotal to the success of the University and the success of students, then they'd be budgeted money, and we wouldn't be in Santa Fe today," he said.
Touson said funding for ethnic centers should be "hard money" rather than "soft money." If UNM supported ethnic centers as "hard money," they would have recurring funding each year, she said.
"Most of these programs are soft money. We need to make sure that we speak to our senators and our representatives," she said. "These programs need to be on hard money. We shouldn't have to come here every year and beg and cry and plead to have monies. This is ridiculous."
Student Travis McKenzie, who works at El Centro de la Raza, said he has helped to circulate a petition throughout the student body in support of the ethnic minority centers.
"We have 700 (signatures) just in the last two days in support of the ethnic centers.. The 700 students that couldn't come up here today," he said. "But if you can picture what 700 students would look like up here, that's the seriousness of the situation."
