I'm running unopposed for the position of Graduate and Professional Student Association council chairman. I'm a returning student who is seeking a dual degree in masters of public administration as well as community and regional planning.
By way of introduction, I've been a community organizer most of my adult life. I started my activism career by getting pro-bicycling laws passed, helping to create a bicycle coordinator for New Mexico and a bicycle safety coordinator for Albuquerque, getting more resources used for alternative transportation options, and getting bicycle racks on city buses. Years later, I moved on to being a neighborhood advocate where I worked on projects like slowing traffic to safer speeds on Lead and Coal avenues, reforesting and cleaning up my neighborhood and keeping gentrification at bay by working with infill developers to minimizing how fast our community changes. In the same time period, I was also immersed in water issues, being one of the many authors of the Middle Rio Grande Regional Water Management Plan and getting local governments and the state to adopt the plan. In addition, I have an elective office. My name was on same ballot as John McCain and Barack Obama last November when I won my third term in office. I sit on the local flood control board.
In all this time of being a community leader and advocate, I've done my share of serving my community, drafting laws, getting laws passed and helping people to organize - in essence, the job description of the GPSA council chairman.
The GPSA council, as the legislative arm of the GPSA, writes and passes resolutions (laws for ourselves, including those adopting budgets). The GPSA council chairman's main job is to run meetings and to organize the process.
Part of that organizing is communications. I want the current and incoming GPSA members and council representatives to know that I am just a cell phone call or text away. I want all graduate and professional students to know that I have a long-standing relationship with both GPSA presidential candidates and can work well with either (both most likely, since they both have said to me that they plan to stay involved with GPSA).
I have been working on some issues that I plan to continue to work on as GPSA council chairman. The first is to continue following current council chairwoman Lissa Knudsen's leadership to find or create funding for the expansion of the Children's Campus (in all fairness, Lee Drake has also been involved with this advocacy). In these times of economic need and in an economy that stresses higher education, it's imperative that UNM and CNM understand that supporting parent students will help create the educated workforce and future educators they endeavor to achieve.
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I plan to continue to strive to create cultural and ethnic diversity in an institution where the freshman class looks a little like New Mexico but the higher up the ladder you go the less it does so. UNM needs to find ways to lose fewer minority students between their first year in school and the year they're supposed to graduate and then get more minority students enrolled in graduate school. To do this, UNM needs to fully support our ethnic centers because the best way to help minority and first generation college students succeed is by making us feel less like fish out of water. The ethnic centers are doing that right now with pennies, and I want to see them get real, reoccurring funding so they can continue to perform their passions.
Since the GPSA council chairman position is mostly about running meetings, I plan to use my years of experience to improve the process and to hone the skills of GPSA representatives and anyone who wants to attend our meetings. I know this isn't exciting, but it's a real skill that will serve most graduate students well whether they plan an academic or a professional career.
As is widely known, I have had some issues with the UNM administration. No confidence is more than a vote taken by the Faculty Senate and the GPSA. No confidence means UNM is leaking out talent and resources at every level. Reputable educators have left and others are looking for positions elsewhere. Legislators don't want to fund UNM excesses like our out-of-control veep salaries. I know I'm just a student here on campus, but I love UNM too much to stand on the sidelines while my school implodes. Fortunately, not all is lost. The administration has heard multiple UNM communities' outcries, and it will have to change. In the meantime, I will continue to work with other students, faculty, staff, legislators, city councilors, nonprofits and surrounding neighborhoods to work toward creating a more transparent, open and responsive UNM administration.
If you're reading that my concerns and alliances go beyond just graduate and professional students, you are right. I think it behooves those of us who are in positions to effect positive change to do so. Why not partner with CNM students and nonprofit advocacy groups to get better child care for everyone? Why not ally ourselves with faculty, staff, neighborhood groups and our legislators to create a better, more responsive UNM administration? I plan to continue to work inside and outside these hallowed halls to make a difference in our own education, the education of those who will follow and serve the community that has created these educational opportunities for us in the first place. At the same time, I promise not to skip a beat when running GPSA council meetings.
The GPSA election will be April 6-10. On the ballot are two people running for GPSA president, resolutions of no confidence toward the administration and several amendments to our constitution. If you are a graduate or professional student, please seek out the Student PIRG guide to educate yourselves on these issues and then please vote. We directly spend about $300,000 of your money, so you should have a say on who "we" are.
