ASUNM needs better way to communicate with students

Editor,

One problem I have with ASUNM and the student elections at UNM is the profound lack of relevant information about the political issues at hand and the student candidates themselves.

I would like to think that I keep myself pretty well-informed about the issues that affect my University and the systems that make it work. I have been a full-time student here for four years now. I'm presently a member of a couple of active student organizations. I make an effort to attend major campus events and meetings. However, I find myself again and again at a complete loss as to the exact purpose of ASUNM and any useful knowledge about the students running for office.

This week, I've been walking around campus and seeing names written in chalk, like "Rise," "Lobos Unidos," and "Liber," and I discover that I really have no idea who these people are, what their qualifications are, and even what exactly the political commitments are that these slates are running on. A few semesters back, a slate named "Link" ran on the sole point of making information relating to the elections and activities of ASUNM more transparent to the student body. Since then, I have seen absolutely no improvement to the situation.

Year after year, it is still the same thing with the elections: slates running under cool names, but not presenting information about who they are and what they wish to accomplish when elected. I find it very frustrating to vote in the ASUNM elections when I have nothing to base my vote on. The activities of the elected officers in ASUNM seem equally mysterious to me. If you were to ask me to name a single thing that ASUNM has done in the past year, save squeaking "yeas" or "nays" about the decisions made by the University president or the Board of Regents, I would have to say that I draw a huge blank.

I would like to use this opportunity to recommend that the new ASUNM leadership work on improving the system that conveys information to the student body about ASUNM activities and elections because the current system leaves much to be desired. Something as simple as a Web site or a Facebook page where the candidates and slates running for office could publish information about themselves would make a world of difference to this UNM student.

Troy Chavkin

UNM student