ASUNM should do better job of explaining its role at UNM

Editor,

I read the letter by Beth Johnson and the rebuttal by Michael Westervelt. I found them both to be very interesting.

I think Westervelt misses the point because of two factors. First, ASUNM did try to push through a vote of confidence in an administration that confidence parted ways with some time ago. Increase in administrative positions, elevating the athletic director to a vice president, and the accompanying salary raises neglect the core mission of the University, which is undergraduate education. Or at least that is the facade of the core mission.

Second, while Johnson may have made some sweeping generalizations, I think rather than rebutting her in a standard form letter that uses ad hominem attacks, I think ASUNM needs to do a better job of educating the average-Joe student exactly what it does and how it affects the daily lives and quality thereof of the typical UNM student. I myself voted only in one election, and that was happenstance. Two of my co-workers were on the ballot, and I voted as a favor for them.

If ASUNM could use the editorial space to inform rather than attack its would-be constituents, act like servants and not defendants and explain why voting in a campus election is as important as voting for mayor, governor, U.S. congressional representatives and senators and the presidential elections, students like Johnson would not feel justified in writing critical letters as she did.

But by taking actions like trying to force a vote of support for an already-failed president and his cronies and by attacking rather than informing, they confirm the common stereotype of student governments: self-important Greeks who simply serve as an echo chamber and nest of collaborators for administration and athletic department agendas and talking points.

Ron McPhee

Daily Lobo reader