Editor,
This coming Monday, Jan. 25, the Graduate and Professional Student Association will be holding special elections to consider four resolutions passed by the GPSA in the fall. Two of these resolutions involve votes of no confidence for Athletics Director Paul Krebs, a third for the Regents to investigate the incident involving head football coach Mike Locksley, and a fourth involving funding for the Athletics Department. For the following reasons, I encourage the UNM graduate and professional students to vote against these resolutions:
The resolution regarding funding is vague and harms people who have no responsibility in the events that have led to the resolution. What determines whether a program is operating in consistence with the mission of the University, and who makes that determination? That is the only standard that this resolution provides and it is completely subjective and arbitrary. More importantly, if student fee funding were to be pulled from the Athletics Department, all student-athletes would be effected. Student-athletes have nothing to do with the problems in the Athletics Department that the GPSA is attempting to respond to. Student fees are not allocated only to certain areas, like athletics tutors or academic counselors; they are allocated to the Athletics Department in general. The Athletics Department’s 2010 fiscal year budget has over $1.5 million from mandatory student fees, amounting to 5.5 percent of all Athletics Department revenue. Although this is a small fraction of the Athletics Department’s budget, we cannot use arbitrary standards when determining which organization receives student funding. If we do this for athletics, then should we not apply a similar process for other organizations that receive student fees? How many of you would like your programs held to such an arbitrary standard?
The resolutions for votes of no confidence in Paul Krebs and his handling of the September Locksley incident are simply wastes of time. The incident is in the past and punishments have been determined and served. This resolution will not change the administration of the Athletics Department or cause there to be further consequences for those involved.
Calling on the Regents to begin a formal investigation into the Locksley incident and Krebs’ handling of it is also a waste time, as well as money. I would much rather have our Regents looking at how to keep tuition from being raised in this economy or how to provide us with the best professors and instructors possible. The money to carry out such an investigation is better spent elsewhere, assuming it even exists at all right now.
These resolutions are not about the GPSA’s desire to improve the state of the Athletics Department at UNM. If it were, taking money from innocent student-athletes would not be an option. The GPSA representatives pushing these resolutions are simply looking to get their names in the newspaper and to increase the illusion of their power by continuing to drag this situation out. They have managed to get the city newspapers and television stations to pay attention to them and interview them. Yet, so far this academic year, what has the GPSA accomplished? An entire semester was spent focused on this one issue, yet there are many more important and relevant issues that the GPSA could have addressed. Issues such as developing a strategic plan to increase allocations to graduate students for research and conferences, creating a strong partnership with the University’s Recruitment Department, helping to bridge the gap with campus diversity, and constructing community outreach programs. So I and many of my fellow students ask you to vote against these resolutions and send a message to the GPSA that we want them to focus on issues that help us, solve our problems and serve us, their constituents, as they are supposed to. Or perhaps we need to re-evaluate whether the GPSA is acting consistently with the University’s mission.
Genevieve F.E. Birren, Esq.
Ph.D. Candidate, Sports Administration
Alternate GPSA Representative for Health, Exercise and Sport Science
