ASUNM and GPSA will not collaborate this year on student-fee allocation after a dispute over whether to allow Saturday’s hearings to be video recorded, as well as what ASUNM President called “irrelevant attacks” and “distracting interruptions” during the hearings.
Cardenas said in a Sunday evening statement that ASUNM removed itself from the Student Fee Review Board. He said members contradicted a board decision to not allow video cameras to roll during the meeting.
“Due to the lack of order and respect present in the business of the board, departments and organizations could not receive fair consideration,” Cardenas said in the statement.
ASUNM will submit separate student fee recommendations to the University, and senators encourage departments to re-apply to ASUNM if they felt they weren’t given a fair hearing, according to the statement. Cardenas said he will meet with UNM President David Schmidly today to discuss separating ASUNM from the SFRB.
The dispute resulted in Cardenas, serving as SFRB chair, calling in authorities to remove a camera and its operator after the board voted 4-3 not to allow video recording at the meeting.
UNMPD officers said they did not have the authority to take action. The meeting proceeded until the board passed Cardenas’ motion to bring the SFRB process to a halt, pending a University Counsel ruling, as to whether video recording must be allowed.
The controversy began at around 9:50 a.m. Saturday, when, upon media members’ arrival, GPSA President and SFRB vice Chair Lissa Knudsen gestured to GPSA employee Radi Abouelhassan to set up a video camera. The meeting had already been in session for nearly an hour without cameras rolling.
Cardenas told Knudsen the camera was not permitted to record in the room. Knudsen refused to comply after the board ruled to ban video recording. She continued to refuse after Cardenas said he was calling the authorities.
“If you’re not cleared out in five minutes … we’ll have to call security,” Cardenas told Abouelhassan.
When UNMPD officers arrived at the SUB Cherry/Silver room, Knudsen told them the board had to allow the hearings to be recorded because of the NM Open Meetings Act. Cardenas told officers the act didn’t apply to the meeting.
The officers left the room and returned after about five minutes and said they did not have the authority to remove the equipment.
“We spoke with our bosses, and the decision we feel comfortable doing is we’re not going to remove anybody,” Officer Chris Carabajal told the board and half a dozen others at the meeting.
Board members returned to their seats to proceed.
“I would like to apologize to the board for the delay, as well as I would like to say that it is very inappropriate and inconsiderate by you, Lissa, so I just want to make that clear,” Cardenas said.
About an hour behind schedule, the SFRB continued the hearings with the camera rolling. At about 3:30 p.m., after nine organizations had presented, Cardenas motioned to suspend all SFRB activities pending further legal review. The motion passed in a 4-3 vote.
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In Sunday’s statement, Cardenas said Saturday’s hearings were conducted in a “hostile” environment void of order and respect.
“ASUNM has decided to move forward and will submit a separate recommendation to the University,” the statement said. “This process will be transparent, unbiased and conducted within the legislative process outlined in the ASUNM Constitution and Lawbook.”
Knudsen said only the regents have the authority to change University policy. She said she supports a setup where each organization makes its own student fee recommendations.
“We all have to deal with the frustration,” she said. “Let’s just split all the money. Let’s have the graduates be in control of the graduate student money and the undergraduates be in control of their money.”
Andrew Beale contributed to this report.
