Letter: ASUNM senator dismisses students groups

Editor,

At the most recent ASUNM meeting, I was proud to represent the UNM Young Americans for Freedom and speak in favor of Resolution 3S. This resolution would have called for the University to allow stun guns on campus for the purposes of self-defense.

Ultimately the resolution failed to pass. We accept that it is a part of the democratic process for senators to vote against resolutions if they feel that the students they represent do not support that piece of legislation and, indeed, that was the stated reason of a number of senators who voted against it. We applaud their honesty and commitment to representing their constituents, even if we disagree with their decision.

Unfortunately, as debate carried on at the meeting, it became clear that many senators were letting their political beliefs color their stance on the bill. Most disappointingly, these beliefs led to personal attacks and to some senators completely ignoring their duty to represent all students. This culminated in Sen. Justin Cooper’s final comments before the vote, when he completely dismissed the co-sponsorships of YAF, the UNM Young Americans for Liberty and the UNM College Republicans. Sen. Cooper said our groups’ stances should be essentially ignored because our membership is not large enough to merit consideration. He mocked the conservative groups on this campus and the members that make up our groups.

By calling on his fellow senators to ignore our stance on the matter, he mocked the work we have done towards increasing student safety and the right of students to protect themselves. To Sen. Cooper, apparently we do not matter. This is not the kind of representation any individual or student group on UNM’s campus should expect.

These comments are not becoming of an ASUNM senator, let alone a finance chair. For those reasons, the UNM Young Americans for Freedom are joining with former Sen. Ryan Boyle and the UNM Young Americans for Liberty in calling for Sen. Justin Cooper to resign his position as ASUNM Senator. We hope that Senator Cooper’s replacement will prove to be more interested in representing all students and groups on campus than Sen. Cooper has proven to be with his statements.

Sincerely,

Ryan Ansloan

Chairman of the UNM Young Americans for Freedom