On Wednesday night, the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico voted on their Spring 2017 budget in which they choose which agencies, organizations and line items will receive funding and how much funding each gets.
The money for ASUNM’s budget comes from a pool of student fees that every UNM student contributes to, according to Director of Communications Gabe Gallegos.
On Wednesday, the senate voted and unanimously approved the spring 2017 budget that allocates about 74 percent of the budget to ASUNM agencies and line items.
The Daily Lobo reported that 76 percent of last year’s budget went to ASUNM-affiliated line items and agencies.
Former Daily Lobo investigations found that this trend of allocating funds to ASUNM-affiliated groups is not unique to this budget.
In the 2013 spring budget — deliberated over by virtually an entirely different group of individuals that made up ASUNM leadership — 34 percent, or about $220,600, went to 133 non-ASUNM groups while the rest, almost $440,000, went to 14 ASUNM agencies and line items.
In 2014, 70 percent went to ASUNM agencies and line items, and that number increased to 74 percent a year later.
However, Executive Director of ASUNM Lobo Spirit Justin Cooper — who spoke at Wednesday’s meeting — said it’s not true that past trends are continuing. He referenced Lobo Spirit would be cut in funding.
Lobo Spirit requested $57,628.50 but received $32,484.
Students have voiced concerns about salaries and tuitions being covered in the budget; that will still be the case in this budget. For example, the spring 2017 budget line item ASUNM General Government Account does still fund the ASUNM president’s salary and the ASUNM Administrative Account still funds the full salary and benefit package of the ASUNM office manager who is not a student at the University, according to Gallegos.
Sen. Theo Pirone-Aufrichtig — in the second semester of his current term — said it seemed to him that the budget “needs some work.”
“But that’s for another Senate,” he said. “I think we can go a bit further with some of the reductions in agencies.”
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The budget bill was initially discussed at the last Senate meeting two weeks ago. There was little discussion on the budget bill on Wednesday, with Finance Committee members emphasizing the hours they put into deliberating over cuts when organizations, in all, asked for about $450,000 than what was available.
The discussion also came after about two and a half hours of discussion — at times heated — over another piece of legislation concerning a change in how surplus funds for ASUNM agencies would be handled.
Megan Hayden said concerns were raised about the budget disfavoring minorities. Hayden said those concerns were reviewed by ASUNM members and ASUNM staff focuses on how many students can benefit from various agencies or organizations, and that is how they allocate funding. Therefore, the budget was kept in tact despite the concerns.
“Overall you guys did a good job and the budget was fair,” said Hayden.
The Daily Lobo reached out to Sen. Brei Garcia about the concerns. Garcia then sent our request for comment to Finance Chair Hannah Williams. Williams did not get back to the Lobo in time for publication.
In total, ASUNM allotted $689,652 in the spring budget. The undergraduate student governing body is expected to receive about $690,000 from student fees for the upcoming year.
Last year, the Lobo reported on the controversial defunding of Scribendi. This year Scribendi was allotted $399; they requested $12,472.52, according to the budget.
Shelby Perea is a news reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at skperea@unm.edu or on Twitter @shelby_perea. David Lynch contributed to this report. He can be reached at editorinchief@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @RealDavidLynch.
