Before his resignation, Nick Morgan was referred to as a model senator.
Vice President Emily Wilks called Morgan “phenomenal.” Finance Chair Holly Gallegos said Morgan was someone students liked talking to and in Finance Committee meetings, Morgan would often open by telling students that Senators were students too.
About three weeks ago, Morgan resigned as a senator from the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico.
“I came across some of the stuff that was happening with some of the money,” Morgan said referring to the Student Service Agencies. “I thought it was a little unethical.”
Morgan referenced the recent J.I.D. concert as an example of this. ASUNM Student Special Events charged students $10 and $25 for the public, according to their website.
“If we were in committee and they said ‘we're going to charge’ we would have to tell them we can’t fund this specific thing,” Morgan said. “I just didn’t want to be a part of that pattern and I guarantee it’s going to continue to happen.”
According to Morgan, his resignation wasn’t in protest against ASUNM. Instead, he said “it was just something personal for myself. I didn’t want to put myself in a situation where I continued to help fund an entity that was going to continue to do their own thing behind the scenes.”
After the resignation, Gallegos said that agencies and student groups should be held to the same standard. However, she added that she couldn’t see legislation that could enforce it since funding is at the discretion of the Finance Committee.
“It’s because of the discretion and choices that past finance committees have made. (That’s) why we’re here,” she said.
Finance Committee went on as usual Wednesday night with a few new faces. Mohammed Jaber and Gabriel Ruja (Ruja sat on finance last semester) were moved from Outreach & Appointments. They will sit on Finance for the remainder of the term, according to Wilks.
Morgan’s seat, which expires in May, is being filled by Andres “Andy” Gonzales and was sent to the Outreach & Appointments Committee.
Gonzales said he is using his first few weeks to learn the traditions, norms and procedures of ASUNM, including parliamentary procedure. He said he would like to see ASUNM become more relevant to non-Greek life undergraduates.
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Justin Garcia is a staff reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers student government. He can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @just516garc.
