With the first day of spring break so tantalizingly close, the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico held there fourth meeting of the semester, doling out about $9,000 to eleven student organizations and modifying a few positions within the government.
Christian groups, most of which were requesting money to attend conferences, were the biggest recipients of Wednesday night’s appropriations.
Deviate, Navigators and InterVarsity received a combined $3,139.
Deviate received the most. According to their appropriation request, the money is to attend a retreat in Colorado.
Of the 32 religious groups registered through the Student Activities Center, 28 are Christian or Catholic.
With this round of appropriations, ASUNM has about $36,000 left to appropriate.
ASUNM also passed legislation that modified the position of Joint Council representative. The legislation required the representative to be an undergraduate, hold office hours at the ASUNM office in the Student Union Building and codified the representatives liaison role between the two organizations.
“These are things the speaker currently does,” said Senator Madelyn Lucas.
Joint Council offers advice on legislation and other happenings to the ASUNM Senate. In the Fall 2018 term, several senators cited Joint Councils opposition to commendation to then recently deceased Senator John McCain as their reason for voting against it, as reported in the Daily Lobo.
This was also the first meeting after ASUNM presidential and vice presidential candidates had been officially announced. Three senators are currently running for executive positions for the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 semesters.
Steering & Rules Chair Mohammed Assed is running for ASUNM President against Lobo Spirit Director Adam Biederwolf. Current Finance Chair Holly Gallegos is running against last semesters finance chair Madelyn Lucas for vice president.
Assed, Gallegos and Lucas are all currently senators.
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Justin Garcia is staff reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers student government. He can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @just516garc.
