The unofficial results for this year’s close two-way race for the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico president and vice president were released on Wednesday, March 9 with students Ian May and Krystah Pacheco coming out on top as the next ASUNM president and vice president, respectively. Changes to the ASUNM Constitution were also included in the vote and easily passed. These results will remain unofficial until fully ratified by the Election Committee.
Only 817 votes were cast in total, a minuscule percentage of the over 15,000 undergraduate students that were eligible to vote in the online elections held from March 7-9. This is similar to the 874 voters last year, just 5.2% of the then 16,662 eligible undergraduates.
May, a junior studying international studies, won narrowly with 51% of the presidential votes, receiving only 19 more votes than opposing candidate Joshua R. LaFayette. Pacheco, a sophomore studying biology and chemistry, also had a close win as she clinched 55% of the vice-presidential votes, getting 80 more votes than opponent Sierra Quintana.
The vote to rewrite select parts of the ASUNM Constitution passed easily with 578, or 83.4%, of students in favor. This change will:
- Allow the President Pro Tempore to approve or disapprove of presidential appointments;
- Change the name of the “Outreach and Appointments committee” to the “Outreach and Events committee;”
- Allow ASUNM senators to establish compensation for their work;
- Outline the impeachment process;
- Increase the ASUNM fee from $20 to $35 for undergraduate students, which will then increase $5 every three years until it amounts to $50.
“I think a really big part of this election was the constitution change passing, and so that’s going to be extremely helpful for students for both students and ASUNM as a whole going forward,” current ASUNM President Greg Romero said. “And if students haven’t been able to look into that, I think they should. And definitely, we’re always open to talking about it with anybody.”
May has already started attending transition meetings to ensure that there is “really good continuity between administrations.” May said he’s known he wanted to run for ASUNM president since the last election and has since served on ASUNM Governmental Affairs and the Finance Committee.
“I do think, since that point, I was really always looking forward to doing this. I had spent the last year thinking about, trying to get myself the correct experience to do the job well,” May said.
A significant focus of May and Pacheco’s campaign will be on student outreach, according to May. He encouraged students to reach out to his email or the campaign Instagram page. Pacheco brought up the topic of visibility and said it’s important for students to know what ASUNM is and what it has to offer.
“Ian is kind of like a man of the people. In his approach, no concern is too small to look into and talk about and discuss, and so I think that’s what he really brings to the table that’s going to be successful that we might not have seen in recent years,” Romero said.
Pacheco has served with ASUNM since she was a freshman, and Romero said “she’s extremely creative in her problem-solving and also in her way of looking at campus.” Her previous ASUNM experience has set her up well for this role, according to Pacheco.
“I think that has been such great experience — seeing it from the inside, what they’re doing on a daily basis, what they want to do and just bigger overall plans for the future of ASUNM,” Pacheco said.
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Pacheco said Romero and current ASUNM Vice President Ryan Regalado had a close-knit bond that she hopes May and herself will emulate.
May and Pacheco’s terms begin on the last day of the spring semester, May 14, and they will stay in term for a year until the last day of the spring 2023 semester.
Megan Gleason is the Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted at editorinchief@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @fabflutist2716
