The Associated Students at the University of New Mexico Senate passed the spring 2025 budget bill on March 12 during a full senate meeting that ran late into the night, after much of the allotted time was used for debate over discrepancies in pay raises for ASUNM executive staff and senators.
By the end of the meeting, student service agency employees and other hourly paid executive staff were awarded an extra 60 cents per hour on top of their $12 per hour — a number that has remained since New Mexico’s last change to the state minimum wage — and senators an additional $150 to their stipend. The stipend is paid on a per-semester basis, meaning that each senator will now be paid $650 total for the one-year term they are elected for.
ASUNM President Anthony Tomaziefski said the executive pay raise would make some positions more competitive, attract more experienced candidates and help students support themselves at a time when many have to juggle multiple income streams to cover their expenses.
When Finance Chair Hope Montoya asked Tomaziefski what warranted the urgency of the raises — as the Finance Committee had not been approached or contacted by more than three student support agencies about allocations during the budget process — Tomaziefski said he did not know why some agencies had not spoken to the committee.
However, he said he recalled that when he chaired the committee in the spring 2024 semester, similar proposals were made about executive salaries, and he would continue to advocate on behalf of the raises.
Nine appropriations requests and three bills were approved during the meeting. Among the organizations that submitted appropriations were the Society of Automotive Engineers, Hispanic Engineering Society and Science Organization, UNM Robotics Club, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlan, Indian Student Association and the Delta Sigma Pi Gamma Iota Chapter.
The three bills clarified how professors and other direct employees of the University are permitted to endorse candidates for ASUNM positions during an election, the timeline for some election dates and what constitutes “coercion” of a person to vote for a certain candidate. The latter bill has been revised twice, appearing in both the last full senate meeting and in the final meeting of the fall 2024 semester.
ASUNM’s next full senate meeting is April 2.
Elliott Wood is a beat reporter and photographer for the Daily Lobo. They can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
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