A bill on livestreaming meetings that passed during the Associated Students at the University of New Mexico’s full senate meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 22, faced criticism from some senators, and highlighted issues of senator attendance at meetings this semester.
Bill #11F, proposed by Senators Daniyal Hussain and Jillian Grandinetti, mandates that all Full Senate meetings be either livestreamed or recorded to “ensure public accessibility.”
The method by which the meeting would be livestreamed was left intentionally vague, Hussain said, in order to allow for changes in methodology as they tested different solutions. The bill, which was eventually passed by a vote of 12 yays to two nays, with six abstaining or absent, will take effect next semester.
The bill also included clauses guaranteeing that failure to capture the meeting or technical difficulties would not disqualify the events of the meeting, but that reasonable efforts to fix difficulties should be made, and that the recording should be available to students within five business days. In comparison, the New Mexico Open Meetings Act mandates that written minutes be available for viewing by the public within 10 business days.
When asked why a livestream or recording would be necessary when minutes are already available for every Full Senate meeting, Hussain said that it was a matter of accessibility, and that minutes did not always capture “everything that’s happening” in a meeting.
Senator Owen Adrían Salinas expressed concerns over the possibility of livestream viewers taking clips of the meeting or remarks from speakers out of context and sharing them in an effort to disparage the speaker. Grandinetti called the criticism “shaky at best,” saying that it is always a risk for senators when at a public meeting.
Grandinetti also said there’s precedent at UNM for such a project, as the Board of Regents livestreams all open Full Board meetings and archive them online for viewing at a later date.
“I feel all of (the arguments in favor of the bill) go into making an equitable senate hearing for every student, because we say every meeting, ‘ASUNM is here to represent students,’ but if we’re only representing students that are here, that can do public comment, that can listen and see what is happening, then that’s not everyone,” Grandinetti said.
Accountability was also discussed as a reason for the bill’s creation. Hussain said that he was frustrated with recent struggles to comfortably reach quorum for Full Senate meetings, meaning that at least two-thirds of the seated senate be present in order for the meeting to commence.
“I think everybody knows that their Wednesdays are gonna be here, and so this is something not necessarily to shame you for not being here, but it’s something just to keep people accountable, encourage participation, and everybody gets to see that,” Hussain said.
Wednesday’s meeting was the third in a row to narrowly meet quorum, according to minutes from previous meetings posted to the ASUNM website. Standing Full Senate rules for this semester for meetings mandate that if 20 minutes have passed since the scheduled meeting start time without quorum being met, the senate will automatically be adjourned. Wednesday’s meeting and the Full Senate meeting on Oct. 8 began with one minute and five minutes remaining respectively.
The two nay votes were from Senators Adrían Salinas and Dillon Williams, who both clarified that while they supported the goal of the bill, advised that it be reworked before being passed, something Grandinetti and Hussain both objected to.
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“It appears that the questions being asked put the potential issues over accessibility in terms of importance. I do not think that is right,” Grandinetti said in addressing criticism of the bill as a whole.
Elliott Wood is the news editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
