The Associated Student at the University of New Mexico STREAM Act — mandating ASUNM Full Senate Meetings be live streamed or recorded — passed last October, but the bills implementation and official inclusion into the lawbook still awaits approval from the Office of University Counsel, ASUNM President-Elect Hope Montoya said.
University Counsel is a body that provides legal advice to various administrative organs including ASUNM, according to the Office of University Counsel.
“I guess you could kind of call it a stoplight system. Green signifies that the bill is okay to be included into the lawbook. Yellow signifies that there are parts of the bill that require edits. Red means no, don’t include it in the lawbook,” Montoya said.
Prior to the STREAM Act being passed, ASUNM meetings were already compliant with the Open Meetings Act through minutes taken by a clerk, a draft of which required to be prepared within 10 working days of the meeting and then approved, amended or disapproved at the next meeting.
“A problem we have had since last year and the year before is that people’s tone or how they come across can be misinterpreted when reading summarized minutes. This year we are trying to do our minutes by writing down word for word what people say rather than summarizing as we have done in previous years, but with the livestreamed or recorded meetings, it will help alleviate the issue,” Montoya said.
During the April 1 full senate meeting, general updates from University Counsel were shared, but there have been no updates on the STREAM Act, ASUNM Steering and Rules Committee Chair and co-author of the STREAM Act Jillian Grandinetti said.
Some dedicated meeting recording hardware was set up in the April 1 meeting, both as a test-run for the STREAM Act, as well as a procedural recording of an entire full senate meeting to show to new senators during orientation, Grandinetti said. ASUNM Attorney General Breahna Roark told senators they could expect to hear back regarding legislation passed last semester by the next Full Senate or by the end of the semester at the latest, Grandinetti said.
Montoya said recorded meetings may be uploaded to a YouTube channel and livestreamed on Instagram.
“Students who are unable to make it in person, or who want to see what a full senate meeting is like can tune in from wherever they are. A member of the Albuquerque community can also listen to the meetings if they want to,” Montoya said.
There are other university student governments that livestream or upload videos of their student government meetings including Wichita State University, the University of Florida and the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
“It just makes a lot of sense for a government that represents the undergraduate student body to have meetings be available to the undergraduate student body. The Board of Regents does this, and people are able to engage through YouTube live comments,” Grandinetti said. “I also think it does a lot for ASUNM’s commitment to accessibility, because students can use closed captioning to see or understand what is going on.”
More students being able to see how ASUNM Meetings operate will allow more students to engage with the organization, Grandinetti said.
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“Anyone can author a bill through the Steering and Rules Committee. Last semester, the student organization LEAF, Leaders for Environmental Action and Foresight, authored a resolution, and it was really fun to work with them,” Grandinetti said.
Shin Thant Hlaing is a beat reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
