The 63rd Senate of the Associated Students of New Mexico State University passed a resolution that confirmed Ryland Carter for the position of Director of Activities. Carter was presented to the Senate for the same position during an emergency meeting to confirm the appointment of executives on May 2 but was not confirmed.

Prior to Carter’s confirmation as Executive Director, the ASNMSU Activities Department had two out of three positions filled. Carter assured the senate Thursday evening that if confirmed, he would immediately begin looking into hiring another Assistant Director.

President Conner addressed the senate during open forum, stating that the last time he had wanted to appoint Carter for Director of Activities, he had been notified by Senate leadership that the confirmation of Carter would be a violation of Section 3-10-3.

Conner did not specify which subsection of Section 3-10-3 was cited as reason for violation. Section 3-10-3 outlines the qualifications for the ASNMSU Executive Director of Activities.

Conner also discussed the need for the Senate to go into Committee of the Whole, a process that allows bills and resolutions to approach the senate without having to go through any committee.

“We have homecoming coming up in less than seventeen days and if we do not get the ball rolling on this, we will be understaffed for homecoming,” Conner said.

Without a Director of Activities, Conner stated that the ASNMSU activities department would have only two assistant directors running homecoming, with neither being able to work more hours than what is allotted.

“Again, I’m not asking for confirmation. I’m just asking you to go into COW [Committee of the Whole] and thoughtfully deliberate,” Conner said.

The Director of Activities position remained open until ASNMSU President Evan Conner’s appointment of Cortney Beck, who then made Carter Assistant Director of Activities.

“Over the summer, I was appointed, or hired rather, as the Assistant Director of Activities. This essentially meant that I was the only employee in the Activities Department for the entire summer,” Carter said.

Carter gave an overview of his responsibilities during the summer in a presentation to the Senate, of which included the finalization of a schedule for Corbett programming alongside Sodexo and Corbett Center Student Union staff and the planning of the Welcome Back Concert hosted on August 30.

Carter also said that he has attempted to minimize spending in recognition of the Activities Department being responsible for more than other departments, despite having the largest budget.

Questions arose regarding Carter’s claim that he had handled a majority of the work and responsibilities on his own throughout the summer, with one senator expressing that they were in the office several times a week and noted Beck’s presence in the cubicle.

Carter said that while Beck had helped him at the beginning of the summer, she had spent a majority of the summer out-of-town working.

More than one senator felt that Carter had learned a lot in his role as Assistant Director and was better prepared for the position of Executive Director. Others acknowledged the improvement in Carter’s presentation from his last appointment session, but voiced concern over Carter’s lack of “exact numbers.”

“There were a lot of ‘I think so’s’ and ‘I don’t know’s’. I feel that if you’re putting up an event, you should be aware of how many people are going, how many people attended, not just that someone said that it was a good event,” one senator said.

Few senators stated that while they would vote in favor of the resolution, their reasons for doing so were related to homecoming and its time constraints.