The 67th Senate of the Associated Students of New Mexico State University discussed changes to the max cap on spending for political campaigns and overturned the president’s veto on a reimbursement bill for a graduate student on Thursday, Feb. 22.
About an hour after the meeting started, Vice President Eduardo Gallegos advised senators not to eat the food, which had been provided by Sodexo. It was later confirmed that there were worms in the rice. Sen. Jaden Moore, the Sodexo Student Culinary Council representative for the senate, said he plans to meet with Sodexo on Friday, March 1, to communicate senate’s concerns.
“My goal is to either, you know, tell them that they need to increase the quality food and decrease the price or attempt to kind of weasel out of this forced deal where we have to go through them with food,” Moore said.
Bill 128, presented by Sen. Alex Duran, received a do-not-pass from senate. The bill, if passed, would have lowered the max cap on the amount of money students can spend on political campaigns.
Duran explained that his reasoning behind the bill was to make campaigning more accessible for students, especially those without a lot of money.
“Let’s just try to make it more accessible for all students on campus rather than just a select few …the cheaper it is, the more accessible it is to everybody,” Duran said.
Many senators noted that they had won their campaigns without spending anything. The statement “you can win a campaign with zero dollars” was thrown around throughout discussion. Opponents of the bill also argued that campaigning through word of mouth works better in student government campaigns than spending money does.
“Word of mouth works so much better than actual money. I haven’t spent a single cent on both of my elections. I have won both of those. So I don’t think money really matters,” Sen. Rahaf Ben Ali said.
Some senators questioned the timing of the bill. With campaign season coming up, they wondered whether there was a conflict of interest at play.
“I think the timing of the bill is interesting. To me, it seems maybe a little conniving, because we’re really close to an election. Had this been presented last semester, I’d maybe be a little more open to it,” Moore said.
Other senators argued that the timing was irrelevant.
“Well, I don’t really think it matters. You know, I think when he comes up with things, he’s doing it for the betterment of everyone,” Sen. Kolby Graham Taylor said.
The last bill of the meeting was Bill 124, presented by Sen. Shashank Dharba. The bill was vetoed by President Citlalli Benitez previously and the senate overturned the veto.
Bill 124 was written to reimburse a graduate student for attending a conference. Benitez vetoed it because the reimbursement went $500 above the recommended expenditure for graduate students.
“We definitely should be supporting our grad[uate] students in whichever way in which we can,” President Benitez said, “but it would establish a precedent, just as a senator on the floor had mentioned. Later on in the semester if we do reach a point where we don’t have those funds and a graduate senator or graduate student comes and asks for the same thing, [the senators] would have a hard time keeping that precedent.”
The senate met the 2/3 majority needed to overrride the veto. Dharba expressed that he believes this will set a precedent of putting student needs first.
“The only precedent it is setting is that ASNMSU has a heart and if students really require it, it is willing to provide more funding for those students who really put their heart and soul into their work,” Dharba said.
