The 68th Senate of the Associated Students of New Mexico State University convened on Oct. 17. During the meeting, the senate passed several reimbursement bills, gave the election packet a favorable recommendation, and tabled a resolution to impeach ASNMSU President Ala Alhalholy.
“Just a formality,” election packet re-passed through senate
Resolution 10, presented by Sen. Rahaf Ben Ali, received a unanimous favorable recommendation, with thirty senators voting in the affirmative. The resolution set in place the elections packet for the ASNMSU elections. This was the third time the senate discussed this resolution.
An identical version of the resolution passed during the emergency meeting on Sept. 13, but the ASNMSU Supreme Court invalidated it after ruling that it broke New Mexico’s Open Meetings Act.
Although the senate passed the resolution close to the start of ASNMSU’s election season, senators agreed they don’t expect it to disrupt the election. Ben Ali said she felt passing Resolution 10 on Oct. 17 was “just a form of formality,” because the packet has already been given to candidates and no amendments were made.
“After the emergency meeting already, everybody had the election packet. They had already filled out, [and] done everything, and then submitted it that Wednesday,” Ben Ali said.
Resolution 13 springs further discussion around impeaching President Ala Alhalholy
Resolution 13, which concerned the impeachment of the ASNMSU president, was tabled for the second time. Sen. Kolby Taylor presented the bill, and was the only name on the bill, until Ben Ali added her name, which she said she did as a point of integrity.
“As a senator, I’ve always said that I’m a leader with integrity, and I strive to be transparent on all of my things,” Ben Ali said, “and that’s why I made the decision to put my name on that bill, even though people were not taking that thing seriously.”
Much of the discussion about Resolution 13 happened during the Committee of the Whole, a time usually reserved for discussion about the legality of bills and resolutions. Senators voted not to untable it during the first session in the Committee of the Whole, but after revisiting it later, voted to put it on the agenda.
Taylor reiterated the resolution wasn’t a personal attack. He said he felt a sense of duty to keep leaders accountable.
“I’ve always been held to a higher standard, and I’ve always been held accountable for every mess up I do,” Taylor said, “So it’s up to me to do that same thing for people, especially in a leadership position, especially at the highest caliber.”
The actions Taylor wanted to keep Ala Alhalholy accountable for included the voter intimidation allegations the Elections Board disqualified her for last semester. The ASNMSU Supreme Court overturned the Election Board’s decision on April 19. Ala Alhalholy expressed frustration over this being brought up again.
“I’m not really sure why this is involved within the resolution, considering it was a matter for last semester, in April,” Ala Alhalholy said.
Another matter the resolution brought to the senate’s attention was an allegation that Ala Alhalholy told former Sen. Persephanie Avilucea to resign from her seat. The president said she only informed the senator that the Attorney General would tell her to resign, because Avilucea didn’t meet the requirement of being a fee-paying member of ASNMSU the semester before her appointment. Ala Alhalholy said she did this as a courtesy, but said she regrets the decision.
Avilucea took to the senate floor to tell her side of the story. She expressed that she felt Alhalholy let the students of NMSU down.
“What matters is that you took this position to be the face and to be the responsibility of this entire campus of this city,” Avilucea said, “and you were not doing that because in my point of view, and a lot of students point of views, from what I’ve seen, it is just all about wanting to gain [your] own self power. It is not anything to do with the students.”
Some senators said the seat Avilucea resigned from was given to Hebah Alhalholy, the president’s sister. Hebah Alhalholy explained she ran against five other candidates and the College of Arts & Sciences council appointed her to the seat. At the time of her appointment, there were three open seats in the college of Arts & Sciences.
The resolution also alleged Ala Alhalholy “succumbed to nepotism” in her hiring practices, abused her power, performed unprofessionally, and vetoed bills based on false information. Taylor said he wouldn’t have proposed the bill if not for the volume of complaints.
“We wouldn’t have just gone to impeach because of one thing, you know, it’s got to be a collective, it’s got to be several things that contribute to it,” Taylor said. “And that’s exactly what it was. It’s like it was an ongoing thing that, it seemed like week by week, something new was coming up to me, and it got to a point where it was like, ‘we have to do something about it.’”
With the resolution officially tabled, Taylor said he doesn’t plan on presenting it again.
“I mean, if it’s called for me, and if it’s a really, really, really bad thing, sure, I might,” Taylor said, “But, I’m not going to put myself through that again and put everybody else through that again. It’s just pointless at this point.”
