The 68th Senate of the Associated Students of New Mexico State University called an emergency meeting on May 1 to finish hearing the final legislation of the Spring 2025 semester.
The previous senate meeting ended with 30 pieces of legislation unreviewed and money still in ASNMSU’s expense fund, prompting an emergency meeting. The goal remained the same as the last few meetings, empty the expense fund. Failure to do so could negatively impact next school year’s ASNMSU funding. Two bills caused the senate to have lengthy discussions on their possible applications: sub-bill 366 and sub-bill 436.
Introduced by Sen. Jaden Moore by Committee of the Whole, sub-bill 366 would remove the requirement for chief of staff to have two prior semesters of experience in ASNMSU.
The justification being to allow a wider range of capable students to apply for the position.
This is a requirement that was initiated earlier in the semester, which caused many senators to question the quick removal of it. When asked why the concerns Moore stated were not brought up when the rule was originally created, Moore said he did not feel he had the time and space to express his thoughts.
“I just don’t think [the original decision] got enough scrutiny, I don’t think there was enough debate,” Moore said. “I wanted to speak the entire time, [but] I didn’t get to.”
Sen. Allen Salazar expressed his dislike of the bill and how it was presented to the senate.
“I think it is childish, the fact that we want to re-emancipate something we passed during this exact senate,” Salazar said. “Especially, [in] the very last meeting which wasn’t even planned, it just fell into an emergency meeting. Especially, during Committee of the Whole. This is just very poorly written, it was not planned out, though, and it gives sore loser. Because you didn’t get your way when you voted for a bill.”
Many other senators continued to give reasons they had a dislike for the bill, many expressing the same sentiments as Salazar.
However, despite its criticism, senators felt it was necessary to amend the bill. Many stating they feel all students should have the opportunity to be chief of staff as long as they are qualified. Sub-bill 366 was passed through senate majority vote.
Another lengthy discussion was sparked over Sen. Kolby Taylor’s sub-bill 436.
The sub-bill aimed to speed up the process of pushing reimbursement bills through the senate by changing the Financial Procedure Workshop quiz to the FPW terms and conditions. It was required of all club and organization presidents and treasurers to complete the quiz with a 100% before seeking ASNMSU funding. However, making it a terms and condition eliminates the quiz in place of a contract.
After the introduction of the sub-bill, many senators had questions on the logistics. However, once everyone’s concerns on the sub-bill’s application were addressed, sub-bill 436 was given a pass through the senate.
After Taylor’s bill, Sen. Gage Anderson called for the move to limit all questions to five minutes. He pointed to the fact that the senate was already in an emergency meeting, and if they were unable to go through all of the legislation, they would need to schedule another.
“I think we need to read the room, I move to [limit] questions [to] five minutes,” Anderson said. “This is an emergency meeting. We have 25 pieces of legislation to go [through] and four hours to do it. We have spent the last two hours on like five pieces of legislation. This is ridiculous… I want to urge the senate to use their heads because nobody wants to be in this cramped formal room. Please [and] thank you.”
The action to limit questions to five minutes passed. With the time limit on the questions, the senate was able to complete their list of legislation with the final adjourning of the 68th NMSU senate.
