Silver City, NM- Lawrence Garcia has had quite a year serving in Western New Mexico University’s Student Government. Starting this year out as Senate Pro-Temp, or president of the student senate, Garcia soon found himself moved up in rank, serving as Vice-President under Gabby Begay, and then, when Begay ascended to the title of Student Regent, Garcia took over as WNMU Student Body President, where he instantly got to work running student government.
When elections rolled around, since he had enjoyed his brief time serving the student body, Garcia decided to run for Student President. “My plan is to get student government back in front of students so that they know what we do and how to help them,” Garcia said.
Among the changes that Garcia hopes to amend in student government, is to ensure that the student senate isn’t simply for “party-planning” as he put it. There is also an amendment to the constitution working it’s way through the proper channels that, if passed, will lower the amount of Senators from 14 to only ten. The reason for this, Garcia says, is to conserve the budget for student government as well as the that there simply isn’t enough work to require such a staff.
If passed, Garcia’s plan is to assign a senator for the different regions of the school, for example, one senator representing the social work department while another represents the business department. He even plans on having Senators representing in satellite campuses, feeling that those branches are left out from what is going on at the main campus.
“Student government needs to be student leaders,” Garcia concluded, “We need to set the school up for the future instead of just the present.”
For students that have any questions or any concerns about student government Lawrence can be reached at 919-694-8051 and by email at garcia.14@wnmu.edu.
