Silver City, NM- On the morning of Tuesday November 28, Light Hall welcomed legislators Howie Morales, Rebecca Dow and Rudy Martinez from Santa Fe to take part in the Prospectors Legislative Communication Forum. Numerous members of the Grant County community met with the legislators in order to present new projects, ideas and issues within the area, or giving updates on previous presentations. The goal of the presentation is to gain the support of each legislator before lobbying for funds from the state this coming January.
Dr. Shepard was the first speaker during the education portion of the program, representing the University. He plans to request for further funding for Harlan Hall, WNMU’s Science Building. Funding would also go toward finishing the university museum, which has been under construction for at least a year. He also wished for compensation money in order to grant raises for faculty members. WNMU faculty haven’t received a raise in an estimated five years, according to WNMU administrators.
ASWNMU also took part of the discussion, lobbying for accessibility to computer applications and software for WNMU, known as Visualized Applications. President Dr. Joseph Shepard, ASWNMU President Timothy Stillman, ASWNMU Government Affairs Director Ross White, and Director of Information Technology Jason Collet all presented to the legislators about the about the applications.
The topic of their argument centered in the lack of software and computer programs that the University can offer. The unavailability of these programs makes it impossible for online students to take care of their own work.
“A student during Thanksgiving break had to sit on campus and do their homework in the car,” Dr. Shepard explained. “She wouldn’t be doing that if the software was available.”
The lobbying for visualized application began last year with the lobbying team of past ASWNMU President Claudia Osuna Ochoa, Dylan Kester and AsiaMarie Garcia, but was not granted the required funds due to the tightening of state budgets. ASWNMU hopes to succeed this year.
“Student government wants to do all that we possibly can to help students here at Western, so we will try our best with this project,” Ross White of ASWNMU said.
ASWNMU will return to Santa Fe for the State Legislative Sessions this coming January.
Additional Reporting by Eric Lowe.
