NMSU student protesters march on campus. Here's why they feel some in upper administration must go.

LAS CRUCES – More than 70 New Mexico State University students marched through campus Tuesday calling for better compensation for staff, faculty and graduate student workers, for upper administration changes, and for restoring the library journal access that was severely cut last year due to budgeting.

Students gathered at Corbett Center Student Union and marched to the NMSU Administration Complex, where Chancellor Dan Arvizu was waiting to discuss their concerns.

Cole Vetter, a senator within the Associated Students of New Mexico State University and co-organizer of Tuesday's protest, said students are aware of "issues" on campus, but may not be able to define them. Vetter said the protest made visible what students believe are the reasons for so many of the issues.

"Every student I've spoken to understands the issues on campus and has firsthand witnessed and experienced them, whether it's a graduate student who doesn't have affordable health care or was below the poverty line to students facing tons of maintenance issues across campus that aren't being funded," Vetter said. "They definitely see the gravity of the situation," he said.

No confidence in administration

Earlier this month, both the faculty and student senates at the university passed resolutions of no confidence in the university's president and provost and asked the NMSU Board or Regents to direct Arvizu to remove NMSU President John Floros and Provost Carol Parker from their positions.

Parker was put on paid administrative leave on Nov. 9. The university has not disclosed the circumstances of her leave.

"It's a step in the right direction," Vetter said. "I do think it's only the beginning, though. The administration needs to go through a lot more change in order to really address these issues that the students have."

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While marching to the Hadley Hall Administrative Building on Tuesday afternoon, students waved signs that stated #FireFloros, shouting "Hey hey, ho ho, President Floros has got to go."

However, students pointed out that they don't want Parker and Floros to be a scapegoat for all upper administration. They hope to see big changes across the division.

In 2018, the Board of Regents replaced Chancellor Garrey Carruthers — who was being paid $373,450 — with two administrators, Arivzu and Floros, who make base $500,000 and $450,000 salaries, respectively, plus bonuses and other benefits.

According to students' findings, the combined amount of the top 10 highest paid NMSU employees went up from about $2.2 million in 2017-18 to $3.2 million as of the 2020-21 school year.

The students feel this money could be better spent elsewhere.

'We're upset'

Garrett Moseley, ASNMSU senator and co-organizer of the protest, said that this protest is just the beginning of the process.

"It's unfortunate that we have to be here today to do this," Moseley said. "I would much rather be able to say my upper administration is doing a great job, but that's just not the case."

Laura Laemmle, an arts and sciences ASNMSU senator, addressed the crowd of students before the march began.

"Admin is very much trying to push this narrative that this isn't a big deal, and it's just a few people," Laemmle said. "We're going to have to keep fighting. This is the first step in making people realize that we're upset.

"All of the issues that we've identified, like poverty wages for grad students, like lack of funding for the libraries, and lack of journal access for an institution that is supposed to be increasing the amount of research that we do — all of those things we have connected to a failure in leadership."

Bryson Stemock, a graduate student worker who has been heavily involved in a campaign to unionize grad students, said its important for graduates, undergraduates and faculty to show support for one another.

"It's not just a few people who are involved, everybody's aware of these issues, everybody's angry about them, and we're not going to take it anymore," Stemock said. "It's not just a few grads who got everyone riled up. It's not just a few faculty members who did this. This is everyone."

Chancellor Arvizu responds

When students arrived to the front of Hadley Hall, Arvizu was waiting for them.

Students crowded around Arvizu and asked "what have you done in the past four years?"

Arvizu told the crowd that he wanted to fix the problems that students are bringing to light.

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"The idea that we've got a bloated administrative systems is one that I will look at carefully," Arvizu said. "Coming out a pandemic, it's really important that we solve that problem. And I assure you, we'll take a look at that."

As chancellor, Arvizu is at the top of the administrative flow chart, reporting only to the board of regents. Floros reports to Arvizu.

Under Arvizu and Floros, main campus enrollment increased in 2019, after their first year leading the university. NMSU has seen slight decreases in the past two years. In 2020, it decreased by 69 students, and in 2021, decreased by about 2.3 percent.

Arvizu told students that compared to other universities, NMSU has been far better off with enrollment throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

When one student said they couldn't complete their research papers because of the new limits on research journals, Arvizu said he wasn't aware of it, but he acknowledged that having sufficient journal access is vital for research. He said he would work to have an answer by the end of the fall semester.

"I would really like to fix the things that you're complaining about, all the things that we talked about in terms of resources for the institution," Arvizu said. "If you'll just be patient with us, you'll see some big changes coming up over the course of the next few months.

"I just want you to know that we care about things you care about."

Miranda Cyr, a Report for America corps member, can be reached at mcyr@lcsun-news.com or @mirandabcyr on Twitter. Show your support for the Report for America program at https://bit.ly/LCSNRFA.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: NMSU student protesters march on campus