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John
Gosek, President
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Joel
Bruessel, Vice-President
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Justin
Kirker, Treasure
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A Brief History of the WNMUNEA-SP
The origins of our local chapter of the NEA-SP here at Western New Mexico University are a mystery due to the fact that no records exist for the club previous to 1998. However, we can say with certainty that the club has existed on and off since at least the mid-1970's when Rosalinda Carreon Altamirano, now a bilingual facilitator with the Las Cruces Public Schools and active member of NEA-NM, was the local NEA-SP President. Sharon Gonzales, co-author of the WNMU Centennial Book, claims that the club even existed as far back Steve Carter, the local NEA-SP President for the 1998-1999 academic year, left the only records we do have concerning the NEA-SP at Western. These records include a copy of the local Constitution, meeting/event posters, and meeting agendas. Unfortunately, when Steve and his cadre of student program officers left after the spring semester of 1999 no new officers had been elected for the following year and the club was abandoned for close to a semester.
The club was not revived until late in November of 1999 when Dean Jerry Harmon appointed a steering committee composed of several students from the department and placed them under the tutelage of Dr. Ruth Galaz. The Chairperson of this Steering Committee was Fred Salcido, that year's recipient of the SOE's graduate fellowship. Other Steering Committee members included Connie Baca and current WNMUNEA-SP President John Gosek. Through the hard work of the Steering Committee and Dr. Galaz the club was officially re-chartered by the ASWNMU Senate at their last meeting of the Fall '99 semester. When the club was re-chartered it already had 65 members due to the fact that most education majors purchase their liability insurance through the NEA; therefore, they were already members, they just did not have a local chapter.
During this first semester back on campus the club attended to several orders of business, including trips to Santa Fe and Las Cruces to attend State and Regional meetings, but for the most part it was a learning experience for everyone involved because no one was their to take our hand or show us the ropes. Probably the club's biggest success of the Spring '99 semester was its Read Across America Campaign on March 2 in honor of Dr. Seuss's Birthday. The event was held at the Child Development Center on campus and over a dozen local student program members participated by reading a Dr. Seuss story to the children at the CDC. Meetings were held on a monthly basis that first semester back and for the most part were well attended until the month of April when several scheduled meetings were cancelled without notice.
Despite the fact that the club gradually began to fall apart by the end of its first semester back in existence and, subsequently, no local elections were held in April for the upcoming year local member John Gosek was nominated to run for the position of NEA-NM Student Program State Representative and he won. Gosek, a native of upstate New York, accepted the honor and became the first NEA-NM student member to ever attend the NEA's Annual Student Leadership Conference. The conference was held in Chicago at the Allegro Hotel and although Gosek could not afford to attend the actual Representative Assembly he had enough of an impression on the national student program organizers to receive an appointment to the prestigious nine-member Advisory Committee of Student Members. Gosek said that the highlights of the conference were meeting NEA President Bob Chase and the Community Outreach project where all the state student program delegates helped fix up a run down school on the south side of town.
When Gosek returned from Chicago he was determined to make the NEA-SP a permanent fixture on the WNMU campus. In accordance with the national student program handbook, the first thing Gosek did was organizing a new Steering Committee, that included Joel Bruessel, Dou Delaney, and Justin Kirker, and get the club recognized by ASWNMU for the 2000-2001 school year. The next thing Gosek did was secure a bulletin board for the club in Martinez Hall, home of the WNMU SOE, so that student members could be kept informed about meetings and other club sponsored events. The main purpose of the Steering Committee was to hold legitimate local elections under the Bylaws of the WNMUNEA-SP Constitution, but it was also responsible for other things such as organizing fundraisers, sending student delegations to state and regional conferences, and applying for a $3000 Student Organizing and Resources Grant from the national student program. Once local elections were held at mid-semester the Steering Committee was disbanded and the first officially elected officers - John Gosek, President, Joel Bruessel, VP, and Justin Kirker, Treasurer - took charge.
For the record it should be said that we could never have done it without the constant support and backing of NEA-NM President Mary Lou Cameron. Mary Lou was so impressed by our initial efforts that she personally attended one our Steering Committee meetings in August and to further show her dedication and support she attended our WNMUNEA-SP monthly meeting in October.
Among the highlights of the Fall 2000 semester were sending a delegation of students to participate in a Community Outreach Program at a nursing home in Santa Fe with Al Gore's daughter, Kristen and sending the first student delegation ever to attend NEA-NM's Fall Delegates Convention in Albuquerque. We also conducted several fundraisers, which included a book raffle for National Education Week and operating a vending booth at the Silver City Christmas Parade of Lights. We were so active we even participated in homecoming weekend. To say the least we put the club back on the map, and to cap the semester off we received word that we would be rewarded the $3000 SOAR Grant to help us put on a statewide student conference in the spring.
The Spring 2001 semester began with John traveling to Washington D.C. and Charlotte, North Carolina, in January, to attend committee meetings and conferences as the national representative from the Southwest region of the country. In between these trips our local NEA-SP chapter sent the first ever NEA-NM student program delegation to the Western Regional Leadership Conference that happened to be held in Albuquerque this year. The WRLC was a great opportunity for our local members to meet and network with other NEA student members from the western states of Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Utah, Kansas, Idaho, and Oklahoma.
On February 28, 2001 the WNMUNEA-SP voted to amend the local Constitution by adding an 11 amendment Student Teacher Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights was first proposed at the December meeting of the club by President Gosek and not only was it prominently displayed on the club's bulletin board, but copies were made available to students as well. Not even a week after the Bill of Rights was retroactively passed into official club policy we received our first student grievance; so if you are an education major with a grievance about a specific teacher, a particular class, or the program in general don't hesitate to contact your local NEA-SP officers so that we can get a record of it for our file. Although our power to help is severely restricted due to the policies of WNMU I think you will agree that it's high time we started documenting this sort of thing so we can begin to hold the faculty and administrators accountable for a change.
March 2nd we celebrated Dr. Seuss's B'day in style thanks to Joey Garcia, the Secretary at the SOE, who made Dr. Seuss costumes for our Read Across America campaign at the CDC this year. It could not have been a bigger success and the kids just loved it.
At our March meeting we elected a three student delegation to attend the NEA-NM Spring Delegates Convention among them were new member Julio Escobar and Secretary Kirker. President Gosek was also elected as a local representative to the convention, but he is also going as a member of the NEA-NM Essential Leadership Cadre (ELC) a 16 member committee composed of student members and first year teachers. As of right now Gosek is the only student who sits on the ELC. The main reason that only one student sits on this committee designed to train future union leaders for the state is right now New Mexico only has one active, local NEA-SP chapter. And that is the one we have here at WNMU.
Finally, in an attempt to change this disproportionate rate of student representation in the future and to foster greater student involvement in the organization at the local, regional, and state levels we will be hosting the 1st ever NEA-NM Student Leadership Conference on April 19-21, 2001. The conference will be funded by the SOAR Grant we received last semester and will bring in both college students and high school students from around the state. We hope as a result of our efforts in putting this conference on we can: