Metropolitan State University hasn’t had a functioning representative student government since October, when the Student Senate’s last meeting fell into argument, intimidation and accusations of racism.

The university temporarily shut down the senate over safety concerns soon after the Oct. 5 meeting.

“It was very heated. We were concerned for our well-being,” said Tina Martinez, who was senate president at the time.

Subsequent efforts to resume their work failed when more than half the elected members, including Martinez, refused to show up.

The standoff fizzled out in May, when the student leaders’ one-year terms expired. Because they never organized an election for new members, the senate as they knew it was dead.

MINORITY SERVICES

The dispute began last August, when Martinez, vice president Leonel Mejia and another senator, Juan Gomez, complained to administrators about vacancies in several positions that serve minority students.

Gomez, a graduate student, said the university touts itself as a welcoming place for students of color.

“The reality is, you find empty offices,” he said in an interview.

The three Latino senators wanted to discuss the matter again at the October meeting but were put off by the presence of the school president and other administrators, who had attended the meeting specifically to hear their concerns.

The senate briefly went into executive session, removing the audience from the room. When they reopened the meeting, the three senators, hoping for a longer students-only discussion, refused to talk about their concerns.

An argument ensued and one student had a panic attack.

Jessica Maistrovich, another student senator, said the three Latino students were verbally attacking the administration.

“It was disgraceful, to be honest. I was embarrassed by the behaviors of members of the senate that I was on,” she said.

Maistrovich said most of the elected students were satisfied that school leaders were working to fill the open positions in student services.

“We did not agree that this was a serious concern,” she said.

President Ginny Arthur acknowledged in an interview that several cultural coordinator jobs were open last year because of resignations and a retirement. But she said there were and are many other faculty and staff on campus whose jobs involve working specifically with students of color.

NO MEETINGS

Within days of the October meeting, the university “paused” the senate. Students no longer were allowed to hold meetings or represent the student body on hiring committees.

Arthur called in Paul Shepherd, Minnesota State system director for student development and success, to resolve the conflict.

He issued a report a month later, recommending the students be trained on their roles as senators and that any continuing “behavioral concerns” be addressed through the university’s student discipline procedures.

Martinez took that as a threat that the Latino students would be punished if they continued to advocate for minority students.

Students and administrators tried to meet again in February but tensions remained high. The Latino students brought an attorney. The administrators had one, too. Maistrovich said the other senators did not bring an attorney but wished they had.

The meeting was canceled.

An April meeting, too, was canceled as Martinez cited “ongoing concerns around safety for Student Senators.”

“They held student senate hostage for months,” Maistrovich said.

Without a senate, Metro State’s almost 8,000 students had no representation on the system’s statewide advocate group for university students and no voice on campus issues.

When the Minnesota State Board of Trustees approved 3 percent tuition hikes in June, Metro State was the only institution out of 37 that failed to submit a required student consultation letter.

“Despite the administration’s attempts to get (the senate) to engage, their leadership team has opted not to fulfill their duties to the students of Metropolitan State University,” President Ginny Arthur wrote of the senate in an April letter to the system chancellor.

FEES APPROVED

However, some senators did continue working in an official capacity.

The Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee, a senate task force chaired by Maistrovich, started meeting in January to determine which clubs would share in $688,000 in fees paid by students. Their recommendations, typically sent along to the full senate, were approved by Arthur.

The Latino senators called those meetings inappropriate because the full senate was inactive. Arthur says the senate was free to start meeting in mid-December but chose not to meet.

In protest, Mejia and Gomez, who headed the soccer and Urban Education Department student clubs, declined to seek student fee revenue.

NEW STUDENT GROUP

Meanwhile, Maistrovich and others set about forming a new student organization with guidance from university administrators and from Students United, a non-profit that is supported by student fees and advocates for university students across the Minnesota State system. Related Articles Gap year: COVID has MN students taking time off before college

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The new group, the Metropolitan State University Student Association, won Arthur’s approval and is now seeking applicants for its inaugural election.

Maistrovich is seeking election.

“I believe we’re moving toward a more positive environment where everybody can voice their concerns,” she said.

Martinez, Mejia and Gomez are not.

“For me, it wouldn’t be healthy,” Martinez said.