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ASI tackles down football resolution

Cal State Long Beach will have to kiss any dreams of a football team goodbye — for now.

Less than a month after it was passed, Associated Student Inc.’s football exploratory committee resolution was rescinded by the Senate in a tied 8-8 vote with four abstentions.

ASI President Joe Nino asked fellow members to reconsider the resolution in a scheduled agenda addendum Wednesday.

The decision to revote on the resolution was due to Nino’s recommendation to review the effects of having a football exploratory committee. Nino’s power to recommend a reconsideration of resolutions rests in the organization’s bylaws.

In a preliminary discussion, senator-at-large and co-author of the resolution Alex Trimm emphasized the need for a committee.

“What kind of message is it sending for students who really wanna see [football on campus] when ASI says ‘don’t even think about it,” Trimm said. “There’s a strong chance that [a committee] could come back in May with this report and say ‘we should not do this’…But what good does it do if we can’t even get that point.”

In the 2011-2012 school year, a referendum to revive football at the university failed. The referendum would have increased student fees by $86. In a previously published article, the Daily 49er reported that former director of athletics, Vic Cegles, approximated the cost of a football team to be $15 million.

Addressing the Senate, Nino noted how the timing of the resolution adds another obstacle to student fees as a tuition increase across the university system seems impending. If football were to be established at the university, there would be costs for football resources, which include a stadium.

“My concern is while ASI is fighting against any proposed tuition increase, at the same time ASI is exploring a committee that could potentially increase fees. That doesn’t make sense to me,” Nino said.

The president told the Senate that he felt there needed to be more outreach to students to see if they are in favor of having a football team.

“I feel comfortable enough saying that I don’t agree with this and I will not take this to the student body in general to vote on this because I’m not in favor,” Nino said. “When people voted for me, they were not in favor of an increase of fees.”

Dominic Erich, a fourth year business student, disagreed with Nino. According to Erich, many business students were excited about the possibility of having a football team on campus.

“I think it is important to look at the forecast at what it would cost instead of just [calling this decision] ‘too expensive,’” Erich said. “I’ve talked to tons of students in the business department and they were all really excited about it. When I was telling them today that it might fall through, they were bummed about it.”

Other arguments against the football exploratory committee resolution included an allocation of funds toward other resources.

Chloe Calder, senator of the college of education, said the focus of the Senate should be on issues of homelessness and housing security for students.

“It’s kind of a slap in the face to say ‘we know you don’t have a house but we want to focus on sports,” Calder said.

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