Senators discussed and brought concerns about potential increases in residential hall fees to the table at the Associated Students Inc. Wednesday meeting.
Sen. Zo Farooqui shared his report concerning students’ thoughts on possible increases in living and meal plan expenses for the next school year. He said, for the most part, students are against it.
“[Residents are] appalled that food fees are going up because the service is not going up, apparently,” Farooqui said.
According to Farooqui, students living in the dorms say they would be fine with fee increases if the quality of their dorm life increases as well.
Right now students are trying to figure out why their living and meal plan fees would go up, since they are not currently aware of any changes or improvements. There has been talk about adding a third meal option, but nothing official has been mentioned to Farooqui at this time.
Talk of raising fees is tentative as of now.
ASI Vice President Christopher Chavez said the Board of Directors has not yet seen the plan for dorm fees for the 2009-10 school year.
According to Farooqui, the Residence Hall Association has not said anything about the situation.
Also discussed at the ASI Senate meeting, Sen. Piero Sandoval, brought up the issue of international students voting for the Beach Legacy Referendum.
Sandoval said the president of the International Student Association, Artha Salgado, spoke to him with concerns about what international students should do: to vote or not to vote?
“They don’t know if it’s good for them or not, and how it is going to affect them,” Sandoval said.
Many of the ASI senators were absent from the meeting so matters concerning any voting were postponed until the ASI Senate meeting next week. The absent senators were in meetings concerning the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, which is a non-profit organization sanctioned by the United States Department of Education to accredit schools, colleges and universities.
Currently CSULB is in phase two of three of the accreditation process. Check out the Daily Forty-Niner next week for more on the WASC accreditation process at CSULB.
You punk’d yourself Sen Sandoval. By your own admission, you and the rest of your clique fell down on the job.
I agree with 49er on this one. They are a bunch of cowards who will campaign for office bragging about how they stood for or against the BLR. We all know they sat on their hands and kept their lips tight. But I disagree that Caveness and Robinson didn’t manipulate the process by appointing executive ASI to the SFAC for silence and tell the Senate to remain mum, or else. That shouldn’t have mattered if they were keeping their campaign promises that got them elected, to REPRESENT the students. You can’t REPRESENT when you sit by and watch ethics violations without taking an outspoken, public dissent.
The faculty reps don’t keep them quiet, most senators do that on their own. Most are too concerned about what office they are running for next, or how people will perceive them, and that’s why the asi senate is a joke. ASI needs the fee increase more than anybody really knows, but most senators don’t have the guts to face a little criticism and support the BLR. They’re going to run for office and I’d bet money that they won’t be silent about BLR once the vote is done. bunch of cowards. congratulations to those in asi that took a stand one way or another. the rest of you should resign.
Piero, you weren’t “advised” by your faculty reps, you were manipulated by them to keep your mouths shut. The Senate and ASI should have been giving balanced and unbiased information about the BLR, rather than burying it at the end of the PR ads in the campus publications. It’s rumored there will be promotions like a kickoff party in the Pyramid, bands in the Nugget, etc. to push this thing. By not putting accurate information in a more open student forum, our student government didn’t give opposing views either the time or same monetary resources to fight it. This is a railroaded agenda, and you are equally culpable and irresponsible.
Personally, I just want to show you our side of the situation before you start calling us “cowards” and “goofballs.” I dont think that inviting you to our office so you can share your ideas and express how you feel is threatening you in any way. I respect everyones opinion and I my intention is to hear you out. You are the one insulting us and hiding your name, so who’s really engaging in “high school politics”? Im over arguing with you like this; if you want to complain more, let’s act like adults and sit down to talk about it.
Piero, now you sound like Brian Troutner challenging students to face to face, as if you’re ready to kick my ass for my comments. You guys show the typical worst of high school politics. By not taking a stand you are supporting the BLR. True leaders lead by example, not by hiding in their cubicles spewing rhetoric and threatening their constituencies. I sure hope you aren’t running as an incumbent because it’s time for you to go.
CSULB landlord. The reason why the great majority, if not all of us, were silent about this issue is that being in the Board of Directors is more than just taking decisions based upon your own beliefs. I have people emailing me to support this because they are getting fired from school jobs due to budget cuts, and the money coming back to ASI would definitely keep their jobs. I also have people emailing me to not support this because they dont want the fee increases. Let me tell you, Ive seen as many students supporting the BLR as Ive seen people opposng it. But apparently, you seem to know a lot about the BLR and how is going to affect CSULB. Please come to the office because I wana hear your ideas. There is people who just sit around raising insults to complain about their government and I dont think you are one of those; so why dont you come to the office so we can look over some FACTS rather than just assume things.
Thank you
Piero, so you decide to take the cowardly way out and not take a stand? Administration is behind the BLR in the first place. This is a well-polished bureaucracy and admin is counting on a week Senate to get it pushed through. This is the biggest issue in front of ASI and students this year, period. Instead of sitting around like a bunch of mindless little goofballs telling each other Go Beach, you should be protecting our true legacy, tomorrow’s student. Instead, you let yourselves get manipulated by public relations in the athletics department. Hopefully, you will all be gone at the end of your terms and we’ll get effective leadership and representation. Stop making excuses!!!! You ARE advising people how to vote through your silence!!! That’s what the whole PR plan is; keep them quiet and irresponsible juniors and seniors will pass the BLR because they won’t be the ones stuck with the bills.
On one hand; if we support the BLR, a great portion of the student body will complain about us supporting fee increases, which is totally understandable because no one likes fee increases.
On the other hand; if we decide to go against it, we would have the other portion of the student body complain about our poor athletics facilities, and how we should support this to improve them.
There is two controversial sides and we were even advised by our faculty reps, who have been closely advising ASI for more than 15 years, to not take a stand on this referendum because it wasn’t even introduced by us on the first place. It was crafted and its being promoted by the Athletics Department. Once we know the decision taken by the student body based upon what everyone believes; we could act according to the situation. If anyone thinks that we havent done anything because we just chosed not to; please feel more than welcome to come to our open meetings on wednesdays at 3:30 USU-234, and let your voice be heard. We are here to address your concerns and we are currently working on other big issues. I truly encourage anyone who has questions, ideas, or wants to get involved to go to USU-311 an schedule an appointment with me, or any of us, so we can futher discuss your concerns and how we could act to better our campus.
I really appreciate everyone who took the time to post this comments. I promise I’ll bring your concerns up next senate meeting.
Go Beach!
My response was a lil long so it will take up the next two entries…please read them together to get the full message.
P.S. Piero, you’re one of the silent ones on their way out! We will advertise the silence of the Senate over this issue; how you didn’t take a stand for our brothers and sisters hoping to attend CSULB, but won’t be able to afford it.
The “misunderstanding” is that the Senate is elected to represent the students and none has come out either for or against the BLR, the most critical issue facing this campus this semester. The Senate should NOT be “neutral” when it comes to spending other peoples’ money (future students who are not represented). This Senate is weak and it will show in the upcoming student government elections when none are re-elected.
weren’t there “for” and “against” articles that came in that email?
Please understand that The Senate WILL NOT advise anyone on how to vote on this issue. The discussion with international students ended in the agreement that it is not in our position as Senators to recommend one side or another. The only advise we gave international students is to look at the situation for themselves, and decide according to what they believe. That is also the advice we would give to anyone else regarding this issue. Please also understand that we have nothing to do with the referendum. When Athletics presented it to us we took a neutral stand as Senators. There has not been any resolutions from us in favor, or not in favor, of the BLR.
Thanks for bringing up this misunderstanding for further clarification.
Go Beach!
Not sure why you think the ballot is rigged? Aside from the increase in fees, what else can you point out that is negative about this referendum?
That’s two votes against the BLR. It’s also one vote against anybody on ASI running for another office this year. It’s time to get rid of everybody who had their hands in this, which is ALL of them.
Is ASI going to tell International students how to vote on the BLR? They might as well they’ve been telling other groups to vote yes. So much for fair and unbiased elections. I got the preview of the online ballot and it looks pretty one-sided in favor of athletics. This thing is rigged.