An amendment to the Associated Students Inc. Chapter 1 Bylaws, which would grant voting rights to its only two non-voting members, was placed on the Spring General Election ballot on Feb. 23.
ASI, as a nonprofit corporation in the state of California, is bound under both the California Corporations Code and the California Nonprofit Corporation Law. In 2009, an assembly bill passed, requiring all members of a nonprofit corporation’s Board of Directors to have voting rights within the organization. Currently, there are two non-voting members — a faculty representative and a representative of the university president — on the ASI Board of Directors.
Although the bill went into effect in January of 2010, many auxiliary organizations weren’t made aware of it until much later, according to ASI Executive Director Richard Haller.
“I didn’t hear about it until June of 2010,” Haller said.
In December 2010, ASI received advice on how to comply with the new law from the California State University Auxiliary Organizations Association. ASI was told that it could either reduce the total number of members in the Board of Directors from 23 to 21, or grant voting rights to the two current non-voting members.
Reducing the number of members would require amending the ASI Articles of Incorporation, which specify that the Board of Directors must have 23 members.
Granting the two non-voters voting rights would require a change to the Chapter 1 Bylaws, which are superseded by the Articles of Incorporation. ASI has decided to alter the bylaws because the process will be one step shorter.
In either case, such an amendment would need to be submitted for student approval and approved by a two-thirds majority of student voters. Currently, the Board of Directors is student dominated, with only the two non-voting members being non-students. Haller said he did not believe that there would be any harm done in granting them voting rights because there is no danger of student authority being overridden.
“To me, it’s an issue of fairness,” Haller said. “If we’re going to put faculty, staff, and administration on our voting boards, we should give them voting rights.”
Haller also said it was an issue of consistency, largely due to the fact that the faculty members, administration and staff present in subsidiary boards have the right to vote.
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