Associated Students Inc. President Jose Salazar will run for re-election for the 2016-17 school year, according to Laura Butt, ASI department secretary, Tuesday.
Salazar said he is running again to finish two remaining platform goals from last year’s election: lowering tuition and seeing to it that two nap pods are installed in the University Student Union.
Salazar’s nap room initiative was a request to the California State University Board of Trustees for a grant to build the pods.
“It may pass, and it may not pass,” Salazar said. “And if it doesn’t pass, I’d like to have more time to work on it.”
As for tuition, Salazar said he has been busy lobbying in Sacramento and has plans to go to Washington D.C. for one week during the campaign, which begins March 7. Once there, he said he is hoping to rope in some federal money for Cal State Long Beach.
Salazar said he was able to accomplish most of his goals, such as the installation of parking lot solar panels, more hammocks or longer hammock hours for students who want a nap and bike stations throughout Long Beach and on campus where students will be able to take a bike from all over the city and ride it to class. He said he has also been working with Title IX Director Jeane Caveness to raise money.
“We will have another $200,000 next year to fight sexual assault,” Salazar said. “I made a difference, and I’m glad I held myself accountable.”
He said he is running despite “a lot of backlash from people who didn’t want an undocumented student as president.”
“I had a lot of mixed feelings to tell you the truth,” Salazar said. “I didn’t know if i was capable of doing it again.” He said the year was really hard on him, but that after thinking about it for months, he spoke to his family and ultimately decided not to let them down.
There are more than double the amount of executive candidates running this year than there were last year.
“Last year, not a lot of people ran,” Salazar said. “A lot of my friends are running against me, and I’m proud of them.”
The other candidates for ASI president are Oscar Acevedo, Robert Espinoza, Isidro Morales, Dylan Tom and Marvin Flores.
Flores is currently a 2015-16 senator-at-large.
The vice presidential candidates are Gabriel Avila, Novy Savannah Bowman, Cristian Romero, Corey Jordan and Logan Vournas. Vournas is also a senator-at-large.
The students running for treasurer are Mariam Balogun, Eduardo Vargas and Giovanni Smith.
The vote will open up from March 21-23, and the results will be announced March 24.