Campus, News

ASI vetoes student health fee increase, discusses gender neutral bathrooms

The ASI Senate voted against a resolution Wednesday that would have supported a student health fee increase, saying that the students should be the ones to decide this matter.

The proposed increase would have raised the fee from $96 per academic year to $150. The fee was originally brought before the ASI Senate by Director of Student Health Services Mary Ann Takemoto in early March.

Most senators said that students should be able to decide whether to pay more.

Sen. Logan Vournas, next year’s ASI vice president, said that before having students vote on a fee increase referendum, other avenues of obtaining the money should be explored. She suggested the possibility of reallocating funds from the I Declare Campaign or the Student Excellence Fee.

The ASI Senate also held the second reading of a proposed resolution to create a Student Oversight Committee for Risk Assessment.

The resolution, written by Senators Vournas and Yasmin Elasmar, would create a student-run committee to deal with incidents of alleged or actual violence on campus.

As the resolution is written, the committee would meet monthly to discuss the campus climate. Additionally, it would meet as needed when incidents of alleged violence or discrimination are reported on campus.

The overarching purpose of the committee would be to have a safe place for students to voice their concerns about what happens on campus.

As of now, the proposed committee would be comprised of Dean of Students Jeff Klaus, the ASI president and vice president, one ASI senate representative, six student representatives, President Jane Close Conoley and ASI Executive Director Richard Haller.  

The university president and the executive director of ASI would be the only non-voting members on the committee.

The resolution was written in collaboration with the newly formed student group coalition We Are CSULB.  

We Are CSULB has been holding protests calling for the resignation of Jeff Klaus after a number of campus safety issues.

Senator Elasmar said that she thinks for the first year the six student representatives to the committee will be members of We Are CSULB.  However, she said that after the inaugural year, any CSULB student who wishes to be a student representative can apply for the position.

The ASI senate went on to discuss a proposed resolution to add more gender-neutral bathrooms on campus.

This resolution, also written by Senators Vournas and Elasmar, would “urge the university to create, and actively maintain, gender-neutral bathrooms in every new building constructed on campus.” The purpose of creating more gender-neutral bathrooms is to create a safer campus environment for gender nonconforming students.

The resolution promotes gender-neutral-bathrooms to be included in future campus buildings, and urges the university to convert existing bathrooms to be gender-neutral as well.

Sen. Marcus Harwell commented that he hoped that all bathrooms on campus will eventually be gender neutral.

One of the last proposed resolutions discussed was for creating more alternative food options on campus.

If passed, the resolution would create a path for adding kosher and halal food options in the dining plaza and residential dining halls. The hope is that by offering these options, the different religious communities at CSULB will be better served.

The ASI Senate will vote on these resolutions next week at its final meeting of the spring semester.  

This story was updated May 2 to reflect that Senator-at-Large Logan Vournas suggested relocating funds from the I Declare Campaign and from the Student Excellence Fee instead of raising the Student Health Fee. Also, the gender-neutral-bathrooms resolution states that the ASI Board of Directors urge the university to convert existing bathrooms to be gender-neutral.

2 Comments

  1. Avatar
    Aristotle Bean

    ignores the radical ideas that are embedded in and taught by liberal “bathroom” policies:

    Such policies teach that if people are uncomfortable with their sex, the problem is with their sex—not their feelings.

    Such policies teach the arguable belief that subjective feelings about one’s sex are more important, indeed more real, than objective physical embodiment as male or female.

    Such policies teach that while gender-dysphoric men should be permitted to use restrooms with only women, objectively female persons should not be permitted to use restrooms with only women.

    Such policies teach that in order to be compassionate, one must treat gender-dysphoric persons as if they are in reality the sex they wish they were.

    Such policies teach that feelings of modesty and the desire for privacy derive not from physical embodiment as male or female but from desires about one’s sex.

    Such policies teach that stalls and curtains provide sufficient privacy to separate women from gender-dysphoric men but not sufficient privacy to separate gender-dysphoric men from normal men.

    The Left requires new language to which you must be obedient. I do not call them “gender neutral” restrooms. I call them sex-integrated or co-ed restrooms to keep attention on the objective reality the Left seeks to deny.

    I do not use the term “transgender.” I believe in science and reality, so I use gender dysphoria or gender-dysphoric persons.

    I do not use opposite-sex pronouns when referring to gender-dysphoric persons. Using opposite-sex pronouns does not constitute an act of love. It constitutes participation in and facilitation of a destructive fiction.

    • Avatar

      Amen to this and it’s nice to see common sense displayed here. Being expected to participate in someone’s delusion is rather ridiculous.

      But the radical left feels it is their way or they will try and ruin you and beat you into submission to accept their way.

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