Campus, CSU, News

Associated Students Inc. Senate wraps up fall semester

Cal State Long Beach Provost Brian Jersky updated the Associated Students, Inc. Senate on student enrollment for next year during their meeting Wednesday night.

A total of 93,110 students applied for fall 2017, but only 8,000 students accept their admission. About half of the accepted applicants will be freshmen and half will be transfers; however, this doesn’t include international and out-of-state students, Jersky said.

Jersky also updated the senate on all of the senator’s efforts to protest the Cal State University system tuition hike.

Throughout the semester, ASI senators have hosted events and community forums to encourage students to submit their feedback about a potential tuition hike.

If the tuition hike passes, undergraduate students will pay an additional $270 per semester and graduate students will pay an additional $312 per semester.

“For the first time, the CSU Board of Trustees told the state legislature that we cannot do the graduation initiative unless you give us more money,” Jersky said.

In January, Gov. Jerry Brown mandated a graduation initiative that requires the CSU to increase its graduation rates by 2025. The initiative states that the CSU must increase its rates for four-year graduates to 40 percent and six-year graduates to 70 percent.

Last month, CSULB was granted $2.4 million from the state of California. With the money, Jersky said he will be adding more classes so students can complete their majors within four years.  

After Jersky’s presentation, the ASI Media Board Chairman Julio Rosales announced that the media convergence project 22 West Media will launch next spring.

The 22 West Media project will be a website that combines content from the three ASI media outlets on campus: KBeach Radio, College Beat and the Union Weekly.

Users will be able to look at content on one website, rather than navigating to each site individually, Rosales said.

“We want to show that these aren’t just school media outlets,” Rosales said. “We want to show they can produce professional content as well.”

As a way to commemorate the semester, the ASI senators reviewed some of their accomplishments of the past months.   

“Senate is really what you put into it,” ASI vice president Logan Vournas said. “The reason reason why you’re here and the reason why you show up every week is important.”

ASI passed several resolutions during the semester, including expanded the study space for the College of Engineering and added more gender-inclusive restrooms on campus.

Wednesday night’s meeting was the last senate meeting of the fall 2016 semester.

This article was updated Dec. 11 to correct where the grant came from and how many students accept their admission offer to CSULB.

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