Just two months into the year, news of a potential tuition hike and an overflow of applications have flooded the Cal State system. As concerns regarding these issues reach an all-time high, organizations around Long Beach have begun to take initiative.
For all those concerned, there will be a chance to have burning questions answered as the Long Beach chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is hosting an Up Close and Personal event with Cal State Chancellor Timothy White. The event will take place Sunday from 3 to 4:45 p.m. at in Long Beach at Ernest McBride Sr. Park on Martin Luther King, Ave., Long Beach.
According to a press release, the event is an opportunity for the general public “to hear the Chancellor’s status of the CSU system report.”
The event will begin with a report on the state of the Cal State system delivered by Chancellor White, followed by a question and answer session.
Naomi Rainey, Long Beach chapter president of the NAACP, affirms this is not a bickering event, but one that allows students and faculty, who rarely have direct access to the Chancellor, to voice their concerns.
“It’s not a complaining session,” Rainey said. “It’s to listen to his statements and then to ask our questions and also to give recommendations in different areas. This is an opportunity to get up close and personal. Not going through somebody else, but going directly to a source.”
According to Rainey, the association’s education committee receives constant calls and complaints about the tuition increase, lack of representation of the student body and retention of faculty.
Since the event is a little under two hours, questions that are not answered on the floor can be written down and answered at a later date.
“I don’t know whether it will be in person or if he will send another staff person,” Rainey said. “But I can speak and attest to this: I know he will make sure that we get the answers that we need.”