Yes, my name is Avis — like the car rental place — and Atkins — like the diet — and I am running for ASI President. I became a part of ASI two years ago with the main goal of helping students succeed.
During my first year, I organized the first Club Talent Showcase, where I gave out a $350 scholarship to the Beach Bellies dance club. In my second year, I urged for better academic advising. But what I think is most important to share is my love and pride for this university.
I do anything and everything I can to help students. For two summers I worked 15 hours a day, starting at 7:30 a.m. at SOAR and ending at 10:30 p.m. at Best Buy. I did not work SOAR because of the $9 an hour I got paid; I worked to make a difference in the lives of hundreds of freshman and transfer students.
I also worked as a peer mentor for student athletes. What better support of our athletic program then to mentor athletes so they can succeed in their classes? I even reactivated the Black Scholars Student Association so that I can help my fellow peers get knowledge about scholarships, research opportunities and graduate school.
Becoming ASI president will allow me to serve and help all students across this university. As president, I want to make ASI more accessible to students by allowing them to apply for AS positions online. I want to rotate our Senate meetings around the seven colleges so that students know about all the work we are doing to help them.
I want to provide more funding to student organizations through ASI-sponsored bus trips so that they can continue to put on the amazing programs that they do. I also want to save students money by having double-sided printing in the Library and Horn Center and make the U-Pass permanent.
All my ideas are obtainable. I even met with Cal State Long Beach President F. King Alexander to make sure they were. He said getting double-sided printing was a matter of printers. He said if he can’t get a 24-hour study area on campus at least student orgs can have 24-hour access to their offices.
Please allow me to serve you. I have so much pride that I bleed black and gold. For my full platform and bio visit avisatkins.com. I support Piero Sandoval [running for ASI treasurer] and Matt Barnett [for ASI vice president].