On Feb. 25 and 26, the student body will have the chance to vote on a referendum to increase student fees in order to fund renovations to the University Student Union building. ASI has spent a large amount of resources to fund high-tech videos, numerous displays and tables outfitted with “complimentary” cups and stationary sets – all so that you will vote to approve an increase of the USU fee, which would result in a total fee of $344 per semester. They may have told you that since the rise in fees would not go into effect until the project is completed in 2020, none of the current students at California State University, Long Beach would be impacted by the increase.
This raises an as-of-yet unaddressed question: why are we the ones voting on the fee increase?
The core principle of the democratic process is that, before an institution enacts a policy, it must derive its power to act from the consent of those who are affected by it. The Associated Student Inc. should be no different. However, in the case of the present USU referendum the USU Board of Trustees has failed to ensure a voting process that is just.
Given that the students who would be most impacted by the vote are currently in grades 8 through 12, ASI’s promise to ensure that students are involved in the USU renovations is utterly meaningless. How can the students who would be impacted by the fees participate in the process if they have not even graduated from high school yet?
Though I am opposed to additional increases in student fees on top of those that have already been added, if we were to approve an increase, it would only be reasonable for us to make the decision for ourselves. It is unethical to decide for those presently uninformed and voiceless future 49ers.
If we decide that these renovations are necessary enough to justify a fee increase, it would make sense to impose the burden on ourselves. This way, we could at least pursue the renovations without running the risk of closing off the opportunity of a CSULB education to future students who may struggle to pay for it.
But why aren’t we being presented with this option? Why are we being asked to defer the consequences of our decision to the future? Because ASI has done the math, and it doesn’t add up in its favor.
According to ASI’s Spring 2014 primary surveys, 80 percent of students are satisfied with the USU as it stands, and only 6 percent of respondents reported dissatisfaction. Considering that CSU student fees have risen 318 percent since 2002, according to official CSU website, along with an increase in the “student excellency fee” that was passed Spring 2014, ASI knows that current CSULB students don’t want to see any more fees for a building they are already satisfied with.
So instead, ASI is distracting you with the proposed renovations and spending your money on videos, displays and goodies to keep you from thinking about the greater implications of nearly doubling the USU fee for future students. In fact, the entire “It Starts with YOU” campaign individualizes what should be a community issue. It claims that we are giving future generations a gift when what we are really giving them is a bill.
Our student government thinks your mindset is so short-term and that you are so easily persuaded that you would fall for distractions and make a decision for future students that ethically should be theirs to make.
So yes, I will stop by the ASI tables, pick up the “free” cups and stationary, if only because they were ultimately funded by our student fees. But if ASI thinks it can buy my vote with ad campaigns and “gifts” that we have all already paid for, it has another thing coming.
Show our ASI that it is underestimating the CSULB student body.
Vote no on the USU Referendum.