Associated Students Inc. reported Wednesday that a petition aiming to bring football back to Cal State Long Beach had not been accepted due to an invalid collection of signatures.
ASI Senator-at-Large Mark Rizk and Jason Aula, ASI treasurer candidate, first presented the referendum to the ASI Senate last Wednesday. The resolution, which called for an $86 fee increase spread over the next five years, was proposed to raise funding for an NCAA Men’s Division 1AA football team, Women’s NCAA Crew, Lacrosse and Field Hockey.
Although the senate initially rejected the referendum due to lack of proper research and statistics, Rizk and Aula presented ASI with a student petition of 1,600 signatures that forced the senate to reconsider their decision. A petition must include five percent of the student population to meet the requirement in ASI bylaws to propose a referendum.
However, Dean of Students Mike Hostetler said he never approved the signatures on the petition before the items were placed on the agenda. Assistant Dean of Students Jeane Caveness said the petition “is not something they have taken to the Student Fee Advisory Committee,” either.
According to Hostetler, “For a student referendum that’s started by a petition … those signatures would actually have to go to [the dean of students] to be validated,” and then it would go to the Student Fee Advisory Committee.
Hostetler said there has been confusion out there, even by the senate, that the petition alone can get a referendum started, but this is not the case.
“No one interested in football has presented signed petitions so [the dean of students] could validate those signatures,” Hostetler said.
According to Director of Administration Services Richard Haller, both Aula and Rizk said the signatures were verified at last Wednesday’s meeting.
However, Aula said Rizk had responded ‘yes’ to Haller’s question regarding validation of the signatures due to “Mark (Rizk) making a verbal mistake.” Aula said he then tried to inform the senate that the signatures had not yet been verified and that he would get them verified soon.
Rizk said Aula was supposed to take the signatures to the dean of students immediately after last week’s meeting; Aula said the same of Rizk.
Aula said another aspect that was stopping the signatures from being verified was taking the online signatures into account.
Aula set up an online petition asking supporters for their name, e-mail address and student ID number, all of which are publicly displayed on the electronic petition.
Hostetler said he thinks displaying students’ information in this way is “extremely unwise.”
“It’s unfortunate those students put their IDs down,” he said. “I also wish people who put petitions online like that would think about what they’re asking of their fellow students and not tempt students.”
ASI President Chris Chavez said that the CSULB administration is aware of the exposure of the ID numbers, but said there is no real violation and will make sure that students’ identities are not being compromised.
Wednesday’s agenda also stated that Aula had contacted Director of Athletics Vic Cegles for approval from the athletics department before presenting the referendum to ASI. Cegles, however, said he and Aula never had a conversation about the referendum.
“I have not spoken to [Aula] since last March,” Cegles said.
Aula said the last time he and Cegles had spoken about the referendum was in January 2009.
“My understanding [of our conversation] was not to come back to him until the resolution is verified,” Aula said.
Other ASI news
Also discussed at the meeting was next year’s increase in the California State University system budget and enrollment figure being entirely contingent on the ability to secure federal funds, according to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Since the passing of the California Budget and Federal Job Bill, passed by the United States House and Senate and approved by President Obama, allocated approximately $2.89 billion to California.
“Since we are now aware of the money given to California, the school is pushing to secure funding in support of the campus,” Chavez said.
In relation to the budget, Chavez also reported that seven other campuses are in support of CSULB, including Bakersfield and San Francisco, which will also be writing letters to Sacramento in the letter-writing campaign.
The University Student Union Game Center reopened on April 13 and was initiated by Chavez. Two new Nintendo Wii’s will be introduced to the Game Center in the near future.
K-Beach, the student-run radio station which broadcasts from campus, commenced its iPhone application, which is currently available for download from kbeach.org.
ASI also approved two new resolutions: one in support of the selection of Long Beach by Google Inc. as a test city for their new broadband technology and a resolution to promote “Culturally Sensitive Activities Awareness” on campus.
Wristbands made in ASI’s support for Haiti are also being sent back because of a misprint. The wristbands apparently only say “heart” Haiti, therefore only half of the message is written. The 1,000 wristbands are being sent back to the company for a refund with no intention of reordering. ASI said that the wristbands were not even in the school’s colors as requested.
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