By Long Beach State’s Senators at-Large discussed creating gender neutral bathrooms at campus dorms, offering more scholarships for undocumented students and spreading awareness about resources offered for incoming students at a “Meet Your Senators-at-Large” event on Oct. 23.
The meet and greet hosted by the Associated Students, Inc. Senate at the Speaker’s Platform gave students and faculty the opportunity to meet the 2024-2025 school year Senators at-Large.
Zoe Gonzalez, a senior majoring in political science, is the Senator at-Large for housing and residential life. Working as a desk assistant in housing, she speaks with residents on a daily basis.
The biggest issue Gonzalez believes there to be is the construction going on in Parkside. The construction creates loud noise throughout the day that is distracting to students who have online classes and exams that they take from their rooms.
Gonzalez said she also plans to work with professional staff to get gender neutral bathrooms in all of Parkside letter buildings. There are currently two within Parkside commons, however, Hillside has one for all of their lounge areas in the letter buildings.
“Making [bathrooms] more accessible for students and also their guests is the main goal,” Gonzalez said.
Carlos Orozco, a fourth year computer engineering major, is the Senator at-Large for campus organizations including fraternity and sorority life, religious clubs and special interests clubs.
Orozco actively works with the clubs to ensure they get the funding and grants accessible to them in order to put on events.
During the Fall 2024 semester, he worked with executives to allocate an additional $9,000 in grants for undocumented students. As an undocumented student himself, Orozco found this to be very special considering he feels he does not see a lot of opportunity for students like him on campus.
Katherine Garcia-Guerrero, a second year political science and international studies major, is the Senator at-Large for the educational equity community. This includes low-income students, first-generation students and undocumented students.
“Besides bridging the gap between ASI and the educational equity community, I want to increase my communication and make sure their voices are heard,” Garcia-Guerrero said.
She hopes to create more opportunities for internships and scholarships for the people in her community. She also wants to ensure all of her community’s organizations have the proper funding and grants needed to succeed.
As a first-generation student herself, Garcia-Guerrero’s position helps her connect with the students she speaks to everyday. She wants to be a support system and a voice for current students, a voice she did not have in the past.
Katherine Erian, a fourth year psychology major, is the Senator at-Large for incoming students; she works with first-years and transfer students.
Erian said she had a difficult time adjusting to college in her first year and aims to create an easier transition than the one she had for all first-year students.
“I think a lot of first-year students just don’t know what they can do and what resources they have on campus,” Erian said.
Erian said the main concern for incoming students is not having the knowledge of all the resources they have available to them. She aims to work with the first-year webpage on BeachXP to make it more user-friendly and create more videos.
Sonny Ciampa, a political science major, is the Senator at-Large for athletics. He sees a lack of students attending sporting games and hopes to spread awareness to students that they have access to free tickets to all athletics games.
Ciampa plans to work on an app where students can purchase tickets for athletic events and view future games.
Due to COVID-19, CSULB removed the yearly homecoming game and activities but Ciampa hopes to work towards bringing the homecoming game back.
