A senator resigned from Associated Students Inc. and the senate nominated three students for the Student Fee Advisory Committee at its meeting yesterday.
Christina Avila, senator of the College of Engineering, credited her decision to an overload of 18 upper-division course units.
“I’ll study near USU though,” she said. “I don’t leave campus until, like, 10 o’clock, so I’ll be around.”
Having served for two years, Avila announced her departure with sadness.
“I’ll miss the friendship and the purpose,” she said. “I’ve always been about the students.”
Fellow ASI members echoed their sentiments and gratefulness for working with Avila last year.
“You truly will be missed. You did what you set out to do,” said Sen. Philip Bustamante of the College of the Arts.
Trevon Williams, senator from the College of Liberal Arts, said, “You may be resigning here, but you will never be resigned in my heart.”
ASI also approved the nomination of four more students for the Student Fee Advisory Committee.
Avis Atkins withdrew her application for the Student Fee Advisory Committee. The senators decided to nominate Sens. Tony Garcia, David Stout, Ana Jaime and Raul Rodriguez for the committee. They also nominated Sen. Patrice Collins as an alternate.
Bustamante said he wanted to make sure the senators knew they were merely there to advise on behalf of the students.
“You advise President [F. King] Alexander on what you think should happen,” Bustamante said. “If President Alexander sees that something needs to be done and needs to raise fees, it’s gonna happen anyway. Just remember that, no matter what this committee does, it is advisory only.”
ASI Vice President Omar Gonzalez presented a student’s application for ASI representative for the Academic Senate. However, the senate decided to postpone the election until the next meeting based on a suggestion by Sen. Laura Garcia.
“She seems like she wants to serve in ASI, not more specifically towards the Academic Senate,” Garcia said.
Bustamante said he didn’t mind postponing the election, but he stressed that ASI needed to elect people to this position.
“It was very important that you get these seats filled,” he said. “Otherwise, you have the Academic Senate, the faculty, the governing body making decisions without student input.”
The assistant dean of students, Jeanne Caveness, suggested to the senators that they could talk to the associate dean of each college about the oversight of the graduate program. She suggested that they ask them about possible candidates for ASI representatives for the Academic Senate.
The senators also approved a senate resolution for the ASI board of directors to distribute prewritten comment cards around Cal State Long Beach and the surrounding community for support in changing the routes of Passports B and D. These new bus routes for Long Beach Transit would transport students in downtown Long Beach to CSULB.
This article was last updated Sept. 17 at 11:59 a.m. Sen. Philip Bustamante was incorrectly identified as Richard Haller, ASI executive director.
