By Voting registration, financial literacy workshops and childcare were notable topics at the Associated Students Inc. Senate meeting hosted at the University Student Union on Oct. 16.
In reports, ASI President Nikki Majidi expressed pride in the campus community for taking action and raising the LGTBQ+ Pride flag on Long Beach State’s campus for the first time.
“The biggest takeaway is knowing the importance of your work as student government leaders and how much influence that you hold,” Majidi said. “It was truly the tireless advocacy and passion that came from student leaders that we were able to have that call for action.”
Majidi discussed various projects she is currently involved in, including the menstrual project initiative.
The purpose of the project is to ensure students have access to feminine products on campus. Majidi will be creating a women-like committee for the project.
She said she has also spoke with Elizabeth Dill, dean of the University Library, about increasing products in the library as part of the project. Dill has worked on a similar project in the past at a school in Connecticut.
“Seeing what has been done in other schools and what we can draw from that can really help the future of this project,” Majidi said.
Majidi also said her upcoming focus on campus in the next week will be on voting registration.
ASI’s Vice President of Finance, Andre Achacon, spoke about the status of the funds of the university and what is available to the student organizations.
The university funding available to student organizations is distributed to many things including travel funding, student research, textbooks and more.
“Our allocated funds still have quite a bit of remaining money available for student organizations,” Achacon said during his meeting report. “Our student travel fund has been pretty popular, we’ve had 38 applications which is really great because students know about our grants and now we are issuing our funding.”
There will also be an upcoming ASI financial empowerment conference that will serve as a financial literacy resource for students.
“This is the first time that we are doing a conference lifestyle that we are doing for financial literacy skills,”Achacon said. “Students on our campus really want to know how to improve their financial literacy.”
Another report brought to the table by the Future U committee discussed a vertical transportation project.
The project’s purpose is to construct more effective ways for students to get to their classes by eliminating difficult walks on high hills with more elevators and escalators.
Before the meeting came to a close, Alec Colchico and Lisa Harris, the director and assistant director of the Isabel Patterson Child Development Center, spoke at the ASI meeting.
The two highlighted the program’s aim to support students with children by caring for their families while continuing their education.
“Considering we are a play-based learning environment, we understand the importance of plays that impact kids who are in development,” Harris said. “So, we plan activities and experiences where kids get to explore and investigate the environment around them, and just take all the things we offer.”
The program’s goal is to aid the children in learning how to build relationships while taking part in cause-and-effect activities.
However, there is a waitlist due to how quickly the spots in the program fill up, but students who apply will always receive priority.
One of the senators posed a question to the directors regarding their approach to a child exhibiting signs of being on the spectrum.
“This is an area that we are not experts in, however, we partnered up with an agency that will be coming out in two weeks to do a presentation to learn more,” Colchico said. “We invited all of our family and friends. We do realize that there is a rise of this and that we only know more about child development.”
