The Associated Students Senate approved two new scholarships funded by ASI and received a visit from Cal State Long Beach President F. King Alexander, who thanked the senators for their efforts toward getting statewide legislation beneficial to the university passed.
The Senate reviewed and approved two scholarship funds, one for working students and another for students applying to graduate school programs.
The Working Student Scholarship Fund, intended to aid CSULB students who are working their way through college but, because they are employed, do not qualify for financial aid. The fund provides for 10 students each semester to receive one $500 award each. Students applying for this scholarship must be currently enrolled in at least 12 units at CSULB, have a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.5 and be working at least 20 hours per week.
Students must not be receiving any other financial aid from ASI – wages for student employees do not count – and may not be an officer, director, trustee or full-time employee for ASI.
The Graduate and Professional School Application Incentive covers the applications fees for 14 graduating students who are applying to post-baccalaureate programs. ASI will award up to $300 each to the students selected, and students can use the scholarships toward fees for up to five graduate or professional schools.
Applicants must meet one of three GPA requirements, and be regularly admitted and currently enrolled at CSULB. The scholarship currently specifies that two students from each college will receive the scholarship.
ASI Executive Director Richard Haller said the scholarship was divided amongst the seven colleges in order to ensure that students from one college did not receive benefits at the expense of another.
Sen. Guido D’Onofrio said some colleges had more students than others, which means the division of scholarships would create more competition’in some of the colleges than’others. The Senate voted to approve the scholarship as it is and make changes to the rules in the future if they are deemed necessary. Neither scholarship is open to students enrolled through Open University or Extension Services.
President Alexander spoke to the senators about Tuesday’s election results and the decision to appoint Dr. Karen Gould from the University of Cincinnati as CSULB’s new provost.
“I’d like to thank you all for your help on [Proposition] 1D. That helps our students immensely,””Alexander said. “I think the work that you did getting our students to vote…I think it certainly makes a difference.”
Alexander said passing Proposition 1D means the university gets about $90 million, some of which will be used in construction on Peterson Hall 3.
“It also means that we’ll have $2.5 million for our nursing program, of which we have about 600 applications for 90 spots a year,” Alexander said. “We’ll be able to expand our nursing major so it can do so many more things, as well as some deferred maintenance issues on facilities including some equipment for the library.”
Alexander announced the hiring of Gould, saying she will be joining the campus when the spring semester begins. He joked that Gould will have to be careful when talking about the University of Cincinnati here at CSULB because “UC” has a different meaning for Californians.
