The Associated Students Senate on Wednesday unanimously elected to pass a resolution expressing its concerns about safety on campus after three recent attacks and urged the university to implement measures that will protect students.
While addressing the issue, ASI President Shefali Mistry said she recently talked with Cal State Long Beach President F. King Alexander about the attacks and that the two discussed possible measures that will be taken.
Senator-at-Large Erin Swetland said she talked with Housing & Residential Life Director Stan Olin about the concerns she had heard from many women at CSULB. She said Olin and Alexander said they are considering putting up security cameras on campus to protect students.
Mistry said that when she had spoken with Alexander, he had expressed concerns over issues with privacy. She said she supports putting up cameras and that she encouraged him to move forward with it.
“There’s been three sexual assaults on campus in less than four weeks, all occurring in places that are not particularly well lit,” Mistry said. “This is not an issue of privacy. If people want to [argue] for anything that they want to do in their car that they would like privacy for, there are a number of things they should not be doing on this campus.”
Sen. Christopher Chavez of the College of Liberal Arts and Senator-at-Large Naomi Cruz both said they would like to see a resolution that suggests ways to increase campus safety, rather than just urging for action.
“Personally, I think that ASI also needs to take a role in this by helping promote a community where everyone respects each other and tries to assist each other if we do know that one of our members is hurt or being attacked,” Chavez said. “It’s not just a woman’s issue. It’s an issue dealing with human dignity. And injustice to one person is a threat to the dignity and respect of all people.”
Andrew Janz, vice chairman of Internal Affairs for the California State Student Association (CSSA) board of directors, visited the campus and addressed the Senate on issues concerning CSSA, including the association’s dues system.
According to a May 4 article in the Daily Forty-Niner, the Senate voted last year not to pay the CSULB’s $27,085 annual fee for this year. Arguments in favor of not paying the fee included the high fee for CSULB, as opposed to that of a smaller university like CSU Stanislaus, and the feeling that CSSA was not doing enough for the university.
Janz said that, so far this year, there are 10 universities that have not paid their dues. He added that three universities have said “their checks are in the mail.”
According to Janz, the seven universities that have not paid or said they have paid are CSULB, Cal Poly Pomona, CSU San Bernardino, CSU Channel Islands, San Francisco State, San Jose State, Fresno State and CSU East Bay.
He said the loss of funds affects the group’s ability to lobby for change in Sacramento.
“We can’t continue lobbying in Sacramento,” Janz said. “It is harder for us to get our voice out.”
He said CSSA is considering changes to the dues system.
Two options being discussed are making dues equal for universities in the association, or giving a larger number of votes to the universities that pay more in dues because of their bigger enrollment.
