The possible implementation of a student activity hour into class schedules was a hot issue at the ASI Senate meeting Wednesday. That hour would be designated for student organizations to meet during the day, but senators debated as to whether this activity hour would be useful or a hindrance to the Cal State Long Beach community.
The senators said that having a “free hour” during the day, either from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. or 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., would mean a lot of reconstruction to the current class schedule.
Tashari Ameral, senator of the College of Education, said that in order to have a free hour during the day, classes would either need to start earlier or end later in the evening.
In the past, there was a student activity hour in effect. The hour was meant to enhance campus life and organizations by allowing students to support activities on campus. The student activity hour was allotted to cultural groups, the Greek system, sports teams and student study groups to get activities accomplished on campus, rather than after school hours.
“One short hour would definitely be able to give some leeway to individual college council organizations, cultural and Greek groups,” said Sen. Christopher Chavez of the College of Liberal Arts.
Chavez also said for those students not involved in any type of co-curricular activity at CSULB, the free time could be used as a lunch hour or simply a break.
The majority of the debate was figuring out how indeed to implement the hour into the already busy class schedules. The proposed student activity hour, however, would most likely only be in effect two days of the week, Monday and Wednesday being the days of choice and Tuesday and Thursday with routine class scheduling days.
But ASI Vice President Hironao Okahana said his concern is whether or not this type of activity would benefit one student while harming another.
Shelena McClinton, senator-at-large, said this type of implementation could be harmful to those students who work full-time and cannot afford to give up the extra hour normally allotted to classes.
Using herself as an example, McClinton said during her first and second year at CSULB, her full-time job allowed her to go to school two days and that she could not have forfeited an extra hour. She said she would have had to utilize that hour for classes and would not be able to afford not to go to class at that time.
The student senate also considered making the proposed student activity hour a choice to be chosen by the students. If students want the free hour for lunch, an organizational meeting time or simply to take a break, a few senators said the students should choose to participate in the activity hour. Those against the free hour would be able to schedule classes during that time.
The policy is at its first phase. If ASI passes the policy, the Academic Senate will be the next one to decide on the hour. If the Academic Senate passes the policy, it would lastly reach the university president, who would then decide the final outcome.
