Sarah Storelli is the ASI President. Storelli along with Kostas McDade and Nick Dindio write the State of the Students column.
As you may or may not know, there is a proposed budget cut of $500 million to the California State University (CSU) system for the 2011-12 fiscal year. Although we are not sure when the budget will be passed or how it will directly affect Cal Poly, we, as your student government representatives, are taking matters into our own hands and making our voices known at the local and state level.
Regarding statewide issues, Cal Poly advocates on your behalf. One weekend during every month, two ASI Board of Directors members and myself attend the California State Student Association (CSSA) meetings, which are comprised of the 23 CSU campuses student leaders. We travel to a different CSU campus in order to advocate on your behalf, as well as a collective whole, since the CSU has approximately 433,000 students. (Specifically, we will be hosting the CSSA, which are public meetings, on May 7 and 8.)
For the 2010-11 academic year, CSSA has a few main goals on its policy agenda. The goals are to improve student shared governance in the CSU system and to advocate on the state and federal level. CSSA has taken a stance on a number of issues in the form of writing resolutions including but not limited to: the state budget, shared governance on CSU Auxiliary Boards and CSU Executive Personnel Searches, discrimination and violence and textbook affordability. One other specific example relative to shared governance is the current search for the next CSU Student Trustee.
Understandably, there are costs to attending these monthly plenary meetings. Currently, the Cal Poly President’s Office funds our attendance, but next year there is a possibility that ASI will pick up the cost in order to retain our status as a voting member. For the past 20 years, Cal Poly has been an on and off member because, at times, CSSA focused on issues that were not always relevant to our campus. A few years ago CSU Chancellor Charles Reed, requested that Cal Poly rejoin for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school year, so we joined on a trial basis under the terms that the President’s Office would fund it. Now that the trial term is expiring in June, the ASI Board of Directors will make the decision to stay or leave CSSA at the last board meeting of the academic year. The approximate cost per trip is $900, and for the entire year it costs approximately $24,000, which includes a direct split between travel costs and dues.
From our trial term in CSSA, there has been more active involvement between CSSA and Cal Poly. One tangible way was with the ASI Voter Registration Drive that took place in fall 2010. CSSA delegated us, as well as every other CSU, to register 10 percent of our student body — Cal Poly registered 2,422 students to vote. Our total equated to approximately 14.25 percent of the student body, the most in the entire CSU system, as well as in ASI history.
Although our voter registration drive was the most successful, we did not see the need to stop there. Currently, we are fulfilling one of my presidential platform points expressed during my campaign: increase local and statewide representation by instituting Lobby Corps.
The ASI Secretaries of Legislative Affairs, Aaron Borgeson and Katie Morrow, are organizing the layout and functions of Lobby Corps, a group of students interested in lobbying on behalf of all Cal Poly students on local and statewide issues relating to higher education.
Lobby Corps is working on a campus wide letter-writing campaign regarding budget cuts as part of the March in March efforts to promote the interests of the CSU and Cal Poly. Since the March for Higher Education takes place March 14 at the State Capitol in Sacramento, many students may not be able to attend due it falling on the first day of finals, but we still want our voices heard.
Additionally, Lobby Corps is reaching out to local and statewide politicians in order to host open forums for these leaders to meet interested students and answer questions.
Lobby Corps welcomes any Cal Poly student to join, so if you want to make an impact for higher education, get involved now. Your voice matters, so make sure it’s heard!