As soon as the clock flashed midnight on Jan. 1, fireworks weren’t the only things set off in California. Several new laws took effect too and some will benefit students.
Perhaps the most sweeping good news for students is the 75 cent rise in the state’s minimum wage. The hourly rate went from $6.75 to $7.50 and will shoot up to $8 an hour in 2008.
This jump affects 180 students employed by ASI who, prior to Jan. 1, were making less than $7.50. All those students were bumped up to the new minimum wage standard while those already making $7.50 or more were
not affected.
“The best thing about it is that the student population will not see a difference in the programs and services offered,” said ASI public relations
director Michelle Broom. “We are going to absorb this added cost on an interior level.”
Broom said that the estimated annual impact of the raise in minimum wage for ASI will be $78,515.
The number of students employed by the university itself will not be known until later in the quarter, according to Marc Benadiba, the assistant director of Fiscal Services. He said that on average, about 1,700 to 1,800 students work for Cal Poly every quarter.
The various departments that employ students will be responsible for covering the added expenses, he said.
The Mustang Daily also benefited from a new law that officially protects the student paper from censorship by the school’s administration. The law, signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year, prohibits censorship of college media by administrators, making California the first state in the country to enact such a law. However, the Mustang Daily’s faculty adviser, George Ramos, said that he doesn’t expect the new law to impact the paper much.
“I don’t think that the Mustang Daily will be affected by this new law because the administration has always had – and with very rare exception – a hands-off attitude toward the news content of the paper,” said
Ramos, who is also the journalism department chair. “I don’t think it’s going to change anything.”
For many San Luis Obispo renters, a newly enacted law will help them out too. As of Jan. 1, landlords are required to give 60 days’ notice before evicting month-to-month tenants who have lived in a rental for
at least a year and haven’t done anything to warrant eviction. Landlords previously had 30 days to give notice.
While some smokers gave up their habit as a New Year’s resolution, those who continue smoking will be puffing on slightly different cigarettes this year. California
merchants can now only sell “fire safe” cigarettes intended to prevent fires by going out quickly when not being puffed. These cigarettes will be sold once
merchants have depleted their supplies bought before Jan. 1.
Students under 21 beware: drinking and driving under the legal age is no longer a civil penalty, but a crime. The law eliminates confusion by prior law that
made it a criminal offense for a person under 21 to possess alcohol, but did not make it a crime for that same person to drive a vehicle intoxicated.