The closure of the art lockers has placed a heavy burden on the backs of Cal State Long Beach art students, but Associated Students Inc. and school officials are looking to lighten the load.
CSULB students, ASI and the College of the Arts Student Council are uniting in support of reopening the art lockers in Fine Arts building 4.
The lockers, which served as storage space as well as a canvas for Cal State Long Beach art students, were closed earlier this semester, with the department chair citing non-student entry, inappropriate vandalism and fire safety hazards as reasons for the closure.
The CSULB Drawing and Painting Club has collected more than 360 signatures on its petition, which was drafted in October, to reopen the lockers.
“By far, I believe this is a very great start and shows how much weight and concern is attached to the issue,” ASI Senator Kalifa Sprowl said.
The petition served as a catalyst for ASI to work on an additional petition to add more momentum to a resolution, according to Sprowl. Along with her co-senator Paul Suteu and ASI Vice President Jonathon Bolin, she is working on a resolution that calls for a short-term solution to the potentially long-term conflict.
“… Students need something in the short term to offset the current closure,” Sprowl said. “The students [have been] left with nothing.”
The resolution has passed its first reading by the College of the Arts and is going on to its second on Wednesday, according to Sprowl. She and Suteu are in contact with several officials, including Chris Miles, Dean of the College of the Arts, to make sure the lockers will reopen and that the issue will be resolved.
Sprowl said her goal is to get the College of the Arts to agree to a short-term solution that may, in the long run, make the art lockers accessible to those who utilize the storage space, while preventing from further abuse.
The collective short-term solutions include security measures and fees for locker-holders, which will ultimately privatize the lockers with the purpose of deterring vandalism and eventually renewing the space.
Sprowl and Suteu said that they suggested a key-card system as a short-term security method, but they are still considering potential implementation costs.
Sprowl said that the situation is promising but that it is bittersweet. As multiple groups push to reopen the lockers for art students, the culture and spontaneity that originally conceived the artistic attraction will be dampened by strict security measures, she said.
“There was a really big culture attached to the art lockers,” Sprowl said. “In the process, that culture may be a little more diminished.”