CSULB students to present bike path proposal at conference

Four Cal State Long Beach master’s of business administration students will travel to University of California, Santa Barbara next week to present their proposal at the California Higher Education Sustainability Conference.

Lucy Le, Ishwar Bharbhari, Christopher Brunson, Tyson Siekiera and Briant Carcamo were chosen to present their proposal, “Sustainable Transportation Curriculum and Partnerships: The CSULB Bouton Creek Bike Path Project,” at this year’s California Higher Education Sustainability Conference (CHESC). Out of the five students, only Brunson will not attend the event.

The conference, an annual gathering of California colleges, aims to highlight new research and case studies while promoting cross-campus communication, according to its website.

The proposal sets the framework for converting a currently unused service road, which sits alongside the waterway that runs between the College of Business Administration and Parkside College, according to Elissa Thomas, CSULB’s sustainable transportation program coordinator. The students proposed transforming the service road into a functional bike path that will connect CSULB to the city’s bike path and the YMCA on Bellflower Boulevard.

Bouton Creek, which runs diagonally through the City of Long Beach and beneath several buildings at CSULB, is part of the Los Angeles County Flood Channel.

The proposal studied the economic feasibility of converting the service road into a bike path and researched possible funding sources, according to Thomas, who worked closely with the students on the proposal. She said it demonstrates “how to incorporate sustainability into campus curriculum, new construction and renovation and transportation.”

The students worked on their proposal for nine months as part of their sustainability and the business organization courses. Ingrid Martin, chair of the marketing department, said the proposal was part of a series of projects that required students to research funding for campus projects.

“The objective underlying working on projects for the university is to find a way to support the university, especially when funding sources for many projects are just not there during budget shortages,” Martin said.

Thomas said the students were successful at searching for funding sources and that they were happy to be selected to present at this year’s CHESC.

“We were very excited to have been chosen to represent CSULB and present our work at the conference,” Thomas said. “The MBA student group . . . did an amazing job working together to conduct a comprehensive economic feasibility study and to research potential funding sources for the project.”

David Salazar, associate vice president of physical planning and facilities management, said the path will cost roughly $600,000 and is expected to be completed within the next two years.

The CHESC will be held at UCSB from Sunday to Thursday.