Associated Students, Inc. Board of Control granted funds to the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society at the weekly BOC meeting on Tuesday, totaling approximately $1,350 in ASI funds that have been allotted to the HFES so far this semester.
President of the HFES and 2nd year graduate student in the Psychology Department’s Human Factor graduate program James Cunningham asked for $423 in order to attend the annual HFES meeting in Chicago. Cunningham is part of a wave of applicants who have been requesting funding to attend the five-day conference in Chicago, which will take place on Oct. 27-31. Cunningham noted that funding had already been given to Tanaz Mirchi ($400) and Isis Chong ($400), both psychology graduate students, and that additional funding had been granted to HFES as a club ($500).
Unlike Mirchi or Chong, Cunningham will not be presenting at the annual HFES meeting. Cunningham stated that his plan was to, “… attend the [club] President’s meeting and scout attendees for our spring conference at CSULB.” Treasurer Kalien Clark noted that, “unfortunately we cannot fund you at the requested [amount] because you won’t be presenting…” The BOC voted in favor of granting Cunningham $50.
Shouhei Tanaka, a graduate student studying English, received $115 in travel funds to attend the 2014 Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA) conference in Riverside on Oct. 31 to Nov. 2. During his plea, Tanaka stated that he would be presenting his work, which is a fusion of poetry and environmental politics. “Environmental humanities,” Tanaka said, “is one of the strengths of Cal State Long Beach and I hope to advertise that during this conference.”
Kappa Sigma will host a spaghetti dinner later in the month as a fundraiser; the BOC was asked to fund $575 in expenses. Guests will be served spaghetti and drinks for $5 a person. Last year, the fraternity earned $1,600 for this same fundraiser. Student attendance averages at around 300. Senator Kelsey Reyes asked Brandon Nixon, Kappa Sigma’s Philanthropy Chair, why the fraternity had waited so long to apply for funding. Nixon explained that the previous Philanthropy Chair had mistakenly believed that funding from previous semesters could roll over. $300 was ultimately awarded to Kappa Sigma at Senator Chris Myter’s suggestion. Senator Myter pointed out that the group had received similar funding previously and should be able to make do.
In other business, the board continued to hammer out the details of the new student research fund. Details are still tentative, and the earliest anything will be finalized will be during next week’s meeting. Nonetheless, Executive Director Richard Haller inquired about what the BOC was hoping to see in future drafts of the student research fund proposal.
One of the chief areas of discussion was whether students should be limited in how many times they can apply for the research fund. A related question was whether students would be able to apply for multiple research grants at the same time. Haller pointed out that it was unlikely that any one student would be able to juggle more than one serious research project at a time. The board formed two points of consensus: (1) The board has agreed that the research project receiving funding should be related to the student’s major. As Senator Kelsey Reyes stated, “a creative student will find a way to connect his research with his major even if its not apparent at first…” (2) Awardees should have a follow up to show progress in their research (3) Students will receive reimbursements of expenses in order to maximize ASI’s control over funds. Haller assured the rest of the BOC that special exceptions could be made in the rare case that a reimbursement system was not feasible, such as writing up a check for an explicit cost.