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ASI Board of Control approves student research fund

After several weeks of deliberation, the Associated Students, Inc. Board of Control approved the new student research fund on Tuesday at the board’s weekly meeting.

The fund will partially fund long-term research projects conducted by Cal State University Long Beach students under the guidance of faculty. The research fund must be related to one’s academic program and have a duration of at least an academic semester.

Term papers, laboratory work and other in-class assignments will not be eligible for funding. The research fund will not allow for retroactive funding for projects already completed and once approved may not be augmented unless the nature of the project changes substantially.

The fund will be available on a rolling basis, similar to the existing travel grants, and students can expect for application forms to become available in the near future.

The BOC received an investment report from City National Bank, a Los Angeles-based financial firm due to ASI’s investments with CNB.

Patrick O’Days, a representative for City National Bank, informed the board that his bank strongly believed that the “job market [and] the economy as a whole have gotten better thanks to the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates low.”

O’Days said that City National Bank was confident that U.S.-based assets would outperform their overseas counterparts and that the bank had acted with that belief in mind. O’Days assured the BOC that they were nonetheless keeping some assets in Europe and in developing markets.

O’Days ended his presentation by noting that City National Bank was working with ASI Executive Director Richard Haller to implement a “socially responsible screen” should ASI ask for one.

This would mean that ASI’s account would no longer invest in firms heavily involved in fossil fuels and would sell off any current holdings with such firms. Several campuses in the California State University system, starting with San Francisco State University back in 2013, have begun disinvesting from fossil fuels. It is yet unclear if CSULB will do so.

The BOC’s usual proceedings were spiced up when a series of students requested funding to travel abroad to Canada, Mexico and Portugal respectively.

Shabad Taherian, a Ph.D. student in a joint program administered by CSULB and the Claremont Graduate University, requested travel funds to attend the 2014 American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Montreal, Canada from Nov. 14 to 20. Taherian will be presenting his research on the impact of pollution in Los Angeles and Long Beach at the conference.

During his plea, Taherian noted that he had previously received travel funds for the project in 2010 and that he wished to thank the BOC for their support. He said it allowed him to pursue his project further than he could have otherwise. Taherian asked for and received $500 in funding.

The CSULB Folklorico Group, a club devoted to performing traditional Mexican dances, requested $5 thousand in funds in order to attend a workshop at the Intercultural Mayan University of Quintana Roo in southeastern Mexico.

The Mayan University would provide instruction to the Folklorico Group in regional dances for a week and has offered to provide lodging and other necessities during their stay.

After a series of failed motions to grant them larger amounts, the Folklorico Group was ultimately granted $1,500. Senator Kelsey Reyes summed up the prevailing view of the BOC that, although this sounded like a great opportunity, “the Folklorico Group has an off-and-on presence on the campus and we don’t have much money left for the spring semester.”

Adam Merki, a graduate student in CSULB’s German Studies program, requested and received $500 in funding to present the Aesthestics of Emotional Restraint Conference at Lisbon, Portugal on from Nov. 6 to 7. Merki will be presenting his work on the death of Walter Benjamin, a German philosopher who committed suicide during the Nazi Germany regime, and the “Philosophy of Mourning.”

The Soroptimist house agenda item was once again deferred at the request of Haller so that he could continue dialogue with university officials. The BOC is considering investing in physical upgrades for the Soroptimist house, but is concerned that the university may request the building and grounds in order to allow academic programs to expand.

If the university took over the Soroptimist house, ASI would receive some compensation, but the BOC is wary of investing in the building if it will be taken away in the near future.

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