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ASI asked for more students to represent on the CSU Board of Trustee

A resolution passed by The Associated Students Inc. Wednesday afternoon is asking the California State Legislature to increase the number of student trustees on the California State University Board of Trustees.

The CSU Board of Trustees only includes two students, one voting trustee and one non-voting trustee.

According to the CSU website, the Board of Trustees is made up of 25 members who are responsible for the over cite of the 23 CSU campuses.

“We feel its not fair for one person to represent the entire CSU because they have a lot of pressure on themselves and that way they can have more help,” Senator Marvin Flores said.

ASI Senate passed the resolution after including it on the agenda for the past three meetings.

“What we are trying to do is add four more [representatives], two voting and two non-voting for a total of six trustees,” Flores said.

The resolution would also require that these trustees represent all of California based on region, two trustees from Northern California, two trustees from Central California and two trustees from Southern California. Each region would then have one voting trustee and one non-voting trustee.

Talar Alexanian, a journalism student at California State University, Northridge, and Kelsey Brewer, a political science major at California State University Fullerton are the two current student trustees.

The proposed resolution ensures that student opinions are voiced during the six meetings that are held throughout the year even when another trustee is absent.

“If they are not there, they have no voice what so ever,” said Flores. “[More voting members would] help them out and be the voice that supports them.”

Concern about the resolution is based upon the bureaucratic work that is taken to add a new trustee member.

A new trustee member has to be approved by the CSU Board of Trustees and Governor Jerry Brown. It may not be feasible to have more than two students to represent the CSU students.

ASI Vice President Nayiri Baghdassarian drew up the resolution after hearing student concern.

“It wasn’t just ASI members that talk to me about this, it was actual students who are involved and aware of what is going on,” Baghdassarian said

The resolution will be taken to the California Higher Education Student Summit where students work with legislatures and students from other CSU campuses, which will take place from Feb. 28 to March 2.

“Just because something is a little hard, doesn’t mean we are not going to go for it,” Baghdassarian said.

Other business at the ASI meeting included the unanimous election of a new senator for the College of Education, Kimberly Kreszyn, a liberal studies major.

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