These are busy times for Associated Students, the student organization charged with promoting student interests, managing San Diego State clubs, maintaining many of its facilities and overseeing a $20 million budget.
This week, the council had its first three-hour-long meeting on the first floor of the Aztec Center.
Here are some highlights.
New positions filled
Sixteen councilmembers, some new and others returning, were sworn in for the fall semester. They are Veronica Vences, Jeremy Katz, Jeremy Mendelsohn, Daniel Brown, Abraham Pineda, Veronica Antonio, Raina DeGuzman, Makala-Paris Keys, Loan Nguyen, Giovanna Tabares, Tyler Boden, Jazmin Lua, Albert Gonzalez, Natalie Colli, Dr. James Kitchen and Dr. William Eadie.
Other key positions were voted on and filled on the spot. Ignacio Prado was voted the president pro-tempore and Daniel Brown, Joyce Byun and Bryan Talbot were elected as Executive Committee Members. The new A.S. logo was also unveiled.
A.S. will be making a $5,000 donation to the Harvey Goodfriend Aztec Shops Scholarship. Goodfriend is the late CEO of Aztec Shops who spent almost four decades promoting student services and student leadership, President James Poet said.
SDSU football brings the ball home
Aztec football was another rallying point for A.S. executives.
While executive members expressed sympathy for SDSU's narrow defeat by Notre Dame, they brought home some fresh ideas. According to Poet, the Aztecs' home-field advantage is in need of a few thousand roaring fans and A.S. will be looking into strategies to draw in more students to Qualcomm Stadium.
"The one thing we took away from the trip was the sense of shared spirit they had at Notre Dame," Poet said. "And that's something that we would really like to try to bring to campus here. It is a long road to initiate some traditions here on campus … but we want to get started."
Money talks
Scott Burns, the associate vice president of Business and Financial Affairs updated the council on the state of the general fund.
The SDSU general fund faces a cut of about $12.4 million, down from $18 million, because of incoming revenue such as the 10 percent student fee increases, Burns said.
"Where San Diego State is, in spring through our planning process, we had an initial planning number of $18 million cut to the general fund for the university based on the governor's January budget," Burns said. "A couple of things happened subsequently to that January budget. (The 10 percent state university fee increase) allowed us to reduce our planning number for the budget cuts $12 million."
Relief may be coming in the form of a $97 million "restoration" from Sacramento, which would be funneled into the CSU system at large. That aid could shrink the deficit by $4 million, Burns said.
Don't count on it just yet though. The legislative process is tied up by partisan nit-picking over the budget and the CSU allotment may still be gutted or slimmed down, Burns said. Other factors include the CSU Employees Union, which still needs to sit down at the Sacramento bargaining table to negotiate its take and a legislative process that some "pessimists" say may last until next year, Burns said.
-Compiled by Senior Staff Writer Justin Cooper.
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