Garcia on wrong track

Associated Students Inc. President Robert Garcia is again talking about the Beach Pride initiative.

Beach Pride means having students "really care about the university and being proud to go to Long Beach State," Garcia said.

Garcia is right -- school pride is important. But getting students to be proud of Cal State Long Beach will be difficult.

Fostering a sense of pride in CSULB is important, but shouldn't  that pride  be derived from our excellent athletic programs or from our academic programs?

Garcia wants students to get their pride from the look of CSULB; he aims to change the design of campus parking permits and the Speaker's Platform.
 
Those aesthetic changes will certainly beautify the campus. But they will not boost our pride.

Toby Sexton, Garcia's predecessor, pushed for significant changes to foster school pride: bringing back a football team, building it a new stadium, eliminating the tax on textbooks through state legislation and he successfully implemented a tuition fee that would fund athletic scholarships and programs.

Garcia is taking a proactive approach to his ASI presidency, but is it for the greater good? Do our parking decals really need a facelift? Does the Speaker's Platform get used so often that it needs to be redesigned?

Garcia may be on the right train, but it seems he is on the wrong track. There are more important things than ugly parking permits and an ugly Speaker's Platform that need real change in order to boost school spirit.