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news
A.S.I. candidates
make case
Staff reports
In this installment
of the continuing series on the Associated Students Inc. elections,
to be held today through April 4, the On-line Forty-Niner
is profiling the five candidates for presidents. The A.S.I.
president, who serves as C.E.O. of the corporation, is the
most important officer in the organization. The president
appoints the officers of A.S.I. administrator and the presidential
aides for internal, external and academic affairs. The president
is also able to veto A.S.I. senate measures.
Qiana Johnson
is concerned about unity on campus.
"The first
thing I would like to do is get all of the organizations together,"
she said, to discuss what events they can put on together
and how they can help one another make those events successful.
By creating an
environment where organizations help each other plan and promote
their events, she said, the attendance at the events would
greatly increase and have a much greater diversity.
"If I'm an
African-American and I'm helping La Raza with their event,"
she said, "I'm going to bring all my friends, because
I'm helping them and because I believe in the event."
In line with this
goal, if elected, Johnson would want her presidency to focus
on the cultural aspect of Cal State Long Beach.
"I love culture.
I believe it is a beautiful thing," she said. "I
think there is a time when we should relate with people who
are like ourselves, but I think that at the same time we need
to come together as a whole. It's important for us to experience
other cultures and other people."
Another of Johnson's
plans, a cultural awareness month, would promote campus unity
through a common goal: to learn about one another's culture.
"Each week
there would be different themes, such as food, music, artistic
expression and speakers to talk about their customs,"
she said.
As vice president
of the campus organization Impact and as sgt-at-arms of the
Black Studies Student Association, Johnson feels she has the
leadership experience necessary to lead A.S.I. Primarily,
however, she feels it is her ability to communicate and unite
people that would make her successful as A.S.I. president.
"I am able
to communicate well with all groups," she said. "I
am very open, I am very flexible and I am very willing to
hear other people's opinions and let their voices be heard."
David Love
is certain that of all the candidates he has the most experience.
Currently serving
as president of Black Student Union, Sen.-at-large for A.S.I.
and president of the Black Studies Student Association, and
having previously served as president of Associated Students
and senator of Applied Arts and Behavior and Social Sciences
at El Camino College, he might be right.
Love has developed
a platform focusing primarily on "big issues," but
maintains that is what presidents are for.
"We have to
deal with big issues," he said. "To unite with other
schools and form coalitions to deal with big issues."
Love's main issue
is financial aid.
"A lot of
people who need financial aid can't get it," he said.
"We have to make financial aid more accessible."
"The other
thing," he added, "is to deal with how to make sure
that when people graduate they don't spend the first five
or six years after school paying back debt."
Love said he feels
that focusing on these issues is what students really want.
"All of the
fluff and the gloss of the beach pride issues, those are not
real issues for students," he said. "Students are
not crying out for a concert. Students are not crying out
for paving the pool or a flag. Students are crying out for
the organizations, to make sure they get funded."
Love is also concerned
with equality in education and curbing the dropout rate.
"Right now
we have a huge dropout problem," he said. "In terms
of a plan to deal with it, there's not been one."
Despite his big
plans, Love said he knows the limitations of his office.
"The A.S.
certainly can't do it all," he said, "but we need
to come to the table with major contributions."
Solomon Moore
said he is a "man of action," and wants to prove
it as A.S.I. president.
His primary qualification,
he said, is having founded the CSULB Chess Club.
"I did it
to make a contribution to campus life in a form that any student
could benefit from," Moore said. "Anyone can play
chess."
Also the host of
a weekly KBEACH show, "Exposure World Music," the
senior business major wants to make A.S.I. equally accessible.
"I have a
lot to offer CSULB," he said. "I have good ideas.
I'm innovative and creative."
Moore's main goal
is to work with the current tutoring program on campus to
increase tutoring availability and accessibility, without
raising fees. He plans to recruit good students, "the
ones who gets A's and B's," to volunteer.
Another major focus
of Moore's campaign is his plan to implement a program he
calls "President for a Day."
"It's my way
of bringing exposure to student government. We'd choose one
random person once a week," he said, to have students
accompany him to all of the requisite A.S.I. functions in
the course of one day. "We'd give them the red-carpet
treatment and by the end of the day, they'd know if they want
to pursue campus politics."
Moore also wants
to have free pizza in the University Student Union each week,
he said, paid for by arranging a deal with an organization
such as Domino's Pizza.
"One idea
is marketing toward corporations. Big corporations, like AT&T,
MCI," he said. Indirectly major corporations are already
on campus, he said, but by approaching the corporations from
a marketing angle, he said he feels he can get more.
"I'm the only
business major running," said Moore. "A.S. is a
corporation and who better to run a business than one who
studies it?"
Wayne Stickney-Smith,
a communications studies major, said he knows how to listen.
"The major
thing I have to do as president is to listen to people. I
want to go around to each organization and attend at least
one of their meetings," Stickney-Smith said. "I
think it's an effective way to get it out that 'I'm the president
and if you have issues, you know who I am.'"
Currently the presidential
aide for internal affairs, Stickney-Smith works on A.S.I.
programming, such as the Beach Patrol program. He was also
president of the Student Athlete Advisory Council and ran
for the LBSU cross-country and track team for three years.
Stickney-Smith's
main goal is to strengthen A.S.I. to student group relationships,
lessening the "ivory tower effect" of A.S.I.
"People see
A.S. as being a Greek, good ol' boy system and they think
we favor athletics a lot," said Stickney-Smith, who is
not himself in a Greek organization. "Some of the cultural
groups might not identify with me right now since I haven't
had any real relationships built with a lot the groups, although
I have relationships built with individuals in the groups."
He wants to change
that by focusing on the cultural groups.
"I plan on
doing a multicultural caucus, stemming from the California
State Student Association," he said. "They have
an M.C.C. and it deals with issues that affect minorities
on Cal State campuses."
Stickney-Smith
also wants to expand the role of A.S.I. commissions by creating
more positions within each commission and broadening the commissions'
role within A.S.I.
The bottom line,
Stickney-Smith said, is that he will accomplish his goals.
"We can talk
all we want," he said, "but I take action, and I'll
do it."
Wes Woods II
has held almost every position on the On-line Forty-Niner
staff since transferring to CSULB from a junior college in
Idaho.
"I've gone
from being the editor in chief to being city editor, which
basically handles the news for the entire campus to diversions
and sports, which includes clubs and events," he said.
Woods, a print
journalism major, said that his experience on the newspaper
has given him a solid foundation to work in A.S.I.
"I've talked
to many of the people who are in charge now. I understand
what is going on, because I wrote stories about it and helped
people write stories about it," he said. "I feel
that gives me a unique aspect, as opposed to being directly
a part of A.S.I. where all you know or listen to is what people
on A.S.I. have to say."
One of Woods' goals
is to increase the number of shuttle buses on campus, while
changing over to a student-driven system. He wants to get
a hard alcohol license for The Nugget and bring back the quality
bands that used to play there.
He also wants to
take the Student Union pool and turn it into a skate park.
"Nobody's
using it anyway," he said. "Why not turn it into
something fun?"
Woods is confident
that, if elected, he could fulfill all his promises.
"Everything
that I'm asking for is possible and is doable. The problem
is with the money," he said. "We're going to have
to find a way to channel funds from one program in to another
or raise more money on this campus."
"One person
can make a difference and go for the issues they want to,
but if you don't have everybody supporting you and helping
you out, then you're going to lose, regardless of who you
are," Woods added. "But there are ways to bring
people together."
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