By Jill Thomsen
On-line Forty-Niner

Student representatives from throughout the California State University gathered at The Pointe this past weekend to discuss state budget concerns and system-wide policy issues.

The California State Student Association represents the more than 400,000 students of the CSU system. The CSSA board of directors is comprised of the student body president from each campus and his or her designee or an elected representative from each the campuses. The board meets once a month at one of the CSU campuses.

“Being involved in CSSA allows me to look at issues at state level and bring them back to campus —why the campus is where it’s at with regards to enrollment, programs and other things,” Justin Jewell of CSU Stanislaus said.

The board consists of an Executive Committee, Legislative Affairs Committee, Multicultural Caucus and University Affairs Committee.

“The status of the state budget has forced us to focus on student fees,” said Cal State Long Beach Associated Students Inc. President Danny Vivian. “We’ve scrapped our normal agenda to focus on student fees.”

Vivian also serves as chair of the CSSA University Affairs committee, which usually focuses on issues such as parking fees, affordable housing and retention.

“We don’t devalue these issues, but if people can’t afford to come to school then parking issues really don’t matter,” Vivian said.

The CSSA legislative affairs committee makes decisions regarding student responses to current legislation and also sends representatives to the capitol to testify at various committee hearings on the budget.

Jewell is vice chair of the legislative affairs committee. “The trustees have gone for the easiest cut because students are the least vocal group,” he said, “I try to keep my campus very informed about the potential for greater fee hikes and what that means.”

The CSSA is working on sponsoring a fee stability bill, AB 550, with Assemblyman Manny Diaz, D-San Jose. Since the group is sponsoring the bill, “we will be looking at the language letter by letter,” said Director of Governmental Relations Laura Kerr.

A competing bill, AB 843, “takes process out of hands of legislators and puts in the hands of the Board of Trustees,” said Kerr.

CSULB Secretary for Intergovernmental Relations Jade Wallis admitted that most students do not know about CSSA and what they do.

“In general people are just going to school, working and just getting by, they’re not interested in issues until it starts impacting them directly,” she said.

Vivian said the University Affairs Committee is trying to come up with creative means of getting student’s attention as to what is going on with the state budget.

“We need to get students aware as well as the community outside the university so we can put pressure on legislators,” he said.
The board is also dealing with issues surrounding shared governance, an idea which states any decision that affects students should involve students in the decision-making process.

“CSULB has the best model because we have such a great president,” said Vivian.

The CSSA has formed a coalition with the University of California Student Association, which they hope to use in fighting fee increases on Capitol Hill.
Although each CSU campus has representatives in CSSA, some do not participate in the monthly board meetings. “I’ve never met anyone from Maritime,” said Wallis.

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