Turn off the heat, enjoy summer fun

But just as graduating seniors are trying on caps and gowns and preparing for new lives, heated situations remain unresolved within the student government at Cal State Long Beach.

First is the Beach Pride Referendum.

A student's challenge to stop the measure based on a technicality has placed a stranglehold on Associated Students Inc.

Because of bureaucratic bickering, it is very possible that the referendum will not be implemented in fall 2000 as planned.

Beach Pride exists because a majority of the students that actually bothered to vote in the recent A.S.I. elections wanted it.

The measure's  overall support in the student community may never be clear because the students' voice was pitifully represented by anemic voter turnout.

Therefore, it is the responsibility of all CSULB students to accept the referendum and the extra $21 in fees. It's that simple.

Students who oppose the measure's passage can only blame their apathetic contemporaries unable to spare two minutes away from busy schedules to vote.   They shouldn't be too hard to find; less than 15 percent of CSULB students actually cared enough to participate.

And then there is the La Raza issue.

A dispute over funding deadlines has escalated into a political standoff between exiting A.S.I. president Toby Sexton and the A.S. Senate.

A.S.I. recently denied the Latino student organization funding because it missed an imposed deadline for applications.

In support of La Raza's plight, Sexton has threatened to veto the budget for the 2000-2001 academic year.

This has forced the A.S. Senate to schedule an emergency meeting to deal with the matter.

Although the A.S. Senate's decision to deny funding was justified and presumably followed standard procedures, Sexton should be commended for taking a stand.

It would have been very easy for him to bow out of office quietly, but he didn't.

Perhaps Sexton and the A.S. Senate can find a happy medium that will resolve the budget situation and help La Raza at the same time.

If A.S.I. can manage to alleviate these problems quickly without starting an internal war, maybe the rest of us can get back to planning graduation parties--or at least a summer break from the politics of student government.

We'll get plenty more of that next year.

Marten Lewerth is a staff writer for the Daily Forty-Niner and journalism major.