“I’ve already talked to my board members and told them if you’re doing this for the money, it’s not worth it,” Gutierrez said. “I don’t feel like this pay that we get is comparable to the amount of work we have to do and the stuff we have to put up with. You might as well go get another job because they will pay you more and you won’t have to do as much work.”
Gutierrez also said that he has made it very clear to the board members that despite the increase in revenue, the stipends for ASI board members will not be increased.
In addition to the amount allotted for stipends, ASI also budgeted $18,000 in membership fees and $13,000 for in-state travel costs to send at least two members of the board to monthly meetings of the California State Students Association, held at one of the CSU campuses and for the ASI president to attend monthly meetings of the Associated Students President’s Council.
These membership fees are required for student representatives to place a vote during the monthly conferences, according to Koo. Students may still attend the conferences, but they no longer have a vote. The CSSA takes on issues that affect all students such as increasing tuition fees or parking issues.
“When the president (of SF State) seeks student input he comes to ASI,” Koo said. “When the state level legislature or the Chancellor seeks student input they go to the CSSA.”
Among the proposed additions to the revised budget is the increase of student scholarships back to $30,000 or about $1,000 per student, according to Coluzzi. The funds for scholarships were cut in half to $15,000 a couple years ago as a result of the budget crisis.
Coluzzi also hopes to use the additional funds for additional Student Life events.
Another goal is to place student organization funding on the ballot for the election at the end of this school year. This would allow students to become more involved by being able to vote for which student organizations they feel should receive more funding, Gutierrez said. He hopes that this will increase student participation in ASI, while also providing the opportunity for ASI to get more things done, as he estimates to spend half his time listening to proposals for funding from different student organizations.
The full ASI proposed budget for the 2011-2012 year is not available online yet but there is a copy of the available in the ASI Business office, located on the second floor of the Cesar Chavez Student Center.
Raquel Santiago • Oct 2, 2011 at 10:33 am
In addition to my prior post. I also read in your last edition where your reporter started that “the students voted to raise the fees'” that actually is NOT correct. ASI voted,not the student population and unfortunately they are seriously misled if they think they speak for a majority of the students because they do not. FEW students would have supported any type of increase to any further fee’s.
Raquel Santiago • Oct 2, 2011 at 10:27 am
After reading where most of our money is going to in the article, they need a serious overhaul of who gets what money and how much. Each organization needs to be submitting budget reports and what this money is being spent on. Additionally it needs to be made available to the students for review NOT just ASI.