Sept. 21, California State University, Stanislaus hosted this month’s California State Student’s Association (CSSA) conference for the first time in several years in an effort to showcase the campus and bring more recognition to the university. Student representatives from over 20 California State Universities (CSUs) came to discuss legislative affairs and advocate on behalf of CSU students.
“The general spectrum of everything is the Association represents 437,000 students statewide in the CSU system,” Mariam Salameh (CSU Stanislaus Associated Student Body President) said.
Salameh, ASI Governmental Affairs Administrator Amber Deming, and the rest of the ASI members, compiled a short video which can be viewed at youtu.be/qzHH_V3VHgk, showing the positive aspects of Turlock and the CSU campus itself, in order to bid for the opportunity to host this month’s conference.
“CSU Stanislaus is a wonderful institution, and why not have 70 CSU student leaders on our campus to experience this weekend at Stanislaus,” Salameh said.
CSSA was founded in 1958, according to their website csustudents.org. It has since been a key influence in state legislation involving student interests, having been recognized by the CSU Board of Trustees on numerous occasions.
“Why that is important is because CSSA is the only recognized representative of the students of the CSU. So if anybody on a statewide level is looking for the voice of the students of the CSU, all 438,000 of them, they come to CSSA. They don’t go to any other organization.”“Each campus has input into what CSSA does,” said Anthony Gibson, CSSA representative for Sacramento State and Chief of Staff for the CSSA.
To thank the representatives for coming to CSU Stanislaus, President Joseph Sheley hosted a lunch during the hour pause between discussions. After lunch, Sheley commended the representatives for all their hard work.
“I have been watching CSSA and it gets better and better,” Sheley said.
“You advocate well for student interest, you advocate against things not in student interest, you look to make student life better.”
Vice Mayor of Turlock, Bill DeHart Jr., also appeared to speak to the representatives after lunch, talking about the importance of community and the changes taking place in Turlock.
“You got three kinds of people in this world,” DeHart said. “You got those that make it happen, you got those that watch it happen and you got those that say ‘Huh? What happened?’ You folks are the ones that make it happen. You make it happen where you live.”
After lunch, the conference continued to discuss important matters, coming to a close at about 5 p.m.
Many of the representatives talked about enjoying Stanfest that evening before concluding their CSU Stanislaus experience, which many said was a positive one.
“I think it has to do with the amount of care and attention to detail,” Jerry Chang, East Bay representative and Vice President of Finance for CSSA, said in regard to what stood out most in his experience at CSU Stanislaus.
“Just how inviting and warm the experience at Stanislaus is. There’s just a really good balance between professionalism and, you know, the casual kind of open environment,” Chang said.
“It feels like you guys have that here and I think that is really something special.”
“We just need to be better advocators,” Salameh said. “That’s why I want to have a conference like this on campus. We’ll start having people talk about us so it’s more like showcasing it, having it, and then start having people talk about Stanislaus. We are a hidden gem.”