On Tuesday, March 23, 2021, the ASI Board of Directors held their weekly meeting at 5:00 p.m. The meeting covered diverse topics ranging from survey results to the Warrior Day festival.
Surveys and results
Brandon Price (Interim Associate VP for Student Success) spoke about the recent results of the surveys regarding the fall 2020 remote learning, spring 2021 re-enrollment, and return for fall 2021. The fall 2020 remote learning survey showed that students felt that they did not have proper means for online learning such as good WIFI or a quiet space to learn in. “About 33% of our students are saying they are stressed out with remote learning,” said Price. When it came to the spring 21 re-enrollment surveys, in January, staff and faculty took the additional step of calling all students who were enrolled in fall and had not enrolled for spring to offer assistance.
Stockton campus renovation updates
Jennifer Galeana Vasquez (Interim SC Programs and Services Coordinator) and Teresa Serna (SC Exec. VP of Finance) talked about updates regarding the University Student Center in Stockton. They went over updates of three rooms and a patio for the building. Room 1110 will be the Warrior Activities Center, and it is about 95% finished with the remaining 5% being furniture and placement of data and power race ways. Room 1024, which will be Warrior Lounge A, is still in the process of construction with only the carpet and painted walls completed so far. The patio will have a mural running across a whole wall that will be worked around the three large windows that are placed there.
CSSA (Cal State Student Association) plenary update
Krishan Malhorta (ASI Governmental Relation Coordinator) touched on the February plenary update on the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 that was signed by President Biden which gives nearly $40 billion in relief funds directly to colleges and universities. “We also talked about resolution in support of Fossil Fuel Divestment and reforming the police department,” said Malhorta in regards to a meeting that was had on system-wide affairs.
Athletics meeting in person for strength and conditioning
“With athletics, we are going to start fazing in with strength and conditioning. Which is exciting news that we received last Monday from President Junn and our athletic director Terry Donavan,” said Anisa Saechao (Director for Athletics). This means that they will not be competing but will be doing the strength and conditioning with baseline COVID testing that started yesterday, March 24. Every student who wants to participate must take the COVID test at least one time, and the restrictions will only be no indoor activities and non-essential personal are prohibited. Indoor sports like volleyball and basketball will share the tennis courts with the tennis team.
Updates from the commencement committee
Nicolette Padron (Director for College of Business Administration) gave updates on future commencement ceremonies, which depend on what color tier we fall into with COVID. They have produced two plans. “Purple tier is where we have the graduates on parade, that’s where we can have every student going through the routes. The only problem with this plan is students have to register for it and have to be living within 120 miles radius,” said Padron about the first plan. “If we get into the red tier, we are looking into options of an actual in-person commencement. The only thing with that is we are only going to be able to work at 20% capacity (about 2,000 people total).”
Updating campus security
The school will be updating the blue lights on campus due to them breaking down. “The reason the blue lights kept going off was due to them being established before actual cell phones were introduced. They have always been short circuiting with the sprinkler system,” said Santos Ayala, Director for Graduate Students.
Warrior Day festival
Cesar Rumayor (ASI & SC Executive Director) spoke on the Warrior Day festival. “I don’t think Stanislaus county will get to the orange or yellow tier by May. We are planning a virtual Warrior Day festival but some students are going to want or demand an in-person activity, so we are trying to balance the two,” said Rumayor.
ASI meetings are open to the campus community! The schedule and Zoom link are available on the Stanislaus state website.
