Daily 49Er April 12, 2011 After Election, ASI Struggles With
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Daily 49er April 12, 2011 After election, ASI struggles with law By Monique Meza Staff Writer Associated Students Inc. is searching for alternative ways to be compliant with a California law affecting the status of its non-voting board members, after a restructuring measure failed in March's student elections. Assembly Bill 1233, adopted in October 2009, modifies California's corporation code, mandating that all board members must have voting power. ASI has two non-students on its board who do not have voting rights. Measure 2, which failed last month, would have amended Chapter 1 of the ASI bylaws to comply with the current California nonprofit law. It needed a two-thirds majority to pass, but gained only about 63 percent of the vote. The bill clarifies the term "governing board member" to be a person who has been elected, designated or appointed to act as a member of the board. This person would also be able to vote on actions taken up by the board, as stated on the California State University Auxiliary Organizations Association website. The passage of Measure 2 would have allowed the student government senate to make the necessary changes to the ASI bylaws to comply with law, according to ASI Executive Director Richard Haller. "I have no explanation for why students voted against the measure unless they simply didn't understand it," Haller said. Students may have voted against Measure 2 because it would have provided two non-students with the right to vote on student issues. "If the measure passed, the senate would have been provided the authority to make the specific changes and only the specific changes to bring the bylaws into compliance with the new law," Haller said. Haller also said three specific points would have been amended. First, ASI would have made the university president's designee and the faculty representative voting members of the senate and the board of directors. Second, ASI would have specified an officer of ASI to serve as secretary. The new law requires a nonprofit corporation to have a designated person fill this role. Currently, ASI Vice President Lucy Nguyen serves as the secretary on ASI's Statement of Information that is filed with the California secretary of state, according to Haller. The secretary is the person who is in charge of official correspondence, the minutes of the board meetings and records of ownership. The measure would have also amended bylaws to list the ASI treasure as the chief financial officer of the corporation. Jameson Nyeholt is the current ASI treasurer. Haller said, as a result of the failed measure, ASI will now consult with its attorney to see if there is another way to bring the ASI bylaws into agreement with AB 1233. Group gets $3.75 million to tackle obesity By Katrina Guevara Assistant News Editor The National Council of La Raza plans to help tackle childhood obesity within the Latino community with its five-year, $3.75 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, overweight and obesity prevalence in children and adolescents has tripled in the past 30 years, especially in many low-income and minority communities. Health science professor and Cal State Long Beach NCLR director Britt Rios- Ellis, nutrition professor and American Dietetic Association internship director Gail Frank and child development professor Avery Goldstein will develop a course to promote nutrition and health interventions, targeting at-risk Southern California Latino communities. "We are very excited about this project as it will facilitate the opportunity to continue our culturally congruent community-based participatory research efforts, fund first-generation-educated Latino students in master's programs in public health and nutrition, and integrate a new certificate program into our university curriculum," said Rios-Ellis, who is also principal investigator for the project. "Within the five-year grant timeframe, we will be able to develop and integrate a graduate certificate in Latino nutrition, chronic disease and childhood obesity to our university's larger curricular fabric," she continued. First-generation graduate students will be able to participate in childhood obesity prevention research each year through the seven research fellowships and full-tuition scholarships. The project will additionally confront the health care professionals shortage by increasing the number of Latino graduate students with master's degrees in nutrition and public health. According to Frank, the project's co-principal investigator, the project could also help students work alongside other highly skilled professionals. "Our health science and nutrition graduates will join a legion of new leaders to improve the well-being of our Latino population," Frank said. "It is such a privilege to be recognized for our approach and to obtain strong federal funding from USDA to continue our programs. We are becoming a national model demonstrating how universities can empower their campus while improving the lives of individuals in the community." The 12 CSULB focus groups and some community-based researchers will give their insight regarding strategies and activities to address childhood obesity. The school partnerships will include organizations like the YMCA of Greater Long Beach, the City of Paramount Community Services and Recreation Department, Padres en Acción, Children and Families Health Connections and St. Mary's Medical Center. "This grant is also providing us an opportunity to collaborate with a wealth of organizations while we open a satellite center in the heart of the Long Beach Latino community," Rios-Ellis said. "These collective efforts further CSULB's mission of community service and enable us to positively impact the lives of a greater number of Latino families while developing tested interventions to decrease the staggering rates of childhood overweight and obesity and serve as national culturally congruent models for prevention," she added. According to Frank, the USDA establishes new, national goals and invites researchers, professors, community-based organizations and the collaboration of these groups to propose projects every three to five years. "Childhood and adult obesity has been a major national concern," Frank said. "USDA funds the most creative, well-conceived and potentially effective projects that are submitted for review." Equal Pay Day to raise awareness of inequality By Blaine Jarnagin Staff Writer Cal State Long Beach will host an honorary panel today at the Walter Pyramid for "Equal Pay Day," a day devoted to raising awareness about unequal pay between men and women. Speakers at the event will include CSULB department of economics professor Alejandra Cox Edwards, California Leadership Development director Calynne McDonnell and Business Alignment Strategies Inc. president Pat Lynch. Long Beach councilmember Gerrie Schipske will moderate. The National Committee on Pay Equity started Equal Pay Day in 1996 to highlight the gap between men's and women's wages to the public. According to Census statistics, women must work longer than men for the same amount of pay, and an even wider salary gap exists between men and women of color. Census statistics also indicate that, for every dollar men earn, women earn about 77 cents. The event will be hosted by the campus organization Student Life & Development and will take place from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at the Pointe Conference Center in the Walter Pyramid. Attendees are encouraged to wear red in order to symbolize how far "in the red" women and minorities are with their pay. New program may replace canceled University 100 By Tyler Tashima Staff Writer A restructured and expanded version of the recently canceled University 100 program, an unpopular one-unit course meant to aid freshman orientation, may find its way into the Cal State Long Beach course schedule some time in the future. The new program, which may become a requirement for incoming freshmen, will be tailored to fit major and departmental needs, unlike the recently canceled one-unit course. University 100 was dumped off course schedules before the 2009-10 school year due to budget cuts. The required course was meant to help freshmen transition into college, become familiar with advising and get to know the history of their campus. However, its removal seems to have left a gap in the university's orientation process. Lynn Mahoney, associate vice president for undergraduate studies and academic advising, aims to fill this gap. "Dr. Lynn Mahoney, along with others, is working on a new ‘first-year experience' that will be much more than a short course university orientation," said Donald Para, provost and senior vice president of CSULB, in an email, alluding to the University 100 program. Mahoney, who echoed concerns with the program and its former unpopularity, is working to find better results. Different courses for specific departments seems to be the solution. "The notion that one course could help every single freshman ... we started realizing wasn't really true," Mahoney said. "What we are moving toward is starting to figure out what the particular student groups are, particular majors are, and giving them what they need." But specific courses may not be the only solution. Different departments may require more than one orientation course. This new first-year initiative will not be implemented all at once, though. "We are kind of carving things up and, one at a time, as budget allows, creating programs for specific students," Mahoney said. Citing legal concerns, student senator proposes renaming ASI By Blaine Jarnagin Staff Writer Senator Mark Rizk proposed a resolution to change the name of Associated Students Inc. to the official legal title of "Associated Students" in the April 6 meeting. Rizk said the resolution was made in order to make ASI paperwork more consistent, as the "Inc." suffix is not always used in documentation.