Associated Students Inc. (ASI) discussed the new proposal of the Student Opportunities Initiative (SOI) and stronger police presence on campus last Thursday at the ASI Senate meeting.
The SOI is a bill stating ASI’s “commitment to the provision of quality programs, service and facilities,” according to the ASI Senate Bill. The student fees for the SOI currently splits between academic councils, at-large councils, heritage programs and the athletic department.
“(This is) basically providing funding for heritage accounts, which are accounts that can be used to promote diversity and inclusion by the cultural centers and also from student clubs and sports,” said Attorney General Manshaan Dhir, a third-year environmental biology student. “There is also funding allocated to the councils.”
Joanne Guintu | The Poly Post
With the current SOI, which was determined during the 2002-2003 academic year, the budget is split unevenly among the different councils. The board of directors do not know the reasoning behind this.
The Rules and Policies Committee plans on determining the budget of the academic councils differently.
The committee suggests that a portion of the councils’ funding will be split evenly among the academic councils. The other portion will be divided among the councils based on how many clubs each council has.
Another recommendation made by the Rules and Policies Committee is eliminating the athletics department from being including in the SOI and funding.
“It’s just $75,000,” Dhir said. “Athletics has a (large) budget. And the agreement is that if ASI does use any of the facilities that athletics maintains, then athletics will simply send ASI a bill and we will pay them.”
Based on these recommendations, the SOI will be an action item and come to a vote on Dec. 5 during the next board of director’s meeting.
Along with the SOI, the Cal Poly Pomona Chief of Police, Dario Robinson, spoke of the police department’s intentions to have a stronger presence on campus considering the campus climate at CPP currently.
“Obviously, you’ve seen the push towards all the issues we are having with campus climate,” Robinson said. “So, one of the things we are doing is trying to reach out a little more, maybe explain to other individuals and campus a little more about what we do in law enforcement and how we respond to situations.”
The police department plans on having more officers on bikes to ride throughout campus. Robinson believes campus officers need to get out of their vehicles and be more involved with the community on foot and bicycle.
Robinson also wants to make the police department more open to students. He encourages groups, clubs and students to request presentations from the police on any topic that the police station can answer and better explain. The police department will also try to push more actively on its website to try get more people involved in coming by the station to see what the police does.
Robinson hopes to meet with the ASI board of directors once a month to discuss what concerns and problems students are having throughout the campus.
The next ASI Senate meeting will take place at 3 p.m. Dec. 5 in the BSC England Evans.