The semester’s first Associated Students Inc. (ASI) Board of Directors meeting took place on Jan. 30 in the Bronco Student Center. The meeting was centered around updates on a new logo for the organization and proposed changes in ASI bylaws.
The first discussion item of the meeting was an update on the ASI logo redesign. Associate Director of Marketing, Design & Public Relations Cathy Neale briefed those present at the meeting on information concerning the new design currently being proposed to replace the current 28-year-old logo.
Neale stated that during a Jan. 17 presentation on the student-designed logo, those in attendance voted on a feedback app about their thoughts on the redesign. According to Neale, the results were that 93% of attendees voted positively concerning the logo and 7% voted negatively.
A vote is scheduled to take place during Feb. 26 for the Board of Directors to confirm the new logo and upon confirmation, a phased-rollout of the logo is planned.
ASI Vice President Rachel Hunter, a fourth-year political science student, introduced the proposed bylaw changes by providing some context, stating that these were tweaks Hunter and ASI President Pasindu Senaratne, a fourth-year business student, wanted to make for some time.
When asked of her goals for these changes Hunter staid, “We want to make sure that student leaders in these roles feel fulfilled because there have been some problems with positions that don’t have enough meat on them.”
(Nicolas Hernandez | The Poly Post)
Following this introduction, ASI Attorney General Manshaan Dhir, a third-year environmental biology student, presented changes in the ASI bylaws, focused mainly on redefining student government positions.
One of the major changes that Dhir presented was the reclassifying of the current position of secretary of sustainability as an officer of sustainability. In conjunction, the Sustainability Committee will become the Basic Needs Committee. Hunter explained that this change was made so that the new officer position would no longer entail running a committee and would instead be “more task-focused.”
Another change proposed was shifting the responsibilities of the ASI vice president who will now chair the Inter-Council Committee. According to the ASI website, this committee’s purpose is to promote cooperation among ASI councils, student organizations and ASI as a whole.
The ASI senator pro-tempore will also now be chairing the Facilities and Operations Committee — a deviation in this position’s responsibilities as they currently do not include chairing any committees.
There was also some discussion about a prior suggestion to include the officer of diversity and inclusion within the Basic Needs Committee as an option to report campus climate incidents through that committee. However, Dhir explained that this suggestion was not ultimately realized as it would have been a lot for a single committee to handle. There were also concerns that adding another manner for students to report these kinds of incidents may be confusing.
Feb. 7 is the deadline for publishing these and other bylaw changes, which would allow students to view the changes before they vote on them in the online elections taking place March 9-12.
Following these discussion items, the members of the board each made reports on their tasks and goals moving forward. The vice president’s report included focusing on the 2020 U.S. census which will be counting CPP students who reside on campus.
Moving forward, ASI Board of Directors meetings are planned to take place weekly on Thursdays with the next meeting occurring on Feb. 6.