The Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) Board of Directors elected Susana Delgadillo, the current Student Interest Council senator-at-large, to serve in an additional capacity as senator pro-tempore for the 2020-2021 academic year during the board’s June 18 meeting.
Garnering eight of the total 12 votes, Delgadillo beat out three other board members vying for the position.
As described in the ASI By-laws, the pro-tempore is “the third highest ranking ASI Executive Student Leader” and is also tasked with chairing the organization’s Facilities and Operations (F&O) Committee and serving as vice chair for the board of directors.
(Courtesy of Susana Delgadillo)
The final votes were cast following a brief opportunity for the board members to ask the nominees any questions.
When asked to describe what experience set each candidate apart from the others, Delgadillo, a fourth-year business administration student, spoke about her experience within ASI student government. She specifically mentioned serving within the F&O Committee and being familiar with Robert’s Rules of Order, the manual used by ASI, and most board of directors in the United States.
As the only nominee who had served on the board prior to the current term, it ultimately seemed to be Delgadillo’s experience that secureds the necessary votes to for the position—including votes from ASI’s president and vice president.
Vice President Manshaan Singh, a fourth-year environmental biology student, concluded the election saying, “All right everyone, congrats to the new senator pro-temp and congrats to everyone who ran as well. I think all of you were great candidates, and it was honestly a really tough choice.”
During the meeting, the board also discussed the recent anti-racism resolution passed by the university’s Academic Senate as well as past ASI resolutions and future actions that the organization can take.
Singh opened the floor to any ideas on what other approaches ASI can take in issuing another resolution—suggesting himself a scholarship for students “studying racism and anti-racism and trying to implement anti-racism in ASI programming.”
President Lucy Yu, a fourth-year hospitality management student, added that a committee could be formed that funds students’ research into anti-racism or scholarship with “a big social justice lens.”
In addition to funding student research, board members also suggested artwork in either the Bronco Student Center (BSC) or the Bronco Recreation and Intramural Complex (BRIC), both buildings being ASI property, to pay homage to the current anti-racism movement.
Singh initially suggested a monument or statue in honor of the lives of Black Americans that have been lost or in celebration of a famous advocate of anti-racism—namely political activist Angela Davis.
Prabhat Jammalamadaka, a second-year political science student and Inter-Hall Council senator-at-large, suggested a mural, arguing that CPP students contributing to the artwork “brings us closer together.”
With all these suggestions in mind, Singh affirmed that it is still a priority for the board to focus on enacting the policies demanded by last semester’s campus climate resolution. This includes publishing a form in the ASI website where students can report incidents of discrimination in ASI’s facilities such as the BSC and the BRIC, a review of ASI’s policies and operations to correct for any discriminatory practices and lobbying for other changes at the university level.
To take part in these actions, Singh recommended board members discuss with Yu about joining the university’s Fee Advisory Committee as a student representative or ASI’s Human Resources Committee.
With more focus placed on making these policies a reality, further action is to be expected from the board.
The board’s next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, June 25 at 3 p.m.. The agenda, minutes and Zoom link for previous and upcoming board of directors’ meetings can be found at https://asi.cpp.edu/student-government/meetings/board-of-directors/