By Nadia Urbina, Oct. 24
In its Oct. 21 meeting, the ASI Board of Directors discussed the decision to allocate a previous project’s funds to repairs and enhance the Bronco Student Center’s west exterior and announced changes in policies pertaining to The Green Initiative Fund.
During the meeting Krista Smith, associate executive director for ASI, shared that the ASI extended leadership team decided to prioritize the BSC’s west exterior repairs due to concerns of lack of accessibility for faculty, students and staff in lieu of an existing project involving a terrace addition to the northeast side of the facility.
Right now, the space is very underutilized,” said ASI Vice President Derek Sweem. “This renovation will give students an additional area to use. One of their plans is to make that area more accessible to students, give outside study space and it also gives the opportunity to improve and give back to students.”
During the meeting Smith presented the Capital Expenditures Budget for the 2021- 2022 academic year. She provided an overview of renovations and a depiction of a planned east terrace addition to the BSC.
“We allocated specifically $250,000 to jumpstart this project which really was going to help us get started in the engineering and design phase,” said Smith. “Although we were really excited about starting the process this year, something more critical has come up with the Bronco Student Center, it just happens to be on the west side of the building where there’s a lot of existing hardscape and landscape that is really in need of repair and updating.”
The repairs will target the pathway along the back of the BSC connecting Campus Center to Eucalyptus Lane. The next steps entail updating the capital expenditures project plan, defining the scope of the work with the university and beginning repairs.
During the presentation, ASI President Prabhat Jammalamadaka brought attention ASI’s action plan to establish hands-on learning opportunities and asked about the possibility of students being involved in this capital project.
“It’s a learn by doing campus so we want to have as much hands-on experience for students,” said Jammalamadaka. “The thing here is ASI hires the most students at Cal Poly Pomona, allowing for the furthering of students’ tool kits and their future is beneficial and it helps students give back. It’s a win-win for both.”
Smith shared that a task team is typically put together with the size and scope of this project, with student representation being a part of that.
In other business, ASI Officer of Sustainability and Transportation Guillermo Nila shared changes to the organization’s reserve policy regarding The Green Initiative Fund, or TGIF. TGIF is meant to financially support student club organizations working on sustainability-related projects or programs.
The changes were made for clarification to have the ASI finance committee receive the proposals and decide whether TGIF should be awarded to the club seeking the funding. Prior to the change, the Sustainability Committee oversaw approving proposals to determine if they were in agreement with TGIF’s mission statement.
“Anyone interested or they think they have a project can apply online,” said Nila. “Eventually I’ll see the application and determine if the project is sustainable or if there’s any help needed. I really want clubs to work with me so I can help them. It’s money from students and I would love to see it go a project worked on by students.”
Jammalamadaka also discussed the ASI Ad Hoc Committee’s Proposals. Ad hoc is a temporary committee brought forth by the ASI president to meet sustainability goals during the academic year.
According to the proposal’s preamble shown in the meeting, “The committee shall coordinate with the university and local, state, and federal resources to develop and implement projects that improve sustainability efforts.”
Jammalamadaka explained that ASI repurposed the committee to provide resources to achieve the action plans related to sustainability.
The next ASI Board of Directors Meeting will be held Oct. 26. Previous meeting agendas and minutes can be found on ASI’s website.
Feature image by Nicolas Hernandez