Associated Students Incorporated (ASI) approved a presidential special election process, if necessary, alongside $158,865 in budget calls during the March 30 senate meeting.
Election Commissioner Alex Walker had presented a proposed timeline for a special election, created as a contingency plan as a result of the disqualification of ASI presidential candidate Edward Thurber.
If Thurber chooses to appeal his disqualification, and Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Carolyn Coon denies the student court rulings in favor of Thurber’s appeal, then the special election would conclude and the current ballots already cast for the 2022-2023 ASI presidential election would be announced.
Up until now, the ballots cast for the ASI election have been kept private until the Thurber disqualification case is resolved.
The special election was proposed as a means to prevent the upcoming ASI senate cohort from entering the 2022-2023 academic school year without a sitting president, which has happened in past years.
Walker noted that, should the special election not take place, ASI would potentially not seat a president well into the next semester, potentially leading to confusion as the executive vice president would serve as interim president.
The special election process, if necessary, would begin this week with petitions available electronically on the ASI website as well as physical petitions available in University Student Union (USU), Room 317.
The voting would begin on May 3 at 9 a.m and conclude on May 5 at noon, with the ballots tallied and election results announced at 1:15 p.m. by the election commissioner.
If the special election is needed, anyone would be able to run for ASI president, as opposed to only the current candidates D’Aungillique Jackson and Aidan Garaygordobil, according to Walker
He later clarified that Thurber would be unable to participate in the special election should Coon uphold the student court’s decision to disqualify.
Following the presentation, the ASI senate voted in favor of the proposal, setting in motion the ASI Special Presidential election for the 2022-2023 school year.
The senate then transitioned to approving various budget calls submitted by clubs and organizations across the campus.
The finance committee submits recommendations to the ASI senate for funding of various requests, with a strong emphasis on supporting new services and programs.
The ASI finance committee presented 11 budget calls with a recommended allocation total of $127,932 of a requested total amount of $330,000.
Anou Vang, vice president of finance, acknowledged that ASI had sufficient funds to approve all of the budget calls in full should they choose to, but recommended that they did not, as it would greatly strain the reserve pool.
Vang later clarified that going beyond the finance committee recommendation would mean that future budget calls and proposed project funding would be affected, estimating that it would take a couple of years before ASI could return to normal reserve levels.
“I would advise not to do that because this is being pulled from our reserves, and if we do this, if the Senate decides to approve every budget call item in full, this will be a one-time thing and then it’s going to take us a couple of years to kind of replenish that,” Vang said.
James D. Martinez, ASI director of operations, further clarified that the senate, due to policies passed following the 2008 recession, needs to have a minimum of $200,000 in its reserves.
The ASI senate would go on to approve all budget calls to a varying degree of funding going beyond the finance committee’s recommended amount, totalling $158,865.
The ASI Senate approved $20,000 for the expansion of the Fresno State DXI group to expand its ongoing Bulldog Genie app to support students beyond their first year at Fresno State, for which the app was originally designed.
The Cross-Cultural and Gender Center received a total of $14,500 to support the funding of a new graduate coordinator, diversity awareness week and the Social Justice Art Exhibit.
The Maddy Institute received a total of $16,625 to fund the legislative inter scholar program, The Maddy Report and El Informe.
The ASI senate allocated a total of $55,000 to student involvement to support both homecoming ($30,000) and Vintage Days.
Program coordinator Shawna Blair said she was happy that ASI allocated an additional $15,000 beyond the recommended amount, as the extra money would be put toward funding events across campus to help instill a sense of community.
“So many students just go to class and then they happen to be walking by one of our events and it pulls them in, and so that’s what we want to do. We want to give them something that keeps them here and makes them excited to be a Bulldog,” Blair said.
Project Rebound, a program that supports recently incarcerated inmates seeking higher education, received $10,240 to hire additional student assistance to spread awareness of the program and to accommodate for the increase in student population.
The Student Recreation Center (SRC) received $30,000 to replace the current fleet of exercise bikes within the SRC, which remained in operation since 2007. The budget call is expected to fund the SRC bike program and services for approximately 15 years.
The Alumni Association was approved for $12,500 in the creation of a statue dedicated to past university mascots, which is planned to be placed in front of the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Student Union.
The ASI Senate approved $30,933 more in budget calls compared with the recommended amount proposed by the finance committee.