At Wednesday’s Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) meeting, the senate appointed Nellie Chobanyan to be the parking and transportation senator, and three campus organizations gave presentations. 

Diana Flores, the coordinator of the Dream Success Center, began the series of presentations. The premise of her speech was to spread awareness about what the center does for undocumented students.

“Our goal really is to be there for the students and ensure them that their goal of graduating from college becomes a reality,” Flores said. “We strive to be their allies from campus.”

Flores emphasized that, contrary to some beliefs, undocumented students can go to college and receive financial aid. She pointed to the California DREAM Act of 2011 that made this possible.

Through the California DREAM Act, the state provides eligible undocumented students funding and institutional scholarships, such as the Middle Class Scholarship, Cal Grants, State University Grants and University of California Grants. 

Flores also listed services that the Dream Success Center offers on campus, which include the following:

• College orientation and transition into Fresno State services.
• Academic advising and referrals.
• Guidance referrals for financial aid.
• Immigration legal services and briefings.
• Mentor programs/counseling.
• Success workshops.
• Internships.
• Undocu ally training.

ASI President Camalah Saleh asked Flores if the center offers volunteer opportunities for students. Flores said that they are always open to having volunteers, especially when they host events on campus.

After Flores concluded, Luis Macias and Cody Buckley spoke as student interns on behalf of the Students for Quality Education (SQE). They described themselves as the “student branch” for the California Faculty Association (CFA), with their goal being to represent student needs.

“A lot of what we do is built around community,” Macias said. “It’s meant to help the students. If you’re looking at something on campus, things like police, ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] … we are the people to come to.”

Buckley criticized the idea of spending money on police and security budgets, asserting that the community should know how to help one another.

“It’s our job to help each other, keep each other safe, instead of waiting for security or police,” Buckley said.

Buckley also said that SQE is working on backing Proposition 50 to “counter” what Texas is doing. 

Senator for the College of Arts and Humanities, Sarah Sevy, asked Buckley and Macias how they plan to maintain campus safety without proper law enforcement personnel.

“If not security and if not the police, then who is going to help protect our property, our persons and, you know, just general traffic safety around this campus?” Sevy said.

Macias said that SQE is working closely with the CFA to “find ways to incorporate their missions with student needs and resources.” 

Macias and Buckley concluded their presentation, and the senate moved on to action item 7.3, review of annual financials. Fresno State Auxiliary Accounting Manager David Estrada and Accounting Technician Barbara Dean took the floor.

They reported that there was no recommendation by their auditors to strengthen internal controls surrounding ASI’s budget and that ASI produced a surplus of $100,000, which is a roughly $50,000 decrease from last year.

Estrada and Dean went over other budgetary items like office rent, salary and advertising increases and telephone expenses. 

The senate moved unanimously to approve the annual finances after their speech. 

The last action item was to appoint a senator for traffic and parking transportation. Three candidates, Bella Binoy, Chobanyan and Gurleen Kaur were recommended for consideration, but only Chobanyan showed up.

Chobanyan spoke before the senate, discussing her prior experience on and off campus and ideas she has for the role. One, which caught the attention of a few senators, was to implement an app that shows real-time parking availability to students. 

She said that the logistics haven’t been completely sorted out, but she has a vision.

Other proposals include increasing shuttle services during peak times on campus and ensuring safety for students who travel via scooter.

The senate voted to appoint Chobanyan as senator, and she officially took her seat at the table.

After the meeting, Chobanyan spoke about community outreach with The Collegian.

“Talking one-on-one with students is a big thing, but besides that, social media is a great thing and I love to hear students’ opinions on how we could solve this problem and incorporate student voices into a solution,” Chobanyan said. 

Before concluding the meeting, the senators and executives reported on projects that they’re working on.

Executive Vice President Maris Prado said that she put out a survey through Bulldog Voices, an outlet for students to communicate their concerns with ASI, and found that the main problem students are facing is parking availability. 

Sevy also surveyed students about their feelings regarding the school’s artificial intelligence integration, and she found that the university’s collaboration with OpenAI is not working well. 

Vice President of Finance Dayanara Guzman said she is working on restoring the emergency call stations around campus and implementing more security cameras. 

Finally, Operations Manager Frederick Lisitsa gave his remarks to the new cohort.

“You guys are doing a great job,” Lisitsa said. “Work together; you would be surprised how much more work you can do working with someone else.”

Then the meeting adjourned, and the members began dispersing.

ASI meets every other Wednesday in the Resnick Student Union Room 207 from 4-6 p.m. Meetings are livestreamed and open to the public.