AS votes against CSSA dues

AS decides to no longer financially support group representing CSU students despite benefits available

By Rebecca Martin
The Collegian

Associated Students voted Thursday against continuing to pay dues to the California State Student Association for the next academic year, a student organization representing students in the CSU system.

Eight Senators voted against continuing the dues, six were in favor and one abstained.

AS Senators opposed to paying dues said there are better ways to help Fresno State. Michael Karbassi, one of two Fresno State student representatives to CSSA, said the organization receives money from both the Chancellor’s office and other CSU campuses.

AS President Jennifer Reimer, the Chair of CSSA and the second Fresno State CSSA representative is in favor of continuing to pay dues. She said CSSA helps Fresno State students on a broader level compared to other Fresno State groups.

Reimer said CSSA is also more influential, with 400,000 students in the CSU system.

“A voice that large is much more powerful. If the CSUs band together, they can get more accomplished,” Reimer said.

Karbassi said Fresno State students would receive the same benefits even without paying dues to CSSA.
“We’re still going. We’re still getting a lot of valuable information,” Karbassi said.

Without paying dues, Fresno State will still be able to attend CSSA meetings.

Reimer disagreed. She said the campus will not only loose CSSA voting rights, it will also lose various services CSSA provides.

Karbassi, a member of the AS Finance committee, said this year the AS budget has a surplus of $9,000, and paying the $12,000 dues would put the budget into a deficit of $3,000. Karbassi said this is the main reason he did not support continuing CSSA dues.

Reimer said these facts are misleading. She said the AS budget has been in a deficit during past years, but this has not affected AS negatively because student groups often decide not to receive AS money.

“For the past couple of years, AS budgeted with a deficit. Historically the groups don’t end up spending money. If you budget on a deficit, the money rolls over,” Reimer said.

Money in the form of student tuition was the reason AS Social Science Senator Simon Haeder voted against CSSA dues. He said while he supports CSSA, students should decide when money from student tuition should leave the campus.

Haeder said he wants to have students vote on a decision to pay dues by creating a referendum. He said he has requested to have a possible referendum discussed at the next AS meeting.

Business Senator Brent Hansen had another reason for voting against the CSSA dues.

“We’ve lost an executive this year due to her [Reimer] involvement with AS,” Hansen said.

This was not the only reason Hansen voted against CSSA dues. According to the AS budget, Fresno State did not pay dues to CSSA for the last two years previous to 2005-2006.

“For years we didn’t pay these dues because we realized that we didn’t need this,” AS Senator Brent Hansen said.

Reimer said she did not agree with Hansen.

“CSSA is currently beneficial to the CSU system. Past reasoning is not as important as current issues are,” Reimer said.

Executive Vice President Juan Pablo Moncayo said also he would like to see AS continue to support CSSA. He said while the AS Senate made some good points during their decision, CSSA benefits Fresno State students.

The campus did not take advantage of some of the services, he said.

Reimer had a different opinion.

“I think what happened was throughout the year, the Senate wasn’t shown what CSSA can accomplish,” Reimer said.

She said CSSA is currently working to improve the Cal Grant program, which will improve financial aid awards for students. The average CSU student is 24 years old, which is also the age students become ineligible for Cal Grants. Reimer said issues such as these are easier to address as an entire CSU system.

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