Union Weekly - California State University, Long Beach

FOR THOSE ABOUT TO REC

REC CENTER OPENING FIRST DAY OF CLASSES, AUGUST 30TH
By Noah Kelly, Campus Page Editor

    August 30th marks the day when the trudging masses of glum super seniors, confused freshmen and almost-jaded juniors will be returning for the Fall semester. The 30th also marks the opening of a brand new recreation center that will provide students with a full access gym from 6am to midnight everyday. Tuition has increased, yes, but holy shit, this is one nice ass gym.
In a previous venture into the gutted structure of the building in April (Issue 66.09), the construction was running completely on schedule. Stopping by now is a completely different experience. Just from the outside the gym looks clean, crisp, modern and new. With a wide-open front area complete with nice looking grass, trees, benches and windows, the gym looks inviting and like place to hang out. The inside shows a gorgeous modern-looking chandelier light system, the CSULB seal and what is becoming the new trend of gym entry: hand sensors and pin codes.
     The process of scanning your hand is ridiculously quick and easy. In USU 201, there is an office where you sign a waiver of consent, place your hand in a little machine that measures the distance between your fingers and other points on your hand three times, and that’s it. You’re in the system. So far, only somewhere around 8,000-9,000 students have actually registered their hand scan and ID number. The idea behind scanning your hand now is to be able to avoid the rush when Fall semester starts, and with its ease and efficiency there’s almost no reason to not do it while you rub the grease off your fingers from that Carl’s Jr. burger.
     So what’s so awesome about this gym, besides hand scans? The lockers themselves are going to be governed by an internal locking system. No more bringing your own lock to the gym. Instead, on each locker (there are three different sizes for your needs, a wallet- sized, medium boxed size, and large lockers) is a small panel for a pin code that you yourself set. Hit a button, punch in any random four numbers, hit the lock button, and your locker is locked. When you go to punch your code back in to open it the locker resets and is ready for use for the next person. The gym also boasts a cardio theater, a 1/8 mile open jogging track, a rock wall, racquetball courts (which can literally be made smaller to accommodate squash), several fitness rooms for different classes, workspace for intramural teams to design flyers, and a lot more.
On the inside, the gym looks clean, inviting and pleasant to be in. There is an abundance of natural light, soothing colors and comfortable environment. The gym might certainly supplant the USU for the place that girls are most often and uninvitedly hit upon (excluding the Union office). Expect the first month or so to be packed to the teeth with students with resolutions, but once they realize that exercising and losing weight is actually hard work, the gym population will probably normalize to the point that you can reasonably schedule times on the courts or a workout plan without the wait. There is absolutely no reason not to check out the rec center (it’s in your tuition already), and there appears to be absolutely no reason why you’d want to leave it either.

ASI: Awesome Secretive Information
By James Ahumada, ASI President

   Many ask what CSULB Student Government has done over this past year when it comes to statewide student advocacy. Recently, the big question has been “how did this 5% fee increase happen” and, “what does it go towards.” Let me answer these questions first.
     First to understand what has happened we need to see where we’ve been. The California State University (CSU) System budget has consecutively been cut for many years now. The reason for this is because unlike the UC system, we do not have a guaranteed amount of money to receive from the state budget each year. For example let’s think of the UC and CSU as two employees in a work place. Imagine the UC as the employee with a guaranteed contract who every year, generally no matter the circumstance, will receive the same annual paycheck. The CSU on the other hand, would be the employee who works some years as part-time and other years as full-time. The CSU has their employment purely defined by how well management is doing their job. In our case, our management (aka the California State Legislature) has done a poor job, and thus the cuts in education get heavily passed to us.
    This 5% fee increase is a result of that, but it also is hopefully a victory from an advocacy prospective. Before this 5% increase was passed, the CSU Board of Trustees was recommended to implement a 10% increase. After much coordination with Student Leadership, the State Assembly, and CSU Trustee members the decision was reached that a 5% cut would put enough pressure on the legislature to find solutions rather than simply do as expected with a 10% fee increase.
    This is, however risky, if we do not play our cards right and the Governor’s proposed $350 million dollar restoration funding does not come through, our Trustees face making the increase a full 10%. The ASI at CSULB is leading the effort along with the new President of the California State Student Association (CSSA) coming from our campus, 2009-2010 ASI President Chris Chavez. Each ASI president from the CSU sits as a CSSA Board of Director member; our aim is to bring a solidified effort for students and higher education interests.
    Here at The Beach my team and I have created a Lobby Corp. that will be making visits to our local state representatives’ offices, putting pressure on restoring proper funding to the CSU as a whole. We look forward to the coming year of service and advocacy. It’s a complicated time, I admit, but with perseverance, knowledge and commitment we hope to make the voice of students of Long Beach State the loudest!