Students, faculty and staff may be seeing a shorter fall break after Associated Students, Inc. discussed shortening the weeklong hiatus during their meeting on Wednesday.
ASI President Marvin Flores brought the subject to the floor.
The problem arose when Flores received a calendar of next term, which showed only 13 instructional Mondays available for the semester. According to Flores, there is a law that mandates the university provides at least 15 instructional Mondays.
“We are trying to figure out whether or not we should have the whole week off for fall break,” Flores said. “But this would leave us with a shortage of instructional days, and we would have to find another Monday to add.”
Part of the shortage of instructional Mondays is due to fall term including both Labor Day and Veteran’s Day, two holidays that fall on the first work day of the week.
Flores suggested an alternative that would allow classes to continue on the Monday and Tuesday of the week of fall break. Both days would switch schedules. When Flores suggested this to the Senate, the senators and the spectators immediately began murmuring while sporting looks of confusion. A majority voice in the room voiced support for a full break.
Flores said he’ll give an update on the matter at next week’s ASI meeting.
During public comments, former Secretary of System Wide Affairs and presidential candidate Dale Lendrum spoke of student leaders “hijacking the [presidential] campaign” after claiming rumors about him being misogynistic circulated in ASI.
Lendrum said his campaign team subsequently abandoned him in favor of “improv[ing] their chances of getting elected.”
He also claims that ASI Vice President Logan Vournas undermined his former position of Sec. of SWA and helped “Moving Forward Together” – president-elect Daniel Gomez, vice president-elect Joe Nino and treasurer-elect Jonathan Wanless — win the campaign.
Lendrum said he did well in lighting a fire under the California State Student Association, after the organization received backlash for charging students of the $2 Student Involvement Representation Fee.
He claims that CSSA is “more transparent, equitable, student-focused and courageous enough to make bold decisions,” and such efforts should be “celebrated, not undermined.”
“Vournas went above and beyond ethical boundaries of offering campaign and election advice to MFT to ensure them victory,” Lendrum said. “My name was smeared, my work and position was undermined for personal and political purposes.”
Senator-at-large Yasmeen Azam came to the defense of Vournas.
“Sometimes you’ll have people come in and… make allegations that are inaccurate,” Azam said referring to Dale Lendrum’s comments.
“It’s not selfish to challenge structures that may not be putting student interests [first],” Azam continued, poking at CSSA’s policies. “We [the ASI Senate] put work before ourselves and our egos.”
ASI also passed resolutions that would establish Jewish and Muslim Ally training and a resolution that would make the University Student Union and the Student Recreation and Wellness Center safe spaces for undocumented students for their final readings.
Senator Azam has never taken the time to request to meet with me about my allegations. She has never met with me to discuss my allegations. She has never asked to see any of the physical evidence that I have to back my allegations, nor has she inquired in, or requested to, speak to any of the witnesses that I have to support my allegations. Simply put, Senator Azam is negligent in her assessment that my allegations are inaccurate because she has made ZERO effort to investigate both sides of the issue/story. Lastly, I believe Senator Azam’s comments are an example of “shaming the victim” and part of a “circle the wagons mentality” that seeks to deflect from the seriousness of the issues at hand.