Features Editor

Associated Students Inc. voted on proposed bylaw changes and amendments at its March 3 meeting.

The largest change is the addition of a Judicial Affairs Council.

The council was first proposed to consist of five students: a chief justice and four justices.  The board members voted on an amendment to create a council of four students, one chief justice and three justices, to prevent tied votes.

There will be three one-year contracts and one two-year contract.

“The two year contract is to create a sense of eternal memory within that group. We want someone who’s going to instruct the new group,” said Alex Dominguez, ASI president.

“That way they hold at least one office hour a week,” said Dominguez.     

During its Friday meeting, ASI also discussed amendments to the proposed bylaw changes.

Only full-time students can apply for executive chair positions.

Graduate students who hold, or wish to hold, chair positions must be full-time students, as well.

The wording of Article IV Section 2a, which relates to the ASI president applying any exceptions to board members’ requirements, was changed from “certain circumstances” to “extraordinary circumstances”.

ASI decided to change this wording to minimize confusion for students who might not think they have “extraordinary” circumstances.

“So if you’re a senior and you see that it says 12 [units], yet you only have six, you might stay away from that,” said Dominguez.

Article 8 Section 1e is receiving a change to the responsibilities and duties of the Vice President of Programming.   

Since there will be a Director of Marketing, the duties and responsibilities ten and eleven will fall under that chair’s position instead.

Duty ten mandates that the officer publicizes all ASI-related services to CSU Bakersfield students, and duty eleven states that the officer will assist with publicizing all Campus Programming events and activities to students.   

Another of the amendments made was to Article 9 Section 1. The addition will be to Section 1d, affecting the amount of office hours the entire ASI board will hold.

It was proposed for every member of ASI to hold five, but they voted to change it to four.
The last bylaw vote changed the Greek Liaison and Student Athletic Advisory Committee Liaison to Director chairs positions.

The ASI board voted to eliminate all five of the positions proposed to be eliminated during the meeting of Feb. 17.   

These positions include Director of Corporate Structure, Director of Facilities and Commercial Services, Director of Campus Pride, Lower Division Director and Upper Division Director.

Michael Esquada was sworn in as the Director of Legislative Affairs.

The graduation ceremony’s time was changed from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The Council of Graduate Coordinator were concerned and discussed the possibility of changing the day and time to accommodate students.

Provost and Vice President. for Academic Affairs Jenny Zorn and her cabinet were asked to discuss the issue.

The best solution was to change the time.  

The time changes were for the benefit of graduate students who were unable to attend the ceremony at the original time, due to family and work schedules.

The CGC was also concerned  that the time would discourage community participation and hinder attendance.

Some of the ASI board members, including Dominguez, Executive Vice President Alana Lim and the newly-inducted Esquada, will be attending the monthly California State Student Association training from March 11 through March 13.