A resolution to the removal of the flag raising policy at California State University, Bakersfield was drafted and completed to be sent off to the President’s Cabinet.  

Multiple students used the Associated Student’s Inc. weekly board meeting on April 28 to make public comments to reiterate their concerns for the endangered species of kit foxes at CSUB, citing the listening session, Change.org petition and calls for communication that students feel have been ignored. 

Megan McCullough Boozer, a senior natural science major, cites that CSU Stanislaus is ranked as number two for their conservation efforts due to their work with the endangered species on CSUB’s campus. 

“CSUB should be, and could be, the university to come to in regards to conservation. But instead, because of our refusal of our administration to engage in conversations and take actions to obey the law and protect our endangered species on campus, they’re not,” said Boozer.  

Alexandra Brown, a biology graduate student, and José García, a senior biology student, both reference the multiple violations of the Endangered Species Act on CSUB’s campus, urging President Zelezny and the administration to hear student voices and to support them in their advocacy. 

“As disheartening as it is, it seems as if the listening session on April 13 had absolutely no effect, where the concerns of students were absolutely disregarded, which really questions the validity of how much student voices matter,” said García.  

The ASI Judicial Council proposed an amendment to the ASI bylaws by adding an official grievance procedure that will allow for the JC to take in and process grievances, as there was no process for doing that before. 

Following last week’s explanation of the removal of the flag raising policy and the flag committee at CSUB, ASI drafted a resolution to urge the President’s Cabinet to consider student flag requests, titled SB 204.  

There was a chance for ASI members to make suggestions and edit the document for things that they wanted to see or add to the document before they voted on it to send it off to the cabinet. 

Jacob Roper, director of NSME, proposed the idea of adding a flag committee as a part of the resolution, taking the complete decision from the cabinet, and giving some of the power back to the students to approve requests.  

However, Ignasio Castillo, vice president of university affairs, cited that the Supreme Court case Shurtleff v. Boston, which was the decision that prompted CSUB to remove the flag policy, says that the ultimate power belongs to the President’s Cabinet to decide due to legality.  

There was an amendment to the document, adding for a broader time frame of allowing the flags to be flown on campus for a minimum of seven days.  

The ASI board voted to approve the resolution and their initial petition will be sent to the cabinet. 

For more information, contact Ilaria Pesco at [email protected].