TRANSCRIPT:
Melisa M: Hello, Runner welcome to this new podcast episode by “The Runner on air”. My name is Melisa Magaña and on today’s episode, I spoke to the president, vice president, and public relations officer of the new club here at CSUB called Latinos Unidos Por Educasión. In this episode we discussed several different aspects of the club including its mission and what they will be doing to keep the community united, here is what they said:
Victor G: My name is Victor Gutierrez Hernandez and my major is communications. And my role in the club is the president.
Elizabeth A: My name is Elizabeth I am majoring in sociology with a minor in psychology and I am the vice president of the club.
Anjelica B: Hi my name is Angel, well Anjelica Banks-Abbott. My major is liberal studies with a concentration in special education and I am minoring in psychology as well. And I am the public relations officer.
Melisa M: What is the mission of the club Latinos Unidos por Educasión?
Elizabeth A: The mission for L.U.P.E is to a empowering and safe space for Latino students here on campus, regardless of their immigration status, and it’s for… essentially it’s for to helping students with professional development, academic success, and also just to have fun.
Melisa M: How did you guys decide to begin the club? What motivated you guys to begin it?
Victor G: So, most of us are from Bakersfield College so they have the club already, so it’s been running for a while. I just transferred here and I didn’t know about like a Latino club and I’ve heard about other clubs but they didn’t work anymore, so Elizabeth she came with the idea of bringing L.U.P.E to CSUB, since most of the members at BC are transferring here, so we want to you know have a safe spot for them and engage with the community, and have fun how she said.
Melisa M: So it’s basically to engage with the community that transferred from BC?
Elizabeth A: Yes, essentially creating a gap, I mean a bridge to help them just transfer here a little bit more smoothly.
Melisa M: Are all of you guys BC student transfers?
Elizabeth A: Yes, all three of us.
Melisa M: What are some of the things that you guys plan on doing to help the community stay together, like unite them?
Anjelica B: So we really want to focus on attending events, letting our club members know about the different events that are going on in the community, and then still bridging that gap by connecting with the BC L.U.P.E club. So we want to make sure that we are still keeping those connections strong and making sure that they see us out in the community having our own events, having different speakers coming to our meetings to get more information and hopefully, we will actually be able to have funds to due bigger events so we can keep our students informed.
Melisa M: And what are some of the speakers that you guys plan on bringing into like the meetings or events that you guys will host?
Elizabeth A: So we plan on bringing a speaker from UFW to present about rights that we should know in case anybody encounters immigration officers, and that should help students who maybe are undocumented or may come from a family that have mixed-status family and therefore they will be able to feel more comfortable and confident if a case they do encounter somebody like that.
Melisa M: What sets you guys apart from other clubs in CSUB?
Elizabeth A: I think that the main thing is that we are also including specifically undocumented students, and that’s not to say that other clubs haven’t, but we are putting emphasis on that because being undocumented, as like for me being a dreamer is a huge part of my identity and I can’t do anything without that part of my identity being acknowledged. So, I do think that the fact that we are emphasizing that we are here for dreamers as well puts us apart from other clubs.
Melisa M: Is your main target only like students or also like the faculty?
Victor G: We are looking to involve everyone at school including staff, students, and outsiders too, and right now we are working on making a connection with a church that is willing to support CSUB and also promote job opportunities no matter the DACA status.
Melisa M: And you guys already said it that you guys plan on bringing speakers and like other things, but some of the other activities that you guys plan on elaborating to maintain a connection with the community on campus?
Victor G: Right now the closest event that we have in mind is El Dia de Muertos, we are planning to promote this event with everyone, actually I’m planning, we are all planning to set this place to have everybody welcome to see how we work on the altar de Muertos and you know promote the culture.
Melisa M: And will you guys be the only ones working on it or are you guys going to have students on campus help you guys to get the experience of what is it like going the altares?
Victor G: For those days we are expecting to do a workshop, you know like calaveritas, and see if anyone is willing to bring some of the photos of the family members they are welcome to do it.
Elizabeth A: all students or members and faculty, so everyone can be inclusive in this event.
Anjelica B: Basically anyone on campus, we don’t really like really exclude people, its just more to emphasize and kind of bring everyone together.
Melisa M: I do know that it begins on a certain day and ends on a certain day, do you guys plan on doing it between those days or maybe starting ahead of it?
Elizabeth A: That is something that we are yet to discuss, but more likely because El Dia de Los Muertos does start November 1st more likely we will have it start that day and once we have our plans more settled we will share it within our social media platforms.
Melisa M: What do you guys think about the tuition increase, do you guys think that the enrollment in CSUB will decline, like not only Hispanic students but students in general?
Anjelica B: I feel like it will definitely decline, but on the other hand we do have a lot of students especially those looking to transfer, like even with the increase because it’s across all CSUs will still technically be the cheapest one. So I feel like people are going to be weighing the odds and mostly probably thinking like about the personal decision if they want to stay you know closer to home or do they want to go to a place that might be cheaper when they are thinking about that. So we’ll still technically be the cheapest but I can see like rates of students actually going to CSUs or maybe pursuing college I can see them like putting it off at least, so yeah I definitely expect a decline.
Elizabeth A: Yeah, I do think that the financial aspect of attending college is a huge part of people’s decisions as to like what college they can go to, that was my main concern when I was transferring, will I be able to afford financial aid, with financial aid? I mean, sorry, would I be able to afford college, the college tuition with my financial aid and thankfully I have so far. But with the new tuition increase that is something that is more unpredictable now given that we don’t really know if financial aid will be affected, to be increased or decreased.
Victor G: Regarding the tuition, we also have all the problem that is the FAFSA situation, that it’s also going to increase the amount of money we will be getting, and since we might have somebody in the family who wants to start college too they might not get the discount, so I hope it will not affect all of us, but I believe that it’s going to affect at least our community.
Melisa M: What is something that you guys will tell the people to motivate them to join the club?
Victor G: Before I started college at BC is used to be a very shy person, I didn’t like to get involved in anything. So one day I got an email from L.U.P.E at BC and they actually were very nice to me and I liked it. So I started showing up and they helped me to you know come out of my shell and now I am here.
Elizabeth A: I would tell people that are interested in joining the club that when I joined L.U.P.E at BC it helped me gain some job opportunities that I didn’t have before, given that I am an undocumented dreamer, I have a very difficult time finding job opportunities that didn’t require go to the fields and ever since joining they provide resources that helped me with an internship opportunity and that has helped me develop my resume and there for that is one of the main reasons why we decided to create L.U.P.E here at CSUB so we can provide those resources and opportunities to students especially the dreamers and hopefully by that they are able to graduate with experience and hopefully with that experience they also gain connections that will also help them in the future.
Anjelica B: I would say primarily just kind of letting them know that it’s a safe space for them. That we can connect them to different resources, maybe information that they might not have known before. Just kind of keeping them connected, keeping them informed, and letting them know it’s a space for them to be themselves and not have so much, maybe like less to worry about because there are people in here of their community. I might not be undocumented or anything like that myself, I am here as an ally, so I am here in general to help provide support
Elizabeth A: you are document-Allie.
Melisa M: That is so cute. If you guys want to probably share your social media so people can find you, so if they have any questions they can contact you guys. Or do you guys have an email by any chance?
Anjelica B: we do its [email protected]
Elizabeth A: And our Instagram its @csub.lupe
Melisa M: That is pretty much it, thank you, guys, for agreeing to do the interview with me I really appreciate it.
Anjelica B: Thank you for reaching out actually it was a very nice opportunity to get the word out.
Melisa M: Thank you, Thank you! Thank you for listening to this podcast episode by The Runner on air, I hope you enjoyed. Make sure to check out our Instagram @therunner_csub and also make sure to check out our recent stores at therunneronline.com. Have a great day, and I’ll see you in the next episode.
Music Credits
Written By:
Dean Palya
Performed By:
PALA
Produced By:
PALA