Sports Editor

For the second consecutive year, Associated Students Inc. decided to fund Japan and Beyond’s Matsuri Festival at ASI’s weekly board meeting on April 17.
However, this time around ASI approved this event for $3,000, which is an increase from the $1,460 they received last year.
President of Japan and Beyond Stephanie Villacorta said during her presentation to ASI that the extra money will be for preparations and to bring in more authentic Japanese food.
“It was really important because so much of our funding is coming from ASI, and our club has only so much funding,” Villacorta said. “It really was that important to get this funding because it makes it easier to get the things we want, to get more entertainment to benefit the students and to get more students to be involved with this event.”
The Matsuri Festival will be in the Student Recreation Center on May 22 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
“The purpose of this is to enrich more students about Japanese culture and get them more together. We want to get students to know more than the American culture so it’s just a great benefit for all,” she said.
Villacorta added that they want to focus on getting more CSUB students to attend the event. According to her, of the 206 attendees from last year only half of them were CSUB students, so they want to see an increase in that this year.
Some of the activities and entertainment that will be available at this year’s festival include: sumo, face painting, cosplay, auctions, fortune telling, origami, video games and taiko drummers.
Other clubs such as Campus Gamers and the Judo Club will be helping with the event.
ASI also addressed some of the campus issues, including the issue of lack of study rooms in the library.
Director of Community Affairs Oscar Alvarez brought up the issue in the meeting and said afterwards that students have felt that there aren’t enough study rooms or that some of them are always locked.
“One complaint that I have heard is that we have study rooms in the fourth floor that are always locked for some reason,” Alvarez said. “We have brought it up to the board and there are some procedures in place that we are taking in order to discuss further action on that.”
Alvarez said that some of the procedures they have in place is to talk to someone in the library or whoever may be in charge of the study rooms to get answers as to why those rooms are locked.
“I’ve heard that it is done so for the grad students but at the same time, how do our students know that they are being used or specifically being used for grad students,” he said. “I haven’t seen a sign that suggests so. [Therefore], I want to look into that.”
ASI meets every Friday at 3:15 p.m. in room 155B of the Business Development Center.