They didn’t represent me,” said senior Chicano/a Studies major Selene Salas during the open forum at the Associated Students Senate meeting on Tuesday.
Salas was one of more than 20 students speaking at the open forum in response to the senate’s decision to reject the resolution to support the Dream Act last Thursday.
“They were not informed,” Salas said of the senate. “I came here today to let them know who they are representing.” Salas was on the A.S. Senate for four years.
“I can barely afford it now,” Salas said of her tuition. “I can’t get financial aid.” Salas is in her last semester at CSUN, taking 21 units with 3 jobs.
“I will not come back here for my master’s,” Salas said. “I will go to a school that will represent me.”
“There is a lot more than immigration going on,” Sergio Belloso said to the senate. “We want to reach our goals. We want support from the university and our peers.”
“How do you guys sleep?” Chicano/a Studies senior Jorge Valles said. “I know you guys are laughing.”
“I expect you guys to support us,” Valles said. “You guys should be informed by now.”
“I came here so the senate could really understand the dynamics of my aggression,” Central American Studies professor Douglas Carranza said. Carranza came to America 26 years ago.
“I worked really, really hard to get where I am,” Carranza said. “We came here, not because we wanted to, but as a result of what was going on in our country.”
“Just because I have a Ph.D. now I won’t forget the hard years I had,” Carranza said.
“The lack of political awareness allowed them [the A.S. Senate] to vote that way,” Carranza said. “They cannot afford that lack of interest because they were elected to deal with issues like this.”
Carranza said that some of the senators should reconsider applying for positions if they can’t take the job seriously. She said that some were “laughing at suffering.”.
“It is extremely unfair to tag the senate as unintelligent,” Sen. Amanda Lynch said. “Take into consideration the senator’s view. We put a lot of work on it.”
“We didn’t assume you were ignorant, we heard it,” freshman sociology major Laura Robledo said. “It was a slap in the face.”
“It doesn’t seem fair,” Robledo said. “You’re not in our shoes, but try to understand us.”
“You took a vote on something you were not fully informed about,” senior pre-med student Laura Leon said.
“Don’t dismiss someone’s views because they don’t align with yours,” Sen. Byron Baba said at the open forum. “There’s two sides to every story.”
“I encourage you to take this seriously because it has been mentioned several times,” faculty advisor Vera Ward said citing the DREAM Act discussions and votes the past week.
Ward also told senators to “respond sensitively” to those that opposed their decision, to not approve the resolution to support the DREAM Act.
Students from the CSUN Young Democrats also came to speak at the open forum about Africa Week and issues going on in Darfur.
“Recent events over the last two weeks have made it much more serious,” said Stephanie Stricklin, senior political science major.
“One of the Darfur rebel groups bombed an African Union Peace-Keepers Base. It cannot be just put aside,” Stricklin added of the topic of Darfur.
On Monday, the CSUN Young Democrats, along with sponsor Stop Genocide Now, will set up five tents for the genocides in the Sierra Quad. This event, which is promoting Africa Week, will start at 10 a.m. and will continue throughout the day. This will be the first event for the CSUN group.
They hope this event will “fully portray what is happening,” Stricklin said.
A.S. voted to allocate $4,606 from the Capitol Improvement and Replacement Reserves to the CSUN Spirit squad for buying new practice mats. They are in need of new mats because A.S. destroyed the old mats.
“If we broke it, we should replace it,” Lynch said. “A.S. cut mats thinking it would help them, but it actually destroyed them.”
Applications for senators are due this afternoon for interested students. There’s a $40 individual fee to apply.
A lot of the people are appointed, instead of elected, Baba said.
“We are hoping to get more people to apply,” Baba said.
Students can still sign up for the AIDS Walk on Sunday with the CSUN team. So far, $5,800 has been raised.
The first 300 students to arrive on Sunday will receive a bandana that shows “Team CSUN” on it.
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