CSUN’s Associated Students (AS) saw a strong effort for the presidency seat in the University Student Union’s (USU) Northridge Center on March 24. Three podiums were accompanied by the three political slates: Students First, Matadors United and Heart of the Matadors.

Students First

In their opening statements, Students First’s presidential candidate Michael Cadillac and vice presidential candidate Sofia Escorcia stated they intend to run a campaign that prioritizes actions that involve students. Their plans include tackling financial inclusion, student parking and, overall, prioritizing CSUN students.

Cadillac reiterated that he wanted to prioritize solutions, actions, financial equity and inclusion for all students. He said his campaign has been doing the groundwork since before running, saying he has routinely spoken with students in an effort to find out what they need to succeed on campus.

One of those needs, Cadillac stated, would be his willingness to serve as a parking czar to advocate for repainting parking lot lines.

Cadillac also pointed out the failures of the Matador patrol app, CSUN SAFE, and that awareness of safety can only go so far; thus, a focus on student behavior is needed to understand what the students want. He also suggested extending the University Library hours to promote student safety.

“It isn’t tangible to implement a system that’s already broken and force people to eat it and shove it down their throat,” Cadillac said.

In answering the question of how they see the role of the vice presidency contributing meaningful change within student government, Escorcia stated that she brings an outside perspective because she was not involved in AS until Cadillac encouraged her to join his slate. Escorcia said she thinks people in AS need to go outside and socialize with students to increase outreach. Escorcia noted that while on campus, she was never approached by an AS official and flyers were never handed out for the debate, hence why the debate likely had low attendance.

In addition to poor communication, Escorcia mentioned that the chair of communication needs to be managed better. She described the response time as very slow, stating that the chair of recruitment outreach has not reached out to the parking department.

Current Chair of Outreach and Recruitment, Sheen Gupta, responded by saying that it is not part of her role or something they do, adding that if Matadors United were elected, they would work on this issue.

Matadors United

Gupta is running for vice president alongside presidential candidate Hermoni Douglas, who currently serves as AS Chair of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), in their campaign, Matadors United. They stated they would like to improve campus safety, mental health services and expand on transfer and graduate integration.

Douglas, whose priority would be to increase diversity and inclusion in student leadership, highlighted the CSU’s career expansion goal, stating that this is the direction CSUs are heading, and they want to make sure CSUN stays up to date with it.

Gupta went on to highlight her accomplishment as one of the few who were elected into a leadership position from the moment she entered campus.

And according to Gupta, after attaining her role in AS, she has conducted over 60 interviews, making diverse choices within the community and adding students to the CSUN senate. Gupta also claimed that she knows CSUN and she knows AS, making her confident that she can assure a connection between communities.

Heart of the Matadors

The final group, Heart of the Matadors, is being run by current AS Vice President Álvaro Geminiano Aragón, who is running for president, alongside current Senator for Humanities Kimberly Basilio as vice president candidate. Aragón said their campaign is rooted in strengthening students’ success and DEI across campus, while increasing AS accessibility.

Aragón said the first action in his term would be to prioritize student feedback to AS and to request transparency from the student administrators. He argued that, given the political climate, students’ voices need to be fierce and not shy away from issues they are facing. Aragón identifies as a Mexican and an international student, but said he carries more voices within himself.

Aragón stressed that the AS budget is the slate’s main concern and, due to CSUN’s administration, cuts are a strong possibility. He also stated that there would be a focus on how high the administration president’s compensation is, while students struggle every day to pay the rent.

“We’ve done a lot, and I think I want to see that kind of accountability spread across the board,” Basilio said.

Voting is scheduled to occur on Tuesday, April 7, starting at 8 a.m. and closing on Thursday, April 9, at 6 p.m. Students can find Campus Voting Information Stations at the campus store, Cleary Walk, Library Lawn and Plaza del Sol in the USU, which are open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The election results reveal event is scheduled for April 9 at 6:30 p.m. in the USU’s Grand Salon.

Lobbying in Sacramento

During spring break, on March 20, AS went to the annual California Higher Education Student Summit (CHESS) hosted by the California State Student Association (CSSA) in Sacramento.

CSSA represents all 22 Cal State campuses in addition to Cal State Maritime and is led by student leaders, who are usually the leaders of their student body that includes the president, the vice president and the body’s external affairs officer or chair of associate affairs.

AS Chair of Legislative Affairs Cesar Rosales said that a big part of this summit is the CHESS conference, in which students from all CSUs get together and organize a massive lobbying day.

“Each campus gets a group of representatives to meet and lobby issues facing the Cal States and advocate for bills that the CSSA supports directly to legislators,” Rosales said. “We have two co-sponsored bills and five supported bills.”

From these seven bills, there are three that current AS President Keiry Saravia says CSUN students should be aware of.

Senate Bill 323

Saravia said that Senate Bill 323 would open up the California Dream Act to all California residents. Students who are California residents whose parents have green cards or who are U.S. citizens – who don’t face the challenges of being undocumented or being from mixed-status families – still feel unsafe applying for FAFSA.

This bill, Saravia said, would specifically open up the California Dream Act to all California residents, even if they are third-generation citizens. If the student is low-income, they would be able to apply for state aid.

Last year, the CSAC helped introduce a bill that opened up the Dream Act application to students from mixed-status families to help them receive more aid.

Assembly Bill 2251

Assembly Bill 2251 would affect the cost of attendance for a CSU, UC or community college, a cost that can look different for every student. She said even when students get jobs, it can affect their financial aid little by little.

Saravia also mentioned no student can truly calculate their cost of attendance, so the bill would help address that issue, allowing students to know how much it would cost to dorm, commute or live off campus.

Rosales stressed that although a lot of the issues students face cannot be directly fixed by institutions like CSUN, they can be advocated for through legislation to solve those issues.

“It’s so important to go to these offices and talk to these people because bills like these are the ones that really affect students directly,” he said.

Senate Bill 961

Saravia pointed out that Senate Bill 961 would help increase eligibility for students who could qualify for CalFresh.

“This bill is meant to equip all of the CSUs, some UCs and community colleges to do better outreach to students so that they know that they’re eligible for Cal Fresh,” Saravia said.

The bill would allow data sharing between CSAC and Cal Fresh, where they would be able to identify who would be eligible for Cal Fresh.

The Valera Nest, Saravia said, has an office specifically for Cal Fresh. Once the bill is passed, it would support that office to support more students.

Saravia mentioned the bill needs to be approved by both the assembly and the senate, and later signed by Governor Gavin Newsom before it can go into effect. She emphasized that in the next lobbying effort, which is said to be AS’s proposed Joint Lobbying Day, Senate Bill 961 is going to be relevant to CSUN students, especially those who are homeless, foster youth and commuters who just need food.

“You can’t expect a student to thrive at a campus when they’re going hungry,” she said.

When asked how AS would ensure these bills will pass for CSUN students, Rosales said that all they can do is keep fighting.

“We encourage students to go out there and email, letter, drop into your legislator’s office, call them, leave a message, talk to a staffer,” Rosales said. “Legislators understand that students are an important group in all their districts, even ones like here in this region, which are typically older individuals; they still understand what students matter.”