The California State Student Association will try to fill a vacant student representative position on the CSU Board of Trustees following the late summer rejection of the previous two nominees by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

New applications are due Oct. 12 to the CSSA office in Long Beach. The CSSA will review all applications at its next conference at Humboldt State University from Oct. 14-16, according to Peter Gallego, Associated Students director of legislative affairs at CSUN and deputy speaker of the CSSA caucus.

Applications can be found on the CSSA website. Qualifications and requirements are also posted so that applicants are aware of what is expected, Gallego said.

After the initial review board looks at submitted applications, student body presidents from all 23 CSU campuses will review the applicants at the Nov. 4 CSSA conference.

“We’ll be nominating at least two of the applicants in the November conference,” said Mona Mohammed, CSSA president. “We’ll then forward those two (applications) to the governor’s office, and let them know that we have nominees selected. From there, it’s all left to the governor’s decision as to who will be chosen.”

Schwarzenegger will again have final review on the nominees, and will set up an interview with candidates at his office.

If a nominee is picked, an appointment with the governor will be held in January 2006, Gallego said. After the process is completed, the internal review board will search for the second nominee, who will take office on July 1, 2006, Gallego said.

The last two nominees, Gabriela Orantes from CSU Monterey Bay and Jason Spencer from Sonoma State, were sent to the governor’s office this summer. Both were rejected.

“We haven’t heard anything from the governor about the last two nominees,” Mohammed said. “We’re going to send a letter to the governor’s office and ask why they were rejected. But as of right now, we don’t have any idea as to why they were rejected.”

Reasons for the rejections were not disclosed by the governor’s office.

“There were no documents or written reasons for the governor rejecting the last two nominees,” Gallego said. “We’re waiting for further information, and are demanding this from the governor.”

Calls to the governor’s office for comment were not returned.

There is currently only one student trustee, Corey Jackson from CSU San Bernardino, serving on the CSU board. The outgoing student trustee, Eric Guerra from CSU Sacramento, left office this summer.

The CSU student representative is responsible for representing the collective interests of CSU students and defending positions that benefit students before the board.

“It’s upsetting. We work hard to vote on nominees for the Board of Trustees,” said Safa Sajadi, vice president of CSUN Associated Students. “(The CSU student representative) is a very important role, and it’s upsetting that the governor would just disregard the nominees we chose.”

Mark Solleza can be reached at city@sundial.csun.edu.