Associated Students senate members did not come to a complete agreement during their first reading of President Amanda Flavin’s proposed resolution opposing the 15-unit cap on spring registration announced last week.
“It’s basically a response to the fact that students are being impacted by lots of different external factors,” Flavin said. “It shouldn’t be students who have to take the hit. Students shouldn’t have to have reduced enrollment in units. The university should find another way to deal with this where it doesn’t impact students.”
She said that it is not her job to protect the university, but to protect the students.
“It impacts graduation rates, it impacts the student’s ability to get the classes that they need to move on in order to graduate,” Flavin said. “Students are getting less for their money even more so now.”
In an unofficial vote, eight to nine members voted yes to passing the resolution as it stands while three to five members voted no.
During the discussion, senate members said that the penalty was $6 million, but CSUN Provost Harry Hellenbrand told the Daily Sundial last week the fine is $7 million.
Mellad Khoshnood, A.S. senator for the College of Science and Math, disagreed with the current form of Flavin’s resolution.
“Even if you had 15 units a semester, you will graduate in four years,” he said. “So does it affect the students? Of course it does. But does losing $6 million because we want to have more than 15 units one semester affect them more?”
Senate member Ryan Melander, College of Arts, Media and Communications senator, said the unit cap is just a way for Chancellor Charles Reed to play games with Gov. Jerry Brown.
“It’s a unit cap being placed because of politics. There’s no reason for it, and I feel that’s the only way to describe the situation,” Melander said. “It’s complete and utter shenanigans on the part of the chancellor and the CSU board of trustees.”
Other members were on the fence about the first draft of the resolution.
“I have concerns about if we’ve thoroughly investigated this whole thing enough,” said Billy Ryder, A.S. senator for the College of Business and Economics. “As much as I’m against a 15-unit cap, my worries are that if we got hit with a $6 million fine, does that somehow then reduce the amount of classes that students can take?”
Though A.S. has yet to come to a unanimous decision, they have agreed that it is not right for these penalties to be imposed on students.
“I don’t think it’s right that (Reed’s) making that penalty because, quite frankly, we are doing our job based on our mission statement as a Cal State, and we are doing it better than all the other Cal States,” Khoshnood said. “To be punished for doing well is like telling a kid who’s learning to read at a very young age and spanking him for doing a good job.”
