by Martha I. Fernandez
Editor in Chief
and
Salina Ronderos
Staff Writer
Starting the spring semester four Forum members short, the relatively young Associated Student Federation (ASF) Forum hopes to fill vacancies to complete its spring semester plans.
Senior Heidi Rudin, freshman Vickie Contreras and juniors Stacy Lucas and Julie Mayer resigned their Forum positions prior to the Forum’s January retreat.
“There were some personal reasons,” said junior Rich Quesada, ASF president.
Despite these recent resignations, Quesada doesn’t feel it will put a damper on Forum plans.
“We had a really good retreat with the people we had. Hopefully the new people who come in will be ready to work right away.”
In order to form a complete 19 member Forum, a special election will take place. With this process, candidates will be reviewed, interviewed and appointed by the Forum.
Applications for the positions were made available on Monday, with noon today being the deadline. Interviews for the positions are scheduled for this afternoon. A six member quorum, two-thirds of the Forum, must approve the candidates. Results of the special election will be posted in the Student Center.
As of yesterday, five applications had been turned in seeking the position.
Vice President Christina Tejeda said she was disappointed with the low turn out and blames apathy in students.
“Students don’t realize the benefits they can get from being in ASF, such as scholarships, meeting a lot of people and making connections,” she said.
As of now, the Forum is working on Spring Formal, preliminary set for April 27 and Spring Convocation on Feb. 20. The Forum has chosen Catholic Campus Minister Elena Cardeña. Her topic is “No longer stuck in second gear.”
Tejeda also said she would like to see an increase in commuter participation.
“ASF encourages more commuter participation because it is also their money going into the school, and they should be a part of what they’re putting their money into,” she said.
In addition to these traditional events, the Forum hopes to experiment with new activities. “We’re trying to get away from, so-called plugging events. We want to do our own events and use the students’ money better,” said Quesada.
He also said that the Forum plans to seek special rates to do box office for sporting events and plays this semester.
Among future plans is to boost student body morale by targeting fans at University of La Verne sporting events.
The spirit committee plans to hand out mini-basketballs and sippers at games with hopes of attracting students to future games.
“To get more people to come to the games is their purpose,” said Quesada.
The Forum has not only made changes in its programming, but also in its legislation. A bylaw was passed Wednesday making it no longer necessary to receive a simple majority for a candidate to win an election.
“We had a problem with voting,” said Quesada. “We turned people away because of simple majority.”
The Forum will continue to meet Wednesdays at 8 a.m in the ASF conference room.
“I’d like to put a part in our agenda where people can come in and express what they want,” he said. “It’s hard to reach everyone without their input.”
Martha I. Fernandez
