"ASI", as it is known throughout the Cal Poly Campus, is a group of students intending to be "every student’s connection to the ultimate university experience." Their mantra of being the average student’s "connection" to the large university system seems to flaunt impossibility. Can students truly find fair representation in their fellow students, and can they trust the student-run organization to listen and fight for their wants and needs? Elusive as ASI may seem, the organization, made up of elected students and minimal faculty advisors, is doing what they can to see to it that Cal Poly students needs are met.
Within ASI, there exists several sub committees and groups; one of which is the ASI Board of Directors, made up of student representatives from each college. The Board of Directors meets bimonthly and holds an "open forum" for students to bring problems, questions and issues to the Board.
"Open forum is basically.........," says Lindsey Bauer, civil engineering junior.
Besides hearing from fellow students, the Board tackles issues extremely relevant to student life and even faculty. In fact, the most recent addition to their agenda is lowering textbook prices, which has been a primary student concern for the past few years.
"The reason textbook prices are so high is because faculty don’t turn in their textbook requests on time. If they turn in their book lists earlier, the book store can buy them cheaper. The book store doesn’t make any profit– it’s the professors who are costing students," says Martha Caldwell, business junior.
Also, if you grabbed a free cookie in the UU or outside the library a few weeks ago, chances are that you participated in ASI’s e-voting trial. This trial, organized by ASI and the Board of Directors, is a step closer to Cal Poly catching up with the rest of the university system.
"The E-vote is huge for Cal Poly........," says Bauer, "
With such exciting change floating around campus, there lurks less optimistic attitudes. Even in an era where student voices are being heard the loudest, there still remain some critics of the system and of the power of students to elicit change.
Even in the meetings of the Board of Directors, there lies a voice too passionate to ignore.
"A faculty member or a student has a snowball’s chance in hell of making changes within the university system," says Joe LoCoscio, the Advisor of the Academic Senate.
If the student Board members represented the Yang, LoCascio or "J.Lo," would be the Yin. He seemed to believe that no single person could change the system, even if they were passionate about the issue.
But where there is darkness, there must also be light. Todd Maki, the elected ASI president, is happy to expound on the accomplishments of student-inspired change.
He assures the student body that although it might be hard for one person to change, with the help of others, change is definitely possible, if not inevitable. He refers back to the same snowball metaphor as LoCascio:
" It’s more like a 50 ft snowball, but if you get people behind it, you can really make a difference," says Maki.
He also added that, "The faculty and higher-ups are extremely willing to hear the issues students bring to them Actually, the higher up, the more willing to listen to students they are."
