Notes and Thoughts -- 9/11-9/14 tour of Northern California

Though the past few days have indeed been rather exhausting, the conferences and tours that I was able to take part in have been more than worth the effort. For instance, even to able to tour the Sacramento & San Francisco CSU campuses has given me a wealth of ideas of possible projects to pursue here at CSULA. Who would have thought that attaining student ownership of popular campus vending sites would be so simple? Or even having free such a thing as 'free speech zone' for protests and student demonstrations? I am just surprised that many things that are being done throughout the state have not been brought up here on our own campus...

Besides the beautiful scenery and welcoming faces that I saw up on our northern side, there was the issue of attending the two conferences to which I was invited to. At the conference pertaining to the issue of higher education, I witnessed a great deal of enthusiasm on the part of students in attendance. The atmosphere was full of energy and an almost tangible hunger to create change. And of course, the presentations that were made regarding environmental sustainability, currently proposed litigation affecting college bound and currently attending students (regardless of legal status), and the still present issue of the financial cuts being made to education.

In Sacramento, there was also a lot of excitement at the team building and leadership conference. After having several workshops about strategic planning and delegation of tasks to increase the overall efficiency of an organization as well as a short overview of parliamentary procedure, I had the opportunity to give a short speech regarding the issues we are currently facing at CSULA. While the majority of attendees were from the UC system, I was surprised to see some familiar faces from other CSU campuses. 

To give you all an idea of how much of an eye-opener these conferences were, let me share with you the ideas that I came across and will likely try to implement this year....

• to initiate a campus wide green policy to further attain goals in environmental sustainability
• increasing the rate of success in mobilizing the CSULA student body in demonstrations of student unity in the face of adversity
• pushing for more accountability and better representation from our own representatives at the University level so as to increase the efficiency of our student government
• pursuing the overall emphasis of our campus (whether it be from an academic, professional, or athletic standpoint) and to capitalize upon it for the marketing of our target audience in the recruitment and retainment of students
• to further educate our student body regarding shared governance and to advocate in favor of student participation at the University, local, state, and national arenas
• activation of a long term strategic plan for the University with student input
• maintenance of a meaningful lobby corps presence on the behalf of CSULA
• to create an atmosphere of campus pride at our University