By Nicole Park
Daily Titan Staff Writer

Seven newly-appointed board members were called upon by fellow students within their respective colleges to lead on the Associated Students Inc. Board of Directors in last week’s elections.

The voting results were read in the legislative chambers of the Titan Student Union Thursday at 9 p.m. by Elections Commissioner Genevieve Eldred.

“Tonight, all of our planning and budget work and everything that went into the elections is paying off. The candidates will reap the benefits of their campaigns and I get satisfaction in helping with something that’s way bigger than myself,” elections assistant Garrett Marsh said.

Results were displayed with the total votes and percentage points next to each candidate’s name.

Polling booths located throughout campus closed to voters at 8 p.m. Thursday after having opened Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 8 a.m.

The two-day total for all student votes was 1,506, which Eldred said was higher than the Board’s election last semester.

“Last year’s votes came to 1,092, so we smashed that.” Eldred said from her desk when the results came in electronically.

She said the record of 1,916 votes were cast in a 2005 board election.

“My amazing assistants make my job so much easier for me,” Eldred said of her team of 19 students. “They put in over 164 hours of work in two days of elections. There were up to eight assistants working at one booth at a time.”

Eldred credits the sharp increase in student fees for stirring up student civic responsibility at CSUF.

“A lot of people are trying to be proactive about how their student fees are being spent. They’re saying, ‘We need to care now, we can’t be apathetic anymore. We need to know what our fees are going toward and use our voting rights to have an impact on where the money goes,’” Eldred said.

After two full days of voting had passed, Eldred also heard from students with less motivated voting perceptions.

“Some students would come by the voting tents and under their breath would say, ‘You suck!’ or ‘ASI is stupid!’ My response to that is ‘Well then change it,’” she said.

Another common complaint the commissioner and her elections assistants received was, “Why can’t I vote?”

Students are only permitted to vote for candidates within the college of their declared major at CSUF. If the student is a double-major, they may choose only one academic college to vote in. In the case of undeclared students, any one of the eight colleges on campus may be voted on. However, if a student has only one major and there is no candidate running for their college’s Board representative, no ballot may be cast.

While it may seem unfair that an entire college of students might not be permitted to vote due to the absence of any candidates, that is exactly what happened in this semester’s election in three colleges. The College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, College of Engineering and Computer Science and the College of Education all had not one candidate.

“We had a lot of people who were miffed with not being able to vote, but we can’t help it if no one wants to run for their college. We publicize elections as much as we can. Hey, I’m in charge of elections and I couldn’t even vote in this election,” said Eldred, who is a junior in the College of Engineering and Computer Science majoring in electrical engineering and minoring in kinesiology.

The requirements to run for the board are enrollment at CSUF for at least one semester, in good academic standing and maintain a cumulative 2.5 GPA. The elections protocol has no limit to the number of candidates running for any one college. Write-in candidates are allowed an even later deadline. According to the candidate application packet for the fall ASI board elections sets the deadline for write-ins “before 5 p.m. on Monday prior to the start of the election.”

One of the two new directors of the College of the Arts, April Mendiola, said she was previously uninvolved with ASI.

“I am very shocked right now. I haven’t really been as involved as I’ve wanted to be in college, so getting this chance and just being elected by other students is so exciting,” said Mendiola, who beat her opponent, Rodrigo Calderon, with 81 percent of the vote in their college. “I look forward to working with Rodrigo and the rest of the board,” she said after her win.

Although there are colleges with no representation on the board, there are also colleges which two directors were successfully elected. Although Calderon seemingly lost to Mendiola, because both seats for their college were vacant, Calderon holds the position for a semester while Mendiola will keep her position for a full academic year. Terms for the board of directors are staggered to prevent complete vacancies, although these lapses in representation can still occur for various reasons including a director leaving the position due to graduation or academic obligations.

Appointments will be made to fill the remaining vacant seats before the new board members officially begin their term on January 1, 2010.

“Students (within the three colleges left with vacancies) can pick up an application in TSU 207 (ASI executive offices) starting Monday. They will be interviewed by the university affairs committee whose choices will be forwarded to the board of directors for final approval. They will be appointed to start the position by the end of next semester,” Eldred said.

Chair of the Board of Directors Emel Shaikh looks forward to the beginning of the new board term, which will kick off with several team-building and bonding activities, along with informational meetings where the newest directors in ASI will be properly educated about the corporation, including its “organizational structures, job responsibilities, finances, the spring budget and how to make intelligent decisions when voting on important issues,” according to Shaikh, a communications senior emphasizing in public relations.

Elections are held twice per academic year and candidate application packets for next fall will become available March 3, 2010 in the ASI executive offices at TSU 207.