On most Wednesdays, between recessed lighting and burnt orange carpet, down in the basement of Rosa Parks, there’s a board meeting taking place. Present, are most of the elected-board members of a club we all became part of when we enrolled at San Francisco State University, whether we wanted to our not—Associated Students Inc. These students decide how to represent our collective interests, needs and wants—and how to spend our money. The meeting is open to the public, but student “members” rarely show up, and over a hundred tacky southwestern colored office chairs sit empty.

We pay a mandatory membership fee of 42 dollars, twice a year, which means ASI collects around three million dollars from students, annually, and is generally worth over 10 million. Not only does our money help provide funding for programs specifically tailored to college students, and monthly stipends to the candidates we elect to be the voice of our student body, but it also helps keep this whole student government thing going: paying the staff, training the board, funding student organizations, special events and travel.

This designated voice is supposed to represent all of us, but since so few of us actually voted our representatives into office, they’re not taken as seriously as they should be in front of the university’s administration. And since almost none of us are providing any sort of relative discourse, our Associated Students are free to do, pretty much, whatever they want on our behalf. Our voice is stifled, out of control and not living up to its potential

As a student body, the student government board we elect every March is pretty much the only voice we have in front of President Corrigan, and ultimately the State of California. And for all the bitching and whining we do about fees hikes and budget cuts, we offer very little support, or check-and-balance to our only contact to the top. Furthermore, they’re responsible for administering all of our money. But apparently we don’t give a shit what happens to that 42 bucks. We hardly even care what happens to this school. We just want to get in, get our degrees and get the hell out of here—and then try and get ourselves out of debt.

We have a dysfunctional and disengaged democratic process on this campus, and it’s everybody’s fault.

Broken Circles
It’s no secret college students don’t like to vote, and we proved that to our university last March when only 6 percent of our student body showed up at the Associated Students elections—an all time low. And while a whopping 72 percent of voting-age U.S. citizens registered in 2004, only 47 percent of 18-24-year-olds decided to cast their ballots for a presidential candidate, so the nation knows it too. We just don’t have time for democracy, voting or trying to regulate the world our government creates around us.

Horace Montgomery, ASI’s leadership development coordinator, who’s been at the forefront of student government for the last 15 years, says Associated Students is like a back room circle of deals.

“In essence, the Rockefellers, who go to all the parties campaigning, and got the back money; they’re the people who really run our United States— it’s a back room circle of deals,” says Montgomery with a snide sort of look on his face. “That’s sort of like what we do here. It’s a back room circle of people who run for office because they know what we do.”

Montgomery says students only try and get involved when it directly affects them. “But my students aren’t really prepared for that. You get a student once or twice a year, but it’s lovely when someone comes in and throws them a curveball—when they’re like: ‘you speak on my behalf through my fees and you are my official voice…what the heck are you doing?”

Students have mixed reactions toward Associated Students. Everyone agrees that democracy on this campus is important to them, and that they would like to be more informed about what goes on with their money, but not everyone has time to seek out that information.

“I just come to school and that’s it,” says Jennie Culjat, 27-year-old business major from Lawrence KS. “I don’t get involved in student body government.”

Angela Firpo, a 24-year-old anthropology major from southern California, is part of the Holistic Health Network Club. She says that she hasn’t had much exposure to Associated Students, but through her club involvement, she understands that getting information out to students on campus can be difficult. “I’ve seen a little bureaucracy just in that,” she says. “I get done what I need to, but it’s not always easy getting through the red tape on campus.”

Abe Reynoso on the other hand, a 22-year-old physiology major from South San Francisco, says that Associated Students needs to put in more face-time outside on campus, reaching out to students and addressing their needs and wants. “We elect them and then we never hear from them,” he says. “That's kind of an abuse of democracy—but once they're in they're in."

Rafael Martinez, an advisor with the Office of Student Programs and Leadership Development (OSPLD), says it’s unfortunate that some student clubs and organizations seem to get everything they need, while others get “the shaft,” but he’s glad that these students have stepped up to the plate, instead of letting the university decide what to do with the money.

“It has a lot of potential. I just wish the policies were better, and more consistent. But if they don’t do it, maybe nobody else will,” says Martinez. “There’s a core group of students that get involved. It’d be interesting to get someone unaffiliated as president—not part of the movers and shakers on campus.”

“The average student needs to get involved and realize that they have a stake in the university. If anything they should be making sure to get something out of their 42 bucks.”

Backroom Access
Have you ever emailed the George Bush? You get an instant auto-reply, but he’ll never actually write you back—you can count on that. Even access to progressive local city government officials can become a tedious web of voicemails and emails. “Where’s that connection that you can instantly go to and be like: ‘What the heck? What are you guys doing,’” asks Montgomery, throwing up his hands. “We honestly provide that. Our board meetings are public and they are at the same spot, at the same time; ever since I’ve been here: Rosa Parks, A, B and C, two o’clock on Wednesdays.”

Montgomery says that Associated Students doesn’t do a very good job of educating the student body on important issues, or of inviting them to become part of the political process, but he wants to change all of that. Right now he’s trying to better their website by posting the minutes from board meetings and other information, but that that hasn’t happened yet. They’re working toward hosting online elections this March, but he says a new handicap compliance, which mandates that any media available to students must be accessible to students with disabilities, which makes it a lot harder for new media to be purchased and approved.

There are seats on committees throughout the campus that are designated for students, but they don’t get filled. Yet another missed opportunity for students to speak their mind where it counts, get involved in a valuable learning process outside of the classroom and even earn three units just for showing up and writing a little report for Associated Students. There are a number of ways students can influence how this university, and even the CSU system, operates; but the interest just isn’t there.

Montgomery gets this real serious look on his face and asks: “At what point does social responsibility kick in? How much am I supposed to sell you about stepping up to your own responsibility? How much do I need to sell to you that I’m taking forty two of your dollars every semester, and spending it any way I want? And what are you going to do about it? You gonna come say something? You gonna come run?”

“It’s just sad that people are like ‘I don’t care—take that forty two bucks.’”

Katrina Yeaw, a 23-year-old grad student majoring in history, from Rocklin, CA was out in the quad last week promoting Students Against War. She says that communication is a major part of democracy, and it'd be nice if students were more aware of what kind of actions their student government is taking. She would like them to extend more invitations to get involved, as well explain what the process is to do that.

“I think it'd be great to have a larger discussion on campus about the problems we see with the university, like what we would like to see change and how we make that come about,” says Yeaw. “We hear from them around election time, but it’d be nice if it were more constant.”

Montgomery is adamant about the fact that the avenue has always existed to explore what Associated Students does and become part of it. He says they’re not hiding anything and they don’t even use any of that confusing political mumbo jumbo to communicate.

“Yes, we do have a disconnect; but no, we don’t talk in ways that people don’t understand. We don’t think people are going to show up anyways, so we say whatever the heck we want.”

Family Affair
Abtin Forghani, the VP of external affairs who won his seat with more votes than any other candidate, 816, puts it best: “We’re like a very, very dysfunctional family, but a family nonetheless.”

Forghani is also on the Student Organization Hearing Panel, the Student Fee Advisory Committee and he’s the External Committee Chair. The BECA major ran for office with the Students First slate, which took 75 percent of the seats on the board. “It’s more effective to run on slates,” he says. “A number of candidates come together, come up with a mission statement and run together—more student power.”

Forghani says the President of Associated Students, Isidro Armenta, isn’t much more than an absentee president—doing the bare minimum, going to four meetings a week. “His ideas are always either bad or immature.”

He says Armenta wanted to give one dollar back to every student, but the idea met plenty of opposition. Most of the board agreed that there were better ways to spend $30,000. “He can’t get anything passed,” says Forghani. “We shut him down every time.”

Forghani wants more people to get involved, and finds it disheartening that this year’s voter turnout hit a record low, right when enrollment was at a record high. He says that nowadays about 50 percent of the student body is from outside the Bay Area, and they’re often just trying to get settled in the first year, so it’s hard to get many freshmen engaged in student government. And the rest of us are just not interested, or are uninformed.

“People don’t believe in the system,” says Forghani. “Just imagine if we weren’t here. The representation would be horrible.”

An executive ASI board member, who wishes to remain anonymous, says that our elected president, Armenta, tried to appoint his girlfriend to the Student Center Governing Board, on which he also serves, but her seat was denied due to a perceived conflict of interest. Last summer, he also allegedly hired his own brother as his assistant, at 9.50 an hour. But his brother wasn’t even a student and therefore couldn’t be member of Associated Students, a requirement for the position, and so his employment ended after two months.

[X]press contacted Armenta, and informed him of all of these allegations. He wrote back in an email, that as president, he’s “only one of twenty three board members that are responsible for not only the oversight of the organization, but also the proper representation of the student body.” He also mentioned that he was unaware of the policy regarding nepotism, and “without hesitation,” released his assistant accordingly. Regarding the appointment of his girlfriend to SCGB, he wrote: “I made sure to forward the most qualified appointments.”

Armenta denies any accusation that he is an “absentee president.” He gave us a list of things he and his board have done so far this year, writing that he is “satisfied with the overall progress.”

So far this year, Armenta reports having proposed and successfully launched the ASI Transportation Program, through which they’ve distributed 30 monthly Muni fast passes to 30 SFSU students, in the last three months He also reports representing SFSU students at a number of levels, having participated in the California State Student Association, authored a resolution to commend Leeland Yee’s efforts to address street safety near campus and having been in touch with students and families for Tuition Relief Now!, a campaign to place a five year moratorium on CSU fee increases.

His board also created the ASI Recreation and Wellness Center ad hoc community, which is set to discuss the feasibility of Associated Students buying a share of the newly proposed campus building. They’ve successfully reviewed, approved and forwarded ASI bylaw revisions to President Corrigan, which will include a newly created position, the Vice President of University Affairs. And of course they’ve continued to fund our student organizations and scholarships, which will be awarded next month.

“I am proud to serve San Francisco State University students,” he wrote. “I would like to stress the importance of student involvement in student government. I would encourage any student who has any concern or suggestions for improvement to contact me via email: president@asisfsu.org.”

Get Involved, Get rewarded
“The president is an alright guy. You have to give them the benefit of the doubt. When you step into a position like that it’s a serious thing. I just want to know what they’re doing. How are they making sure students know about this?” asks Pamela Di Giovanni, a 40-year-old environmental studies and social justice major. Di Giovanni went to her first Associated Students meeting last week, where she spoke on behalf of Focus: The Nation, a green sustainability organization whose student members are bringing a “teach-in” to campus in late January. She extended an invitation to the board members to volunteer at the event. “I had no idea about any of this stuff. I took it upon myself to take a look at what’s going on there, but not every student is going to do that. There has to be an ongoing thing with outreach to students, giving them information.”

“This is the time for opportunity. I want them to connect with students because it will be beneficial for everyone.”

Montgomery says ASI’s biggest expense is its staff, and the staff’s biggest expense is healthcare. He also says that the student body fee hasn’t gone up in 18 years, and that the ASI budget is about to be in a crisis. “Our expenses have now reached our revenue,” he says. And with the rise of operational costs, as well as their own plans for expansion, a student body fee increase is nothing short of a referendum away. But before that can happen, he says, the Associated Students need to gain the support of its student body.

They already provide discount legal services and free condoms. They fund a book loan program, a women’s center, a state of the art child care facility and a unique program that matriculates students into SFSU out of the criminal justice system.

“You don’t have to come run for office—how about you just go vote, or how about you come in and state what you’d like to have,” asks Montgomery. “You’d be surprised to see how many students will listen to that, and you’d also be surprised to see how fast they can get it done if they agree on it, because we do have our own little pocket of money.”

The president gets $925 a month for his yearly stipend, while the rest of the executive board gets $800 and all the representatives get $500. This year all 19 seats are taken. The president and two other board members appointed themselves to the Student Center Governing Board, where they get paid again, an additional $540 a month, which comes out of a different $82 fee that we pay every semester.

“They know that there’s a little free check in it, and the checks and balances are very loose because the odds of a student stepping in here and saying ‘what the heck are you doing’ are very low,” says Montgomery. “It happens, and when it does it’s very shocking, because we don’t really know how to deal with it. Only a small bit of people even know what we do here, and that small bit and the people they talk to are usually the ones that come and run.”

The New Face of SFSU
Built on a history of activism, our Associated Students is still politically oriented. Most student government organizations have gone to service based programs for their students, like discount movie tickets and pizza. But this is San Francisco State University, and we aren’t about to let our politically savvy legacy just die.

“I can at least say that my board doesn’t just nod,” says Montgomery. “They won’t just say: ‘sure, whatever you say.’ It’s just the nuances of them figuring out what their peers want them to do. It’s not that they don’t want to, or are incapable. It’s a matter of figuring out a system that works.”

The campus demographic has changed dramatically within the last ten years. Once by and large a commuter campus, we are receiving record numbers of out of town freshmen every year—mostly from southern California. Montgomery says this changing demographic has had an adverse affect on student government, which he just started noticing this year.

“We’re getting our students from a whole different crop than we used to,” says Montgomery. “It’s not to say that the southern California kids aren’t as political, but it is to say that they come with different ideals and ideologies.”

Montgomery says that in 1997, the average student on this campus was 28-years-old and now it’s less than 23.

“We have kids that are younger, from different areas, with parents that were raised differently, and a lot of them don’t want to rock the boat,” says Montgomery. “They just kinda bow.”

“Nowadays, kids are much more willing to take it, than to give. They’re much more willing to not start a fight. They’re much more willing to have their rights impeded and stepped on than they are to step up and defend them. And that’s just kind of scary.”