Associated Students Inc.’s (ASI) board approved a new program, to be opened January 2006 that sets high hopes on recruitment and retention, while costing students $50,000 in its first six months.

Project Connect, Recruitment and Retention Resource Center, the brainchild of this year’s board, and maybe the determining factor for President Chris Jackson’s period in office, is the first full-time program ASI has implemented in over a decade.

ASI already has six other programs funded by the $42 fee students pay each semester for the 19-member student-elected board to represent them. Depending on enrollment, ASI’s budget runs close to $3 million. That number not only funds the programs, but also student organizations, operational expenses of the corporation and scholarships available for students.

Funding of the program was taken from operational expenses of ASI with a bulk of the money coming from graduation funding. Jackson plans on putting the money back into graduation during the mid-year adjustments. ASI’s budget is projected the year prior and enrollment is usually under projected. Because of this, ASI usually sees a surplus if enrollment is over projection, said Jackson.

In its mission statement, Project Connect “exists to empower and involve the student body to promote higher education and facilitate graduation in low income and historically under-represented communities.” The program plans on doing this by going to K-12 schools and community colleges to promote college awareness, which is the recruitment part. But according to Jackson, this is not a feeder program to SF State.

The other part, retention, involves information fairs, promoting of their 28 scholarships, and reestablishment of the book loan program.

Project Connect will prepare students for what it’s going to take to get into college and with a combination of ASI’s scholarships and short-term loans, according to Jackson.

“We can help assist students with the financial burden,” said Jackson.

Though there are programs on campus that assist current students, there aren’t any that has the recruitment factor, according to Project Connect Director Mario Flores.

“They don’t do outreach in the community to promotes higher education,” said Flores.

“This program is here to compliment existing university services.”

Flores, who has only been director for four weeks, is still in the planning and hiring stages of Project Connect. One of Flores' first duties was to identify ways to fund the book loan program. Flores has made an agreement with the bookstore where they will credit him $50 for every professor he gets from the College of Ethnic Studies to turn in their book list by Dec. 12. With the initial startup of $300 from ASI and the credit from the bookstore, Flores hopes to have books available to loan to students taking ethnic studies classes for the spring semester. He hopes to expand to all the colleges.

The College of Ethnic Studies was chosen because a strong relationship with Project Connect was already developed and because it only had four departments, according to Flores.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Andrew Jolivette, assistant professor of American Indian Studies. Jolivette said that he would turn give his book list to the bookstore by Dec. 12.

See an overview of ASI's six other programs.