Commencing on Halloween, the Associated Students Senate met in the Student Center to discuss a few topics relating to the school.
After the appointment of student, Garett Knight as Associated Students Elections Commissioner, the students began to discuss a resolution that would commend the work of student athlete involvement in Ticket to Success.
Ticket to Success was a project founded in 2013 by Sonoma State University’s Athletic
Department in order to bring elementary and middle school students to campus to introduce them to the athletes and tour around the school.
Cary Ybama, involvement chair of the Associated Students, said the program “Introduces middle school students to the idea of higher education while also showing them what SSU has to offer as far as athletics go.”
Last year the program hosted almost 1000 children from 11 Santa Rosa schools.
The Associated Student Senate closed the conversation by saying they believe it would be a great idea to create a formal written statement commending all those involved in creating and executing this project and present it to them.
Next on the agenda at Friday’s meeting was the discussion of undeclared majors.
This topic resources for the advising of these students cannot keep up with the growing trend of students being undeclared.
Although the discussion didn’t have a clear focus as to how to address these problems, the students discussed all of the ways that undeclared majors aren’t properly getting the right amount attention because of the lack of undeclared advisors at Sonoma State.
According to the university, all undeclared majors need to seek advising after 30 units. However, according to the student handout on undeclared majors, it states that after 60 units an undeclared major needs to go see an advisor.
With only three full time and one part-time undeclared adviser, the requirement of seeking advising after 30 units is making it difficult for the advisers to fit every student in.
The vice president of the senate said the advisers are having a difficult time just fitting in the 60 unit requirement.
According to the legislation the Associated Students created, over one-third of all freshman are undeclared.
This is creating significant pressure on the advisors to be able to meet with each individual person and discuss career options.
The Academics Senate Representative respectfully disagreed stating that it would be more beneficial for students to explore all their options instead of being limited to one field and being tied down to a certain field for the remainder of their professional careers.
Another topic that was brought up relating to undeclared majors was the dropout rate of Sonoma State students.
In the draft of the legislation, it was said that roughly 80 percent of declared students continue with their education after their sophomore year but only 73 percent of undeclared students continue after their sophomore year.
The Associated Students Senate also discussed ways as to combat this large problem, but didn’t reach an agreement as to how to effectively reach a solution.
The Executive Director, Erik Dickson, said the legislation needs to be pulled apart in order to get a clear message across.
The discussion ended with Senate agreeing that the legislation needed to have a target resolution and to make it more specific toward undeclared students.
This Friday’s Associated Students meeting will be at 1 p.m. in the Student Center. For more information and meeting minutes, visit sonoma.edu/as.
