Good Morning Chair Kimbell, Chancellor White, Trustees, Campus Presidents, and Guests,

Before I begin on my report and updates, several congratulations are order, firstly I want to recognize this year with the astounding number of students who registered to vote via the Secretary of State’s Ballot Bowl competition, 21,000 CSU registered to vote, it is absolutely critical that students are civically engaged and having their voices heard. Second, I wanted to congratulate our two incoming CSU presidents, President Beck for Cal State Northridge and President Sandeen for Cal State East Bay. We at CSSA are excited in welcoming you to CSU and working with you! Congratulations to President Morishita on his retirement from Cal State East Bay and President Harrison from Cal State Northridge, I did want to take a second to share a story that reflects my experience working with and my time knowing President Harrsion for several years as a CSUN student.

My first year in leadership, President Harrsion hosted CSUN Associated Students Senate, I remember being very nervous but when we all sat down to share our stories I felt heard for the time at CSUN and ever since I have truly appreciated the support you have provided me and the work we have done together.

Lastly, a very hearty and warm congratulations to Chancellor White on his retirement, thank you for everything you have done, thank you for constantly being transparent and open, I do want to share another story that I’ve shared with him was the very first time I met him. It was at a GI 2025 conference he shared with me his story, and I asked him for a selfie thinking this was the only time we were going to interact, I am grateful that was not the case so thank you again Chancellor White, and if you find yourself with a lot of free time I recommend you come back as a CSU student and run for the CSSA Presidency.

Now onto my report, a couple of updates for you all this past weekend the CSSA Board has passed a COVID-19 Policy agenda to address the unique challenges we are going through as a result of the pandemic. Priority #1: Ensure access to housing, food, financial, wellness resources, and technology resources for all CSU students. We really need to focus on increasing access to basic needs, most importantly including access to laptops, hotspots and reliable internet.

Our Second Priority #2: Foster inclusive virtual learning practices that ensure the academic and holistic success of all CSU students. Students have faced numerous academic challenges since the transition to virtual instruction so its important to address zoom dynamics and privacy concerns, grading policies in particular students have been very active in their advocacy for CR/NC options, additionally addressing testing proctoring issues and ensuring faculty and staff continue to receive the professional development needed to support students.

The third Priority #3: Ensure the health and safety of the campus community, simply ensuring that campuses are safe for those who are physically present and that our eventual return for on campus instruction is safe to do so.

Our 4th and last priority is Priority Ensure governance laws meet the needs of a virtual work space, including reviewing our own documents to reflect changes to to a virtual work space as well as Ensuring compliance with the Gloria Romero Open Meetings Act and identify ways to modernize the law to meet the virtual environment and most importantly students being consulted on the budget process and transparency of student fees across the CSU.

I did also want to take some time to address an ongoing issue with students which has been parking. Through our research we have found that students on average pay 3 times more for parking than faculty and staff; the burden of parking fees should not be placed on students shoulders, we also have found this to be a collective bargaining issue so we hope this see this addressed so that parking fees are equitable across the CSU between students, staff and faculty.

Before concluding my report I did want to give a special thank you to the CSU for working together as one collective in the budget advocacy for Basic Needs. I want to thank the CSU for including basic needs as a line item as CSSA has requested, a special shout out and heartfelt thanks to Assistant Vice Chancellor Ryan Storm, Vice Chancellor Steve Relyea, Chancellor White, Trustee Maryana Khames, and Trustee Krystal Raynes for their advocacy and partnership to make basic needs a budget priority. We look forward to the collective advocacy that we will all engage in this coming spring.

With that I wanted to wish you all a happy holiday and good luck to students on finals.

Thank you chair Kimbell that concludes my report.

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