At the end of the Associate Students Inc. meeting Sept. 26 Vice President of Student Affairs Christine Hopkins stepped down from the podium and her two month interim stint as executive vice president.

Today the new executive vice president, junior Robbie Abelon, will chair the ASI working board meeting.

The board confirmed both of President Angel Barajas’ appointments: Robbie Abelon, a government-history major and former secretary of state affairs, who is now the executive vice president and Bonnie Sugiyama, graduate student and PRIDE coordinator, who has taken on the vice president of finance role.

“It was completely unexpected because this is nothing that I planned for,” Abelon said. Abelon said he hadn’t even known of the open positions until he returned from his three-week volunteer effort in the hurricane devastated areas of Louisiana, and found that applications were still being accepted for the ASI spots.

When held to a board vote, Abelon’s appointment was close to unanimous – only one member abstained.

“He’s pretty much the most qualified candidate,” Barajas said.

Sugiyama, who was confirmed unanimously by her board peers, said she plans to represent the students to the best of her ability in the board finance position. Because her appointment leaves her former position, the director of education, open, Sugiyama said she plans to assist Barajas in finding a suitable replacement.

Abelon’s action plan that he said he will pursue while in ASI includes creating a scholarship database, advocating credit-awarded internships, working with Sacramento State President Alexander Gonzalez on retention issues, increasing the ASI scholarship fund and taking advantage of the Capitol proximity to the school through student programs.

Following the confirmation of the two positions, Barajas smiled and declared the executive board complete for the first time in months.

Election code changes

Larry Garcia, counsel for ASI, presented possible changes to the ASI election code resulting from months of research and collaboration with the Election Task Force. Board members will discuss the provisions and approve them by Nov. 9.

“That was one of my goals this year, to make sure the election process is fair to all students,” Barajas said.

Garcia said that the changes that are substantial resulted from contested past elections and represented holes in the code.

Some changes that were made to the code include changing academic candidacy requirements, barring ASI from contributing any funds to any Sacramento State referenda, tracking campaign contributions and dealing with libelous or slanderous behavior during a campaign.

Barajas said that he is confident that the changes up for debate will pass.

Other passed legislation

Other legislation that passed board approval was the “Turkey Bowl,” an annual bowling competition held close to Thanksgiving and opened to majors in the Health and Human Services College.

The 16-lane event will be an informal and social way to bring together members of Health and Human Services, Aquino said.

ASI will also help sponsor the third annual Law School Forum from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 15 at the Alumni Center.

Criminal Justice Assistant Professor Laurie Kubicek will be hosting the event, which will include pre-law advising and workshops, Barajas said.

Jessica Weidling can be reached at [email protected]