Associated Students Inc. President Angela Arriola intends to make sure ASI affects students in a positive way. Next year, the new president wants to answer the students’ question: “What does ASI do for me?”

Arriola ?” the first woman ASI president at Sacramento State since 1996 ?” began her quest to make ASI more visible right after finals. On May 22, she spent the day rallying for student issues with Sac State President Alexander Gonzalez at CSU Advocacy Day, held once per semester.

Along with the presidents of every CSU, CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed and student body presidents from all campuses, Arriola pressed legislators to support an upcoming bill ?” AB 2813 ?” that would make Pell Grants available to more students and make the grants go further in assisting the students who need them. The Appropriations Committee at the Capitol passed the bill on May 25, moving it forward to the House of Representatives.

In addition to advocating for students at the Capitol, Arriola intends to improve student life on campus by concentrating on the three R’s her slate campaigned on: recruitment, retention and rates of graduation. And retention and graduation rates could be done though what the slate promoted with the three A’s they promoted: accountability, action and advising.

“The first issue we want to address is advising. We need to make sure all of the departments have a consistent advising plan, and we need to make sure that all entering freshman get to their department for advising, as well as to a GE adviser. Advising directly affects retention of students, especially freshman,” Arriola said.

As for the confusion surrounding the university’s Spanos Sports and Recreation Complex project ?” which will add a recreation and wellness center, an arena and renovate Hornet Stadium ?” Arriola said ASI’s role is to be well-informed of the issue.

Due to misinformation and misunderstanding, there has been a lot of confusion and confrontation in the past year, Arriola said.

“We don’t want to be blind sighted by not making sure students’ concerns are addressed,” Arriola said.

To prevent this from occurring, ASI has appointed an nonvoting member, Mimi Beas, to the committee that oversees the production of the recreation and wellness center, a project formerly known as RWEC.

As progress of the project ?” a significant piece to the campus’ Destination 2010 initiative to transform Sac State into a destination campus ?” moves forward, Arriola assures that ASI has a responsibility to stay informed and report it to the students.

Arriola said Destination 2010 will have a very positive effect on Sac State.

“(Destination) 2010 isn’t just about the school ?” it’s about the community,” Arriola said.

She says the plan will bridge Sac State and Sacramento. “Our visibility within the city will be increased,” Arriola said.

Although ASI heavily questioned Gonzalez on various occasions last semester about the Spanos Sports and Recreation Complex project, Arriola said Gonzalez is doing a good job, coming to campus and shaking things up.

“He brought vision and does what he says. He says he’ll raise money, he did. When he says he’ll do something, he does. People may not like what he says he’ll do, but he does it,” Arriola said.

Arriola said accountability in ASI will be enforced.

In April, Arriola told the Hornet that she could understand how ASI has received a negative image resulting from charges a former ASI executive, Julio Velazquez, is facing ?” the charges include embezzlement and forgery. Arriola said she would like to restructure ASI to ensure accountability and gain student trust.

According to Arriola, it is important for ASI to have a strong and cohesive board that works together to get things done. She said this would help give ASI more visibility and help answer the question “what does ASI do for me.”

Max Puckett can be reached at [email protected]