Some Sacramento State students are following in the footsteps of many faculty members, and are circulating a petition of no-confidence in President Alexander Gonzalez.

The petition, established by history graduate student James Banyai, began April 25, and nearly 200 signatures have already been collected. Banyai will continue to accumulate signatures through finals week.

Similar to the faculty’s vote, the student no-confidence vote has no binding effect.

“I believe President Gonzalez is an inadequate leader for this university and that he should be replaced,” Banyai said.

Banyai said his intention is to provide students, faculty and staff information about administrative decisions, budgets, how money is being spent, salaries and other issues, adding that many people are not educated on these topics.

Addressing 16 points, the petition’s main concerns include under-funding of academic programs while increasing budgets in administrative departments and the alleged lack of protesting and lobbying from Gonzalez against the 10 percent student fee increase.

Although the president has no authority in deciding the California State University systemwide student fee, Banyai said he has not done enough to prevent the increase.

“He has not aggressively voiced his opinion against increases, though he stated they negatively affect students,” Banyai said.

Gonzalez was unavailable to comment on the petition.

Associate Vice President of Public Affairs Frank Whitlatch said Gonzalez has repeatedly acknowledged that everyone would prefer not to raise student fees, though the increase may be necessary.

“(Gonzalez) has explained the CSU Board of Trustees has said the increases are necessary to maintain the quality of the system,” Whitlatch said. “The state is simply not providing the resources necessary to avoid student fee increases, and it is state funding and student fees that provide nearly all the funding for CSU campuses.

Whitlatch said the CSU system will still have the lowest fees of comparable institutions nationwide.

“And about 146,000 of the 417,000 students in the CSU system will receive enough financial aid to completely offset the increase,” he said.

Most students who signed the petition were open to discuss their reasoning for doing so, while others were a little reluctant to go on record; however, there were many who admitted to their lack of knowledge of issues affecting the university.

“I don’t really involve myself with ongoing things here on campus,” said Nathaniel Hayes, junior communication studies major. “I just take my classes and jet.”

Banyai said the intent of the petition is to encourage action, since there is not a process for removing the president.

“He has to be dismissed or fired by the Chancellor through the petition and faculty resolution,” Banyai said. “The Chancellor will hopefully get the message that President Gonzalez is not doing a good job here and we need a new president.”

Paul Browning, California State University spokesman, said the student petition would not have an effect on anything.

“It’s completely up to the Board of Trustees and the Chancellor; they’re the ones that choose the president,” he said. “The board and the Chancellor completely support the president and believe he’s doing a good job over there.”

Browning said Gonzalez has what it takes to set on a course to become a destination campus in both student and academic life.

“It takes a strong leader, like President Gonzalez, who can implement this vision,” he said.

When finished, Banyai plans to mail the petition to the same bodies the faculty sent its resolution to.

“I’m going to mail the petition to the Chancellor’s office; to the governor, who’s an ex-officio officer on the Board of Trustees; lieutenant governor; speaker of the assembly; superintendent of education; committees on education in the state assembly and senate?” he said.

Associated Students Inc. President Jesus Andrade said the petition only serves as a repetition of the petition faculty recently signed, and encouraged students not to sign it.

“Instead of doing a petition of confidence, there should be a petition for unity, because I think that’s what this school needs more than anything right now,” Andrade said.

He said he does not know what position ASI will take on the issue and that he will send out an e-mail to the board of directors to see how its members feel.

Andrade said everyone should come together as a unit and push forward, because the petition will only cause more hostility.

“There isn’t any agreement on how the school should be ran or where the school should be at 10 or 15 years from now. That’s the larger problem,” he said. “I honestly and truly believe in the potential of this university.”

He said Gonzalez was bold to start implementing new changes upon presidency while laying out his vision and it was what Sac State needs.

“Change can be good,” Andrade said. “We just have to work together and focus on making Sacramento State the No. 1 choice in future generations.”

Christina Romero, incoming 2007-08 ASI president, also does not feel the petition is the best way to address students’ issues.

“I think the faculty has made a really clear message of what they’re feeling,” she said. “At this point, we can go ahead and move forward with re-establishing relationships and fixing what is obviously not adequate on our campus.”

As an alternative, Romero said students and faculty should work together to address the issues students are facing which are not being taken care of. She said addressing them with Gonzalez directly will promote change.

“The more we work with President Gonzalez, the more we can re-establish our campus and the broken relationships,” she said.