Students questioned ASI’s ability to advocate for them against President Alexander Gonzalez’s overturning their votes for fee increases last spring at the town hall meeting Thursday afternoon.

In the ASI spring election, students voted against the $18 fee increase for intercollegiate sports and the 50 cent fee increase for The State Hornet. This summer, Gonzalez reversed the student votes and approved the fee increases.

Sarkis Piloyan, sophomore business accounting major, questioned ASI by asking what the auxiliary organization has done to respond to the president’s reversal. Members of the ASI board at the meeting were unable to answer Piloyan’s question.

“I think it was very wrong that the votes were overturned,” said Executive Vice President Shawn Smith. “Students at Sacramento State already have a sense of apathy. This reversal hurts student involvement and we should do something more about it than lip service.”

Other students who attended the town hall meeting brought up responses ASI has made in the past.

“When the university first started, a similar thing happened where a president overturned a vote. ASI took the matter to court, but they were threatened by the college that they would lose their good standing with the university,” one student said.

Smith said ASI is in a tough position because ASI is an auxiliary and the campus president has authority over them.

“Technically, he can dissolve ASI if he wanted to,” Smith said.

Smith mentioned that the California Faculty Association is looking to abolish the president’s ability to overturn a student vote.

“It’s scary that the president has this much power. Why have anything on the ballot for a student vote if the president is going to end up controlling it?” said Nick Allen, vice president of university affairs.

“Is it just that the president releases a statement and that’s the law of the land?” Piloyan asked.

Three of the four members of the board in attendance, including Smith, Allen and Terry Martin, vice president of finance, vowed to push ASI president Roberto Torres to release a statement in response to the increases. Angelique Lopez, director of arts and letters, was out of the room during the discussion.

“I’m all in for some sort of response by ASI, but a lot of bad things happen when you get on the bad side of the president of a university, especially when he controls everything you do,” Allen said.

Piloyan said he attended the town hall meeting because he was upset with the fee increase and feels ASI has not responded to it.

“It seems like ASI isn’t advocating for students like they should,” Piloyan said. “I wanted to come here to see if maybe they’ll start. ASI needs to be doing much more for the benefit of the students.”

Brittany Bottini can be reached at [email protected].