Students, faculty and community members associated with the on-campus coalition, Golden Eagle Justice, filled the public seats at the Associated Students Incorporated (ASI) Board Meeting on Thursday where two action items were scheduled to be voted upon. The items included the removal of President William A. Covino and key administrators from their positions and the ASI General Election results for the 2019-2020 year.
Golden Eagle Justice has been tabling and communicating with students at Cal State LA to sign their petition for the removal of President Covino. According to Danielle Mayen, who started the Golden Eagle Justice social media accounts, they have collected 1,000 signatures and counting.
Though ASI President Nia Johnson was absent for the board meeting, she has been an advocate for the coalition and placed the action item on the agenda for Thursday’s meeting. Aaron Castaneda, Vice President for Finance, conducted the meeting and commenced it with a loud bang of the gavel.
To begin the meeting, the ASI board members decided to vote to change the resolution of no confidence in President Covino from an action item to a discussion item instead, postponing the vote for another two weeks. With a majority vote, the decision was made and they then attempted to move on to the next action item. The public audience would not allow them.
Mayen spoke out aggressively against the decision and asked repeatedly for the board to take a revote. Marcus Rodriguez, Interim Executive Director, explained to the board and the audience that due to “parliamentary procedure” the board was not allowed to reverse the decision made to change the, now, discussion item back to an action item.
A number of public comments from the coalition echoed the importance of the former action item and continued to urge the board to reconsider their vote. While the coalition was still in an uproar, the board proceeded with their last agenda item for the day.
With the coalition chanting, “Change it!” in the background, drowning out the voices of the board, the final votes were announced ASI General Election results for the 2019-2020 year, though, the results were barely heard past the inner circle of the board.
Once the second action item was voted on and approved, discussion on action item one continued.
According to Mayen, she was then tipped off by a friend in the audience on a solution to the action item issue. She requested to end the current meeting and to begin, what is called a special meeting, which can be scheduled outside a regular board meeting.
With an approval from Rodriguez, the meeting was concluded and a special meeting was scheduled for Friday, March 29 at 5 p.m.
When asked about the solution agreed upon by both parties, Mayen explained that though she is happy with the result, it was, “disappointing that it took us an hour and a half, almost two hours, to just get to the conclusion that I easily presented.”
The decision to approve the resolution of no confidence in President Covino will be voted upon as an action item during the special meeting which will be held at the ASI boardroom today at 5 p.m.
