Beltran Fills Big Shoes

ASI President strives to make a difference.

(Los Angeles – UT) Last spring, three people competed to become CSULA’s student body President. After a series of public panel debates, grassroots strategies, and exhausting campaigns, third year Political Science major Joaquin Beltran won the election.

His relationship with students of CSULA is what keeps him interested in making changes for his constituents. “Coming into ASI, I didn’t know what ASI was. I think that’s kind of what most students here think.”

Beltran attended Don Bosco Tech High School in Rosemead. He has volunteered as a mentor through the Junior Achievement organization and the Maravilla Foundation and has also been active in ASI as an academic senator. He moved to Las Vegas in Fall 2008 to serve as a grassroots organizer on the Obama campaign.

Brittani D. Shelton, Housing Commissioner for ASI says, “Beltran displays a high interest in the success of students at CSULA. He understands the importance of … teamwork. He goes into each war prepared to conquer and willing to take a hit for the team.”

In support of student activism on campus, Beltran hopes to connect and interact more with the University by “mobilizing students to reach out to others, working with other organizations on campus and outside of campus, and getting as many people to work together as possible.”

Andrew Franklin, ASI Representative-At-Large for Legislative Affairs says, " Beltran is a take-charge person … During his tenure as ASI President, Beltran has successfully juggled his academic, leadership and personal commitments with incredible success. His ability to lead … has created an extremely prosperous working environment. He is and continues to be a pleasure to serve under his administration."

"Joaquin is without a doubt a person who puts others first, with his ears always open to listen to students, his voice ready to advocate for them, and his heart filled with passion for CSULA” says ASI Spirit Commissioner Virginia Mejia.

Beltran recognizes a number of issue affecting CSULA and its constituents. “We aren’t getting sufficient funding from the state. Let’s work towards a solution that’s going to help get that funding for us” he says.

Protests, meetings, and events have taken place across campus by a number of groups that focus on the tuition increase, and other changes at CSU schools. Beltran explains, “We want to get the attention that says, You know what? We are the future”.

Rahul Gupta, Representative for the College of Business and Economics in ASI says, “Definitely it has been great to work under a leader we can have faith in. He dedicates … energy to ASI. He always has meetings … to be sure that we all are focused on the common goal of ASI.”

Beltran noticed that often student organized rallies last one day, maybe a week and consist of about 100 students who get riled up for a couple of hours, and then they drop the issues.

Staff, faculty, students, and others have already been affected by program reductions. “Next year we are facing huge, huge, cuts. We are looking at some programs having to be eliminated, like the activities programs in kinesiology” Beltran says. “Once a program is eliminated, it is really hard to get it back. So I have had conversations with kinesiology to see what we can do as a student government to help maintain those activities.”

“What’s really important this year is that we are creating the Legislative Affairs committee. This is where students can make the most difference.” Beltran continues, “You will be up to date on the legislative issues occurring throughout the state, and you’ll be able to lobby for the CSU, make visits to the … legislature, and find out why they are in support of a bill, or why they are not.” He adds, “That’s a great opportunity for students to really make a difference on this campus; I encourage everyone to get involved with that.”

According to Beltran, ASI scheduling more actions to get student voices heard. “We are working with other CSU campuses and also with all the community colleges, to have a march in Sacramento on March 22^nd.”

Their goal is to as many CSULA students as possible to send a message that higher education needs to be funded. “The bigger this event is, the more of an impact it’s going to have,” he adds.

Beltran got involved in campus politics to make a difference in the lives of students. “That’s one of the reasons why I got involved … to be able to look back and say, I didn’t just live my life and try to make X amount of money. I made these differences in these peoples’ lives and I can move on happy that I was able to change something.”

Elections for ASI take place during the end of the spring quarter. Beltran has said he will run for his second term as ASI President.