With at least double the attendance of the last forum, last Friday’s Associated Students restructuring meeting focused on one of the four newly designed councils, the A.S. Board of Directors. The meeting commenced with questions from the attendees. Similarly to last time, most concerns were with the centralization of power. Organization members questioned the open space which the new structure claims to offer. Most students were hesitant to the changes merely because they fear their representation will be undervalued.

According to Washington Navarrete, criminal justice junior and member of MEChA, the same people who had been running A.S. and were sitting on the councils would also be checking themselves. A student government that governs more than 30,000 students needs as many viewpoints as possible, Navarrete added.

“The restructure has a lot of potential to do this, but it can really go both ways,” Navarrete said

“It is something we have never seen before so it could help us out or it could also backfire.”

The meeting was again run by Arts and Letters council representative Tom Rivera and Afrikan Student Union representative Channelle McNutt. Rivera agreed on the over-centralization the current A.S. faces.

“We are making sure that within each section we do separate that out,” Rivera said. “For example, in the bylaws presented today, we made sure that in the eligibility section of who can sit on the board of directors, a person could not also be elected or appointed to the campus life council.”

Another issue discussed in both meetings was the lack of student awareness on the plans of restructuring. An attendee suggested emailing the entire campus the new, developing policies. The presenters preferred the idea of emailing only the presidents of organizations and council members, to which the same attendee argued that not all San Diego State students are members of an organization.

The next meeting is tentatively scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on July 22 at Aztec Mesa 101.