by Nico Patakidis

Associated Students (A.S.) held their last Board of Directors meeting of the Fall 2025 semester on Dec. 5, following the impeachment of the previous Officer of External Affairs and Officer of Social Justice, Equity, and Inclusion. 

Throughout the semester, the A.S. sub-committee on bylaws has been working on updating various policies to be more clear to those who may not be familiar with the terminology used. A.S. Board Coordinator Chelsea Belden has been working on these policies and said that their goal is to remove outdated practices, update language to be more inclusive and ensure that the bylaws and policies align with one another. 

“These policy updates are not new initiatives,” A.S. Executive Director Kendra Higgins said. “They have been listed as priorities for at least the past two years, but previous boards lacked the capacity to thoroughly review them. Now that we have an active board and functioning committees, we can move this work forward.”

As seen in the 2025-2026 directors tracker, many policies being updated were assigned on Nov. 7 and forward. Higgins said that the process of deciding which policies are updated begins with the most straightforward and outdated policies. Many policies and bylaws are intertwined, meaning that they cannot be updated in a linear manner. Instead, groups of policies are reviewed and updated congruently. 

Belden highlights the importance of updating the A.S. bylaws and policies as well as the importance of members’ compliance with them. The California State University (CSU) Chancellor’s Office recently audited CSU Northridge (CSUN), finding inadequate compliance with CSU policies and procedures. Mentioned in the audit was the need for CSUN’s A.S. to update their bylaws and policies to reflect current practices.

“The recent events within our A.S. have absolutely no bearing on this project, but the findings of this audit have certainly highlighted for us the importance of being compliant,” Belden said over email.

Following the A.S. standing committee reports were board reports, in which Administrative and Finance Vice President Nate Heron shared progress on a survey regarding A.S. sub-committee member compensation. The survey aims to capture the ideas of students and current sub-committee members regarding potential forms of compensation. Heron said that he also wishes for the survey to highlight other values and reasons for joining a committee.

“I’m going at it [through] a lens of the conversation surrounding committees, because I don’t want it to be strictly on the compensation focus,” Heron said.

While the survey has been sent out to current A.S. committee members, it is available for all students to complete. The survey is not currently posted anywhere, however Heron mentioned that committee members are free to forward it to anyone interested in taking it. Heron said that should this survey lead to committee members receiving compensation, the money would come from the $68 Associated Student Body student fee included in the cost of enrollment, as the A.S. budget does not currently have somewhere else to pull money from. Despite this, Heron notes that if there is a strong response to the survey calling for compensation, work would be done to ensure students are compensated. 

“Implementing compensation would require adjustments in the next A.S. budget cycle, as there is no existing line item that could absorb this cost,” Heron said. “Realistically, allocating funding for compensation could require reducing funding for other A.S. programs and services that students currently rely on.”

Next semester, A.S. board meetings will be held on Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. in NHE106 every other week, beginning Jan. 28, 2026. 

Nico is a sophomore journalism major with an interest in covering local government and political affairs. In his free time he enjoys hanging out and having fun. Reach him at np211@humboldt.edu.