The Associated Students held their first official meeting of the spring semester on Wednesday. Among the points discussed, the board passed a family emergency fund for Francesca Ramona Arriaga, a San Jose State University nursing junior who died on Dec. 8, 2022.
“I think that it’s important that the school can show support,” said Dillon Gadoury, A.S. director of communications.. “I think that it’s awesome that Associated Students also has this backup, emergency family budget in cases where there is tragedy on campus.”
A.S. President Nina Chuang said providing the fund plays an integral role in respectfully acknowledging the experiences San Jose State students share.
“I think that it’s really important for us to take a position of empathy and respect and honor of the students and their experience here at San Jose State,” Chuang said.
The family emergency fund will allocate $1,000 to the Arriaga family.
A.S. Vice President Ikaika Rapanot said the fund was also used by the board in 2021 after the death of Saul Schrader, a junior SJSU business major. It was also used in October 2022 when freshman football player Camdan McWright died.
“I knew of this emergency fund as we have used it in the past, with people such as Camdan McWright and Saul Schrader who unfortunately passed away,” Rapanot said. “I figured as a member of our community in San Jose State, that it was only right to do our due diligence to help the family, as much as we can.”
He said, while he didn’t know Arriaga personally, her death not only saddens him, but deeply affects the entire SJSU community.
“We are all part of a larger spectrum of San Jose State students so whenever we lose one of us, you know, it impacts us all very deeply,” Rapanot said. “Whatever we can do, especially in the positions of power that we have, the authority that we have, we have to do things for the betterment of our community.”
Chuang said she wanted to make it known that the death of someone in the SJSU community adds another layer of complexity to the grieving process for students, and said she is working to make sure conversations about those troubles are being had.
“I can’t imagine what it’s like for Francesca’s family but also for us as college students processing death at this age in our life is something that I’ve recently been talking with administrators about, about the realities of what that is and the hardship of that,” Chuang said.
Gadoury said, although A.S. couldn’t physically support the Arriaga family, having the opportunity to aid them monetarily was a privilege and embodies the A.S. mission to strengthen the Spartan community.
“I think that it’s great that we have the opportunity to even have this backup, worst case scenario $1000,” Gadoury said. “And I know money isn’t everything and I know that showing up to support this family physically and in-person could be even more powerful, but at the least through everything that we do, money can help out in ways whether it’s funeral costs whether it’s bringing family together, for whatever reason a family uses it.”
Gadoury said responding to tragedies swiftly has been a prevalent topic among the board and that their collective willingness to have hard dialogue bolsters effective decision-making.
“One of our biggest board goals we talked about this year is to immediately address controversy, emergency and anything in-between on our campus and we’re fairly a very bold board,” he said. “And I think that makes us really effective because we can have hard conversations.”
