Associated Students concludes town hall series on Student Center renaming

Associated Students concludes town hall series on Student Center renaming Associated Students concludes town hall series on Student Center renaming The student government’s ad hoc committee to rename the San Francisco State University Student Center spent two days hearing from the campus community to determine a new identity for the student life hub. Cole Fowler, Staff Reporter • Oct 12, 2026 Jayden Santos Xpress Magazine Editor-in-Chief Claudia Perez Aguilera speaks at the town hall meeting at the Student Center on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (Jayden Santos / Golden Gate Xpress) Associated Students of San Francisco State University wrapped up its second day of town halls on the ground level of the SFSU Student Center Wednesday afternoon. The student government invited the campus community to discuss potential new names for the student center formerly named after disgraced labor rights activist Cesar Chavez.  The town hall meetings are the AS’ latest push to deliver a renaming recommendation to its Board of Directors by the end of the month for final ratification by both university President Lynn Mahoney and the CSU’s Board of Trustees by the start of the spring 2027 semester. A small panel of members of the Student Center Renaming Ad Hoc Committee, formed last April, gave campus community members up to three minutes to publicly voice concerns, context, ideas and recommendations relative to the renaming process. AS also invited participants to submit written comments via a QR code. The committee held four one-hour-long hybrid town halls. Committee members heard from 58 public commenters over two days, 18 of which submitted written feedback. AS Assistant Executive Director of Governance, Christine Amador, says the committee ultimately landed the days and times upon inquiry into course offerings for both undergraduate and graduate students, with the most on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. “They really wanted to ensure that the town halls were as accessible as possible,” Amador said. “That’s also why we had the Zoom option as well, so that commuter students…were still able to have the same platform regardless of in which modality they came.” Wednesday’s pair of town halls platformed 26 public commenters, consisting of students, faculty, staff members and alumni expressing thoughts on the renaming. While some offered general concerns and questions about the process itself, others advocated for specific naming pathways, with many honoring Bay Area-based social justice movements or activists. Five speakers on Wednesday voiced support for the League of Filipino Students’ ongoing campaign to dedicate the student center in honor of Lyle Prijoles, an SFSU alum and Filipino-American activist who was among the 19 killed last April in a clash between the Philippine Army and rebel forces in the Negros Island municipality of Toboso. LFS member and second-year history major, Alex Ruiz, who helped launch the renaming campaign in late August, sees  Prijoles’ legacy of championing human rights at home and abroad as a means to exemplify what it means to live by the university’s mission of “pursuing knowledge” and “advancing social justice and positive change in the world”. The Associated Students Ad Hoc Committee listens to a speaker during the town hall meeting at the Student Center on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (Jayden Santos / Golden Gate Xpress) “He was the living embodiment of not just what it means to be an [SFSU] student and alum,” Ruiz said. “Lyle was not some millionaire who donated a bunch of money to the school. He was a regular guy, a student like us, who did some really brave things.” Many students, like Queer Alliance assistant director and fourth-year music major Gabriel Mesa, cautioned against renaming the building after another individual, arguing that placing a movement’s image on the shoulders of figureheads poses the risk of delegitimizing it. “If we idolize people like that in that way, we are just setting ourselves up to be disappointed again,” Mesa said. “It is, in my opinion, significantly healthier for the student body to put our faith in values and movements rather than in people.” First-year geography major, Mik Shevelenko, echoed Mesa’s sentiments. Shevelenko says the fallout from the Chavez allegations, which forced governments and institutions statewide to reckon with the dozens of landmarks attached to his tainted legacy,  compelled him to speak publicly on the renaming despite being new to campus and not knowing much else about it. “Individual people are going to have skeletons in their closet,” Slefelenko said. “The individual focus of one person neglects the whole story of everyone being a part of it.” When asked about these concerns, Ruiz acknowledged that similar discussions had taken place within LFS prior to launching the campaign to commemorate the student center in honor of Prijoles. “We’re not doing this to put Lyle on a pedestal to make him seem like a grand historical figure,” Ruiz said. “We’re doing it to honor all of the Negros Island 19. We’re doing it to honor the ongoing fight for justice and liberation.” Some speakers pointed out the exclusionary nature of honoring one social movement’s legacy over another. SFSU alum and senior credential analyst at the College of Education, Myla Adeva, suggested a more general name for the building, such as the “Gator Student Center.” “The most important piece of the puzzle at a university setting are the students,” Adeva said. “I’m all for naming it for a movement, but how could we choose which movement is worthy of being named versus another?… Let’s celebrate and be proud of being a Gator.” International relations professor Lucia Volk suggested committee members periodically revisit the renaming process in order to reflect an ever-changing campus culture. “In an ideal world, I would like us all to, every four or five years, go through a reassessment of what we remember and see what else we might want to remember,” Volk said. “The core of what we’re doing is doing the same old thing over and over again and I would love that to be some thought given to commemorating differently.” Among the diverse voices heard by the committee Wednesday was a surprise appearance by alum Carlos “Kookie” Gonzales, the San Francisco-born muralist behind the Cesar Chavez mural debuted alongside the new name in May 1994.  Gonzales met with student organizers from MELA de San Pancho and expressed curiosity about the renaming process, to which the committee responded by inviting him to their next meeting slated to take place in late October. “I wasn’t expecting to see him,” Amador said. “I think it speaks to the gravitational pull of not only our student center, but our campus, that our alumni…continue to come back to visit our students and to be a part of our ever-growing community.” View Story Comments 0 Like This Story Share on Facebook Share on X Email this Story Print this Story Leave a Comment More to Discover More in Campus Gators put down Wildcats in sweeping fashion Faculty heads raise concerns over changes to department chair time base policy SFSU’s inconsistencies in addressing accessibility leave disabled community frustrated More in News Students weigh in on whether or not to reopen the Great Highway ‘First come, first served’: Student organizations lack funding Lowrider: A tradition built to last as San Francisco Lowrider Council celebrates 45 years About the Contributors Cole Fowler, Staff Reporter Cole Fowler (he/him) is a broadcasting and electronic communication arts (BECA) and journalism senior at San Francisco State University and a first-time staff writer for Golden Gate Xpress currently based in San Francisco. A lifelong Northern Californian, Cole has been an avid news buff and media enthusiast for over a decade, with a particular interest in understanding how media shapes the world around us. He enjoys thrifting, vinyl collecting, and podcasting, developing and producing an original podcast, The Bite Back, for the SFSU Student Union since early 2025. Cole Fowler (él, de él) es un estudiante de BECA y periodismo de la Universidad Estatal de San Francisco y escribe por primera vez para el equipo de Golden Gate Xpress. Actualmente él vive en San Francisco. Cole, quien ha vivido toda su vida en el norte de California, ha sido un ávido seguidor de las noticias y entusiasta de los medios de información por más de una década, con un interés particular en comprender cómo estos moldean el mundo que nos rodea. Le gusta comprar en tiendas de segunda mano, coleccionar vinilos y hacer pódcasts; desde principios de 2025, desarrolla y produce un pódcast original llamado The Bite Back para la Unión de Estudiantes de SFSU. Jayden Santos, Engagement Editor