Time to step up

Roundup Staff

 

Dear newly elected ASO,
 
With your election over, you have a great opportunity to impact the students’ lives at Pierce College in a positive way.
 
We congratulate you on being elected. The student body obviously has faith in your ability to determine this school’s future.
 
Good governments proactively represent their constituents. Do not keep your vested power in your pockets.
 
You have a duty and an obligation to attend the various meetings on campus in which a student representation is invited. It is embarrassing to attend the meetings and see the voice of student representatives silent because they are not there.
 
Such meetings include the Academic Senate, Curriculum Committee, the Work Environment Committee and the most powerful shared governance body on the campus, the Pierce College Council.
 
That includes us here at the Roundup. Make yourselves accessible to us so that you can give your side of every story. We’re not out to get you. We just want the truth.
 
You will be handling an upwards of $140,000 of students’ money in the coming academic year. Inform the campus on a regular basis what the money is being used for and encourage students to participate.
 
Have a more visible presence on campus. That includes introducing yourselves to students and finding the problem before they find you. Familiarize yourself with campus operations and procedures and the propose of the ASO, specifically your own duties and the by-laws under which you operate.
 
This also includes how you conduct yourselves at your own meetings.
 
Informal meetings can sometimes be productive, but at other times, pressing issues deserve to be addressed with a sense of serious.
 
At least weeks ASO meeting, the current officers had to address the disqualification of one of the vice presidential candidates. Instead of the somber mood that is to be expected from such a controversial discussion, the mood was happy and playful, with members and officers goofing off and cracking jokes.
 
When the Roundup covered the recent election, the majority of the candidates mentioned bickering inside the ASO and cited that the biggest problem was a lack of unity.
 
Disagreements are part of any governing body, but your focus should be on achieving goals rather than starring in soap operas.
 
The ASO has made positive contributions over the years; the blood drives, the first-day barbecues, your sponsorship of forums and exhibits and donations to various departments and clubs.
 
At other times, your decisions regarding the disbursement of funds seems to be more shoot-from-the-hip rather than a careful assessment of the needs of students rather than the actual cost of an item. Research such requests and invite the applicants to appear before you to answer any question you might have.
 
Please don’t forget that with your position comes a great deal of responsibility, so don’t disappoint the people who gave you that responsibility. We’ll be watching.
 
 

 

(Anthony Gonzales-Clark / Roundup)

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