ASO discusses Farmwalk/Open House, campus clean-up, and funding

The upcoming Farmwalk and Open House, along with the allocation of funds were the topics of discussion at the ASO Senate meeting on Tuesday, April 12.

ASO will be involved in the preparation and activities of the upcoming Farmwalk on Sunday, April 17. Members of the student government will be at the information booths and directing visitors, including members of the community and prospective students around the campus.

Club Council President, Alex Alvarez, said that Farmwalk would be a good opportunity for clubs to be active.

“It’s a really cool way for clubs to just raise money and be able to afford the things they want, by fund-raising,” Alvarez said. “So it’s a really good way for clubs to just be engaged and do all that stuff.”

“I just really want to stress that it’s a great event, it’s a great opportunity for us to put ourselves out there, and represent Pierce,” said David Do, ASO President. “This will definitely boost school spirit and community spirit.”

“Clubs are going to have the opportunity to raise money by working at our Farmwalk,” Alvarez said. “For example, helping out with the water booth, and other responsibilities. The clubs will have monetary compensation for their services which will go into their club account.”

ASO Treasurer, Roxanne Keramati told fellow members that she anticipates that the upcoming Farmwalk will be a fun experience.

“It’s a good opportunity for us to have fun together and provide a service for Pierce,” Keramati said.

Another item discussed was the upcoming ASO Pierce Clean Up day, which is on Friday, April 15, from 9a.m. until 12p.m.

Members of ASO clubs, along with student senators and college administration will all be working together towards keeping the campus clean.

“This is another attempt or goal to have administrators and clubs just to know each other before Farmwalk,” Alvared said.  “We would prefer clubs to know who exactly to talk to during the whole Farmwalk event.”

“We are not going to do any manual labor,” Alvarez said. “No sweeping, no cleaning windows, it’s more of like beautification just to make[the] Pierce campus cleaner and nicer for the day of Farmwalk, and also to get to know the administrators.”

The ASO also discussed allocated funds for action items such as a Finals Study Hall, the BESA Conference, starting a Philosophy club and an Architecture and Design Club Competition.

All of the finance requests were voted on, and the results involved decreasing the amount of money funded for half of the four requests, except for the Finals study Hall and the start-up fund for a Philosophy club.

The Business and Economics Student Association (BESA) Conference request will receive $3,000 instead of the initial $4,745 due to bylaws and regulations that limit the amount of funding to $3,000 for an event such as the BESA conference.

The Architecture and Design Competition will receive $97.64, instead of the initial $1,726.08 asked for.

ASO Vice President, Barbara Lombrano, said that the organization needs to begin planning an upcoming diversity event.

“ASO collaborates with one of the shared governance committees on campus, which is the Diversity Committee,” Lombrano said.

“So we need to really get going to plan this diversity event, and we agreed at the last meeting that we wanted to do this multicultural [event], where people decide on which country and there with be a booth for each one,” Lombrano said.
“We are going to really utilize the social, cultural, community welfare, [and] everybody in senate to get this diversity event up and running and make it a success because it is for the whole campus,” Lombrano said. “It is not just for us, it is for the whole campus.”