'Now under new leadership' -

Lorrie Reyes / Roundup

Being the voice of Pierce College students. Class. A calendar packed with meetings. Studying. Talking to students and faculty. Organizing. Recruiting members. Planning school events. Packing and preparing for a leadership conference in Sacramento, Calif. Packing and preparing for a lobbying trip to Wash., D.C. And not to mention trying to keep up with a social life.

These are all fresh on the plate for Shani Simms, Pierce College Associated Students Organization president.

Simms’ first 100 days in office have flown by.

Since being elected in July, Simms has tried to build a strong bond throughout the ASO. With previous presidents squabbling with fellow members, she has strived to bring her senate together.

With the high turnover and the flack ASO has had in the past, Simms’ humility has helped her stay grounded.

“One of the things I’ve really worked on is making sure we all get along as leaders,” Simms said. “If we are bickering and fighting we won’t be able to do anything for the students.”

During the summer, the ASO found itself without its elected vice president from the spring semester. Thanks to Simms’ recruiting efforts when the fall semester started, there were three senators up for the newly opened seat.

Recruiting students to ASO has been one of Simms’ strong suits.

“By the first meeting we had a pretty large ASO,” said Brad Saenz, ASO adviser. “(And) it was really all because of (Simms).”

As for the students and faculty, Simms has kept her relationships strong by changing the ASO’s constitution to uphold better representation of the entire campus.

The ASO constitution requires each student to represent an academic department. In prior years, there were two senators per department.

The proposed change would allow there to be more academic departments represented by having only one senator per department.

Although some felt the change wasn’t beneficial to the school since it makes joining ASO harder, the motion passed, 9-0, with three abstaining votes.

One decision that wasn’t controversial in Simms’ 100 days of office was the planned lobbying trip to Wash, D.C. at the end of October.

Although ASO attends a yearly leadership conference in Sacramento, Calif., Simms has successfully organized ASO’s first lobbying trip in two years to Washington D.C.

The Pierce ASO will be lobbying a bill that affects community college federal financial aid, according to Saenz. Simms booked a meeting with California Senator Diane Feinstein’s aide.

There are many plans in the works for ASO and Pierce students when they return.

Pierce will host a talent show called “Pierce’s Got Talent” and have multiple blood drives this semester. A 5K run is planned for the spring.

“‘Now under new leadership’ is this year’s ASO theme,” Simms said.

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