Oscar Ortega / Roundup
Seven days are left before anyone can sign up to be a part of the April 13 to 14 elections will be taking place on campus for Pierce College’s Associated Students Organization positions of president, vice president, treasure, club council president and student trustee.
Students whom are elected will officially represent the school community at Pierce and at a district level.
Beginning on Feb. 2 and it is open to any student who would like to apply for any position. Election packets are available to any students that are interested in running for ASO office. Also, there are packets available for Los Angeles Community College District Student Trustee election.
The student trustee position is filled by Rose Bustos from East Los Angeles. This job is unique because of all the offices that are open for election it is the only one that has a pay salary of $500.00 a month plus miles for attending the Board of Trustee and business meetings.
“We are getting ready to select the committee that will verify the candidates’ eligibility. Usually it is done in the third or fourth week after the release of the election packets,” ASO president Christian Marfil-Amatulli said.
The candidates must meet some requirements such as be enrolled in at least five units and have completed 2.0 grades per unit, said Brad Saenz, ASO adviser.
A nominee must not have an academic provision and no more than 80 units complete. The term for each position is one year. It begins from July 1 and lasts through June 30 of the following year, the deadline to summit any packets and to be considered as a candidate is March 2.
In addition, the candidate must have 75 signatures from students currently enroll at Pierce, paid ASO membership, a minimum of six units per semester and be successful at their academic obligation.
“The experience I got from being the president of the ASO office was great. I learned a lot from diplomacy to how to deal with personalities,” said Marfil-Amatulli who is also a public policies major.
Shani Simms is running for president of the ASO and currently public committee chairwoman. Her goal if elected is to follow through and make the students her priority “I want the voice of the students to be heard. I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to run president (of the ASO),” she said.
“I am thinking of running for treasurer,” Katie Williamson said, who is currently vice president of the ASO. She suggested that anyone interested in politics for his or her future, should try to run for ASO office at one point. “It helped me with speaking in public and developed relationship with others. I think, it is a pleasant experience,” she said.
One of the government’s duties is to manage a budget that is received from the students’ membership fee at the time of registration. This budget can average the amount of $185,000 per semester.
The money is distributed for different events within the ASO clubs or sometimes for academic events such as Darwin’s birthday, which was hosted Feb. 12 by the anthropology department and the ASO.
Another example was the financial aid town hall meeting on Feb. 18, which was a joint partnership with the academic senate, financial aid office and the ASO. This event helped students to answer questions of how to apply for financial aid. These and many events are organized in collaboration of the ASO.
For more details and information can be found by visit the ASO office. The names of the candidates will be posted at the office’s bulletin board by March 6.
“(The) election can turn to be ugly between the candidates during the campaign, but usually it goes very smooth,” Saenz said.
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