Yuba College students were invited to a Student Symposium on October 29 to pose questions and make comments to members of the Associated Students of Yuba College (ASYC), the student government.
Present were Donna Evans, President of the student government; Michelle Agripa, Vice President; Rose Herrera, Business Director; Viheet Agarwall, Activities Director; and Senators James Hall, Todd Perkins and Alice D’Ambrosio. Approximately 20 people attended, including members of the faculty, Elizabeth Bowman, the advisor of the ASYC, and Paul Mendoza, Vice President of Student Services. A main concern was getting Yuba College students involved with school activities and improving the state of the College. “I’d like to see more student involvement,” said James Hall, ASYC Senator.
Donna Evans, ASYC President, recalled the difficulty of getting students to attend a Valentine’s Day dance funded by the ASYC. “We did six months of advertising; hundreds of dollars were spent, and only four people showed up,” said Evans. The entry fee was only $2, but the four students who attended were admitted without charge.
Some students said that a lack of attendance and participation in campus events is due to poor communication. A particular problem discussed was no central area on campus where students can find out about college activities. A few students didn’t know of the existence or function of the ASYC until the forum. A solution proposed by some students was placing large bulletin boards or wooden A-Frame boards on campus to announce upcoming events.
“There are not a lot of bulletin boards on campus,” said Todd Perkins, ASYC Senator. “We’re trying to work on that.” The ASYC is planning to write a proposal for the Board of Trustees to change a Bi-Law stating that only five flyers for a single event may be posted on campus.
Activities that have been sponsored by the ASYC in the past include sponsoring various speakers for the Crossing Borders and Building Bridges series and the Taiko drummers that performed last semester on campus. They have also bought Christmas presents for children of single parents in the CARE program and funded uniforms for the Softball team.
The ASYC is mostly funded by money from vending machines on campus. Vice President of Student Services Paul Mendoza said during the forum that the machines generate up to $20,000 annually. Rose Herrera, ASYC Business Director, corrected him, claiming that the ASYC receives only $16,000 to $18,000 annually from the vending machines. According to Herrera, the ASYC currently has approximately $16,000 in its account.
“I’d like input from the students on where we should spend the money,” said Herrera. She invited interested students to see her if they wanted a copy of the budget.
Asked what projects and items of interest they were currently working on, Todd Perkins said, “We’re looking into a student-run bookstore.”
“A book fair is another idea,” said Rose Herrera. The ASYC also plans to send a survey to Yuba College students asking whether or not they would approve of a single beverage vendor on campus. With a single vendor, students lose variety in beverage choices while the ASYC would gain more money that could be used for students’ interests.
Donna Evans also shed light on the hiring of the new college president. “Students are not represented in picking the new college president,” Evans said. The Board of Trustees will interview three candidates for Yuba College President in closed session on Friday, November 2, 2001. However, the Student Trustee, a position also held by Donna Evans, will not be allowed to attend these closed sessions, and will not participate in the final interviews.
Student choice will not considered in the election for the next president of Yuba College. Evans plans to look into the legality of such an exclusion.
A final concern expressed by some students was that they don’t know how to contact ASYC members, despite posted bulletins by the ASYC and repeated announcements of meeting times in The Prospector.
“What’s the process? How do we access you?” one student inquired.
The ASYC meets Thursdays at 12:00pm in the ASYC office, located in the southwest corner of the Campus Center. All students are welcome who wish to attend the meetings.
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