Cyrill Maclan and Laura Del Castillo ran against each other for student body president last spring. Today they are on the same side of a struggle, fighting what they call dysfunction in the Associated Student Organization.

Maclan said ASO meetings are random, chaotic and ineffective because student leaders do not follow Roberts Rules of Order or ASO by-laws. Del Castillo blames the ASO’s faculty advisors for not providing adequate training or support.

In a lengthy email to the college governing board and SWC President Dr. Melinda Nish, Del Castillo complained that ASO Advisor Aaron Starck has “shut down” her attempts to call meetings to discuss the use of student funds to send ASO advisors to a student leadership conference. Del Castillo said Starck insists student funding should be used to send himself and Student Activities Coordinator Yadira Garcia to a conference in Sacramento. Del Castillo said only one advisor is required to attend and she does not want to use student funds to pay for two advisors when she could send another student instead.

In her message to the board Del Castillo wrote, “There are some serious issues in the ASO” including “lack of accountability or financial affairs.”

“There has been a lack of transparency of financial affairs in the ASO in regards to students knowing where all the ASO funds go to,” Del Castillo wrote. “I myself just found out recently that we fund employees, however, it seems that the documents that share the amounts and how much we truly have or what we really spend on seem to be very difficult to obtain.”

ASO funds pay the salaries of Starck and Garcia, Del Castillo said, as well as their travel expenses. She said she and other ASO officials want a full accounting of how ASO funding is spent on “non-student” expenses, personal and activities.

“The current lack of accountability and the authorization of so much money into activity other than student development is not okay and needs to be revealed,” she wrote.

Starck, in an email to Del Castillo earlier the same day, wrote that the expenditures were permitted.

“Campus policy is that student club activities must have an advisor present,” he wrote. “This includes the ASO. With respect to Student Activities Fees, it is my understanding that administration costs associated with providing student activities are an allowable use of student activities fees. As such there is not an issue with respect to paying for advisors to attend a function such as this with the students.”

Del Castillo received some support from first semester senator Sayaka Ridley, who attempted to amend the resolution that will send a second ASO advisor rather than a student senator to the 2013 California Community College Student Affairs Association (CCCSAA) leadership conference. Ridley said the student funding would be better spent training another student.

“We are the future,” said Ridley. “Our generation is the future.”

Senator Charlie Millar argued that both ASO advisors should attend the conference because they, too, are learning.
“We can’t forget who’s guiding us to be leaders,” said Millar.

A similar issue arose when senators discussed a resolution to send three senators, the ASO president, one advisor, the organization Senator, plus three officers to the annual Student Senate for the California Community Colleges (SSCCC) Fall Assembly in Monterey, Calif. Expenses include more than $3,000 for airfare plus $225 registration for each student, for a total of about $7,000. Senator Karla Gadea quickly expressed her concerns.

“I’m a little bit aggravated” said Gadea, “I didn’t know that we had so much money and the fact that we’re sending only three ASO officers… I don’t think that’s enough.”

Other senators disagreed and the resolution was passed.

Maclan said students in the ASO do not receive adequate training to call, conduct and document meetings.

“Members do not have to know Roberts Rules (of Order),” she said. “Members are only encouraged to do some background research on parliamentary procedure.”

ASO senators are not given an introduction to Roberts Rules when they take on their positions, Maclan said. Senators are asked to read a 15-page parliamentary procedure manual in lieu of the 850-page “Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised.”