Cartoon by Blake Tomzak
Melissa Rodriguez was busy enough last year when she was active in the ASTRA Community Service Club, Phi Theta Kappa and the ASO. This year the 19-year-old honor student is ASO President and Student Trustee.
SWC’s busiest young woman on campus sat down with The Sun to discuss her goals for this year.
What are your day-to-day responsibilities as ASO President?
There are many specific duties that are outlined in the ASO Constitution, for example the power of appointment to campus-wide committees, chairing the executive board meetings and providing leadership and oversight to the entire ASO. However, there are a lot of duties that the president has that are not written in the constitution exactly. For example, I meet a lot with (SWC) President Dr. Melinda Nish, Vice Presidents and the Academic Senate president and we discuss ideas of what we can do for the students so I can get the scope of different perspectives on campus. So there are a lot of responsibilities that are not necessarily written in the constitution of the ASO President duties, but if you want to do the best job possible, you would go above and beyond that.
What was your platform for what you would like to accomplish at SWC?
I think creating better relationships with the other trustees on the board is the best place to start, because sometimes as the student trustee I think that they do not feel like they are really part of the board. We have set up meet and greets with the officers and the Trustees in order to start to bridge that gap.
What is most important to me is feedback from the students.
I would like to bring anything that comes to the board to senate meetings and executive meeting ahead of time in order to hear what other student representatives have to say on the different policies, because that is what should really drive my advisory votes on the board. We are here to represent them.
How will you help combat student apathy and promote a “Jaguar spirit” on campus?
We are planning to start task forces on campus, and one of those is going to be an athletic spirit/pep-rally task force. We are going to try to get different students, even if they are not part of the ASO, to try to promote sprit on campus and support our athletics programs and arts programs because they all work really hard and they need to know that we are there for them, we support them and we are proud of them. The way to do that is by going to all of these events and promoting these events.
Last year’s voter turnout was slightly larger than the year before, however still only five percent of the students on campus voted. How do you plan on involving students more this semester?
Our biggest problem on this campus is students are not informed of the activities that happen on campus and voting is a part of that. They do not know the candidates and I believe that is what stops students from voting because they cannot make an informed decision. I believe that the fact that the ballots are now available online should increase voter turnout because it is easier to access. It is just a click to vote!
One of the ways we are reaching out to students is by letting them know that we are a community that they are a part of. We try to be out on Jaguar Walk everyday in order to get students signed up for our newsletter and updates on activities happening during the week and how they can become involved.
Social media is probably one of the most important and effect tools to reach students. I have been working a lot with our vice president of public relations, Pricilla Morales, to help promote the activities not just from the ASO, but the entire campus.
As you’ve mentioned before, you are also the student trustee. Can you talk about what that means?
The Student Trustee is the student seat on the board of the locally elected trustees. I am there to provide a student perspective on policy directions and decisions that the board makes. Not only am I the student trustee, I represent the well-being of the entire institution so I must also take into consideration the campus community perspective while also providing input from students.
Although I cannot formally vote, I have a very important advisory vote and am entitled to ask questions and provide my opinion on things as well as receive the same materials that other trustees receive. I can always take concerns to the board from the campus community in order to make a change, policy-wise especially.
Is there any issue that you would take a hard-line against the governing board on if it was brought up and you were against it? Something that you are passionate about?
What I am really passionate about is anything that involves students. Any cuts being made against the library services, hiking fees in the bookstore, anything that would affect tutoring or the academic success center and of course the student center are all things that affect students. Overall, I would take a hard-line on anything that infringes on the students’ rights.
Could you talk about your fellow executives on the ASO Executive Board?
Alyssa Cox is the executive vice president and she is in charge of overseeing the Senate, appointing any chairs to senate committees, giving the ASO reports at governing board meetings and taking my place if I were ever unable to make it. She’s my right-hand.
Our social vice president is Virginia Perez-Gonzalez and she is in charge of organizing all of the senators to help put on events, chairs the activities committee and is in charge of all of the activities and events that occur on campus.
There is also Aileen Contreras, who is the vice president of clubs. She chairs ICC and Club Links and overall is in charge of helping the clubs with their training and seeing that they are being heard and represented.
Our vice president of public relations is Priscilla Morales and she is in charge of promoting events on campus and informing students on any policy changes that occur and any national or local legislation that is passed and affects students directly.
We also have a vice president of finance and that is Estela Delgado Rodriguez, whose budget was recently approved. A few differences in her budget include that she has increased allocations for clubs this year and we are looking to write an amendment later this year in order to increase funds for scholarships.
Finally, we have Ruben Meza, who is our executive secretary. He is in charge of recording all the minutes and organizing all of our documents and resolutions.
How do you feel about the sexual assaults that have occurred on campus?
I think things will be improving because we will be hiring a new Title IX coordinator and we have the new blue poles. I think the demonstrations on how to use the blue poles will help students feel more comfortable going up to the button ad pressing for help. I don’t think many students are going to be willing to try it and push the button themselves until they see someone else try it. I also think that if violations arise and students feel uncomfortable going to an administrator, having someone to express concerns to will help students be heard.
What are your current ideas and specific goals for the ASO?
Our first goal is to increase the amount of honors courses offered because the rate of completion for the program is excruciatingly low. We want to promote awareness of the honors program because it really helps students stand out in the transfer application process. We want to be able to help students transfer by allowing them to take these courses that will further prepare them to take the classes at the UCs or CSUs that are more intensive.
I feel like many students on this campus do not know who their ASO representative is or what ASO even is, so our most simple but important goal is to have monthly open forums in the student center or right outside of it. These will be helpful so we can really communicate with students and so that they know who we are and feel like they can come up to us and give us their input. I think it’s a great way for students to get to know who we are and how we can best serve them and have a real dialogue.
One of our bigger goals, which we are not sure will get done in our term but would like to start researching, is tackling the transportation issue that a lot of the students face when crossing the border to get to school. What we want to do is start a shuttle service from San Ysidro to SWC that goes directly to SWC without having to make different transfers on buses and trolleys. We plan on conducting a survey to attain statistics on how many students make that 3 a.m. trek every day.
We also would like to reform the textbook rental program. I believe that the agreement we currently have with the bookstore is not working because there is only a few dollar difference between purchasing the textbook and renting it. That’s not what we wanted. We originally wanted a 40 percent deduction. We are not seeking to make any profit. We would prefer to reinvest the money and be able to buy more textbooks. We would also like to start a textbook lending program with the library. Students would not have to pay at all and would be able to check it out like any other book at the library and keep it the whole semester if needed. We want to provide a lot of affordable options for students.
Our next goal is to modernize the marquee outside of the Cesar E. Chavez Student Services Center. What we are thinking of doing is buying a digital bulletin board and placing it in the student center so they will look at it and see events happening when they walk in.
Our final goal is the laptop rental program. We tried it last year, but it wasn’t very successful. A huge problem was that it was started with Chrome Books, but then when I received one, I realized that I did not have access to Outlook or any other Microsoft programs because it was Google based. Students were just unable to get the programs that are crucial to being successful here.
