The Student Associated Council will hold elections for all positions within the Clubs and Events Board and the Student Senate Tuesday and Wednesday, April 17-18, in the Learning Resource Center Lobby.
The outcome of the elections will determine who will run student events and voice student concerns starting July 1.
As SAC Election Chair Amina Hersi said, “If you care about your education, you should be out there [voting]. If you care about what goes on… [if] you have ideas, you should come out and vote.”
Not only will all positions on the two SAC boards—including SAC Senate president and CAEB president—be vacant,but also City College will also have its votes counted in the election of the new student trustee to the Los Rios Community College Board, Hersi explained.
Candidate confirmation packets were due March 20, and are a precondition to running for office. According to a packet obtained by the Express, candidates must collect at least 50 student signatures, and meet eligibility requirements that include a 2.0 GPA and a minimum enrollment of five units, with the intention of being at City College during the 2012-2013 academic year. There is also a “mandatory training” requirement.
According to the election packet, campaign week begins Monday, April 9, with fliers and posters on city college campuses. Two candidate public forums will be held in the quad Tuesday, April 10, and Thursday, April 12, at noon. Candidates are also required to file expense reports: The maximum individual candidate expenditure is $160 at the City College campus.
The candidate forums are the most face-to-face of the election events, where each individual running for office has a chance to speak directly to the voters. Hersi also has a plan to publicize the elections using handouts, fliers, and in-class presentations to spread the word. It’s a critical time, according to Hersi.
Trost agreed. “People are paying a lot more and staying [at City College] longer because they just can’t get the classes they need.”
“[The state is] already cutting money from education, so for that not to happen, we need to go out and vote… we need our classes,” said Hersi. “We want to educate our future politicians, policymakers, teachers and so on.”
But Brent Scott, former 2002 ASG president and 2003 student trustee, said these are in many ways the same issues— budget cuts, textbook costs, minority rights—that his board faced. Scott’s board was the group that signed into effect the Regional Transit Pass that now comes with every student ID in the district.
Scott said from the beginning SAC was different. “It was personal because City College had given so much to me,” Scott said, adding though his board was close, “it was like a job… that’s how my board looked at it.”
Scott has a warning for those who choose not to take SAC seriously. “This is not a popularity contest, like high school,” Scott said. “You’re going to use this [experience] in your everyday life.”
