The Associated Students of Citrus College amended the language in Articles 4 section 3, Article 8 section 1, and Article 14 sections 1 and 2.
Amendments made to Article 4 section 3 was passed with a 22-9 vote. Amendments made to Article 8 section 1 was passed with 23-7 vote. Amendments made to Article 14 section 1 and 2 were passed with a 26-4 vote.
The ASCC Special Elections allowed students and staff to vote for amendments to the Articles by voting in a booth from 8 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday Oct. 22 and Wednesday Oct. 23 in the Campus Center Mall.
Students and staff were also able to vote online in their Citrus College Wingspan.
Amendments to Article 4, section 3 consisted of changing the language that specified requirements for students who aspired to join student government, Rosario E. Garcia, Student Life Supervisor, said.
Garcia said that ASCC felt it justifiable to amend the language in Article 4 due to concerns for the students and their eligibility to join student government.
“The reasoning behind it is that they felt like it was unfair for certain students, “ Garcia said.
Garcia said that in certain circumstances students wouldn’t join student government because of the requirement of taking a leadership class, Lead 103 in order to be eligible for student government.
“It’s not fair for certain students that don’t have the money to pay for that extra class.it’s an obstacle for certain students to join student government, “ Garcia said.
Garcia said that even though there are about “one or two international students” in student government, they also have a disadvantage because they, “…pay close to $1,000 to take that class.”
Veterans also have disadvantages when joining student government because of the cost of the leadership class, Garcia said.
“Sometimes, their G.I. bill doesn’t cover the cost,” Garcia said. The G.I. Bill is financial assistance offered to U.S. military veterans to cover certain tuition costs.
The leadership class also doesn’t fulfill requirements for a specific major, only fulfilling the requirements for a position in student government.
“Plus, that class is offered on Thursday nights from 7 to 10 p.m.,” Garcia said. “A lot of students take the bus and it’s very late…[especially for] those who live in different cities. They feel unsafe…that was one of the concerns.”
Garcia said that students who want to be in student government and find out they have to take the leadership class withdraw from doing so because of their “full load of classes.”
“Somehow that doesn’t make them a leader? [Just] because they’re not able to even get into that leadership class,” Garcia said.
Anthony Di Santo, member at the ASCC Special Elections booth, said that eliminating the requirement will open doors for a variety of students to join leadership roles in ASCC.
ASCC Vice President, Dustin Glover, said that Citrus College was one of the only two schools that required the leadership class.
ASCC member, Victor Ureño says that regardless, the leadership class was an, “amazing course taught by a resourceful professor.”
“This course does offer interactive lectures, profound guest speakers, and life-implementing information that any student would enjoy,” Ureño said.
Voting for an amendment to Article 8, section 1 was to eliminate “or” out of “and/or” in order to include both the ASCC President and the Commissioner of Public Relations as co-advisors to run their general and special elections.
Amendments to Article 14, section 1 was to remove the term “governing documents” and just include “codes” in the phrase, “ASCC Governing Documents”.
“The governing documents is actually the constitution itself. ASCC has multiple documents that are more like codes,” Garcia said. “The only thing that it changes is that it corrects the actual term of code.”
Changes were made within Article 14, section 2 This section did not include fall semester to be liable for changes made to their Constitution.
Garcia said that before, it stated that amendments, “must be voted within four weeks of the first day of class” of the spring semester. .
The group of students that brought Article 4 to the attention of the ASCC wanted to eliminate the leadership class because it did inhibit them from getting into student government, according to Garcia.
“They presented their points, their reasons, and why they wanted to eliminate that,” Garcia said.
A student can reach out to a board member, whether it be the president, vice president, senator, commissioner or anyone in student government who can persuade the rest of the board, Garcia said.
“They’ll send me an email asking me to add it to their agenda for it to be discussed during their meetings,” Garcia said.
Garcia said that after discussing the amendments to the articles in the first meeting, they have a second meeting to vote on making the changes.
“Everyone has to vote on it even though they already voted. After they vote, everyone else has to vote on it in order to be passed,” Garcia said.
Garcia said that a two-thirds vote of the board is required for amendments to be made.
“They wanted to make it better, more accessible for the next generation of students,” Garcia said.
