Tomorrow’s Leaders?- Student Body President Israel Landa moderates a scarcely attended forum about the upcoming transportation fee vote in the cafeteria on March 18.
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College students are notoriously self centered and have been known to have a narrow focus, so it’s up to student leaders to keep them apprised of what’s happening on campus.
At Riverside City College it is the job of the Associated students of Riverside City College to let students know when things are happening that will directly affect their lives.
Unfortunately, it would appear that ASRCC is more concerned with its own agenda than what’s best for students.
This became clear when student government again neglected to appropriately inform students about an issue that they need to know about.
A transportation fee of $5.50 is being proposed to keep the RTA Go Pass program running. This fee would be paid by all full-time students and would be mandatory and non-waivable.
Students must vote on whether to pass this fee on March 31 and April 1.
ASRCC had a forum on March 18 in the cafeteria to allegedly inform students about the vote.
But, like most of student government’s “forums” there was no advance notice, and the only students there were the ones who happened to be eating lunch at the time.
This mismanagement of students’ needs is just the latest in ASRCC’s continuing mission to keep students as uninformed as possible.
Whenever an issue comes up that students need to know about, student government holds one of its forums. Of course, they generally don’t tell anyone when they’re happening and have them at the most inopportune time possible.
With the seriousness of the time it seems ridiculous that a college the size of RCC has student representatives who don’t really care what the students think.
It is time that student government take a look in the mirror and remove the leaders who have a lack of confidence in the students and start fresh.
With a budget that allows them to do whatever it takes to inform students on issues such as the RTA Go Pass, Student Trustee elections and student government elections and an administration to back them, it is time for RCC’s student leaders to take their jobs more seriously.
They do not have confidence in student concerns about what is going on campus, it’s safe to say with the previous rally on the education budget cuts that the students are concerned about what is happening on campus.
Instead of spending time and money on loud music that disrupt classes perhaps student government could use their resources to create more balanced communication between students and administrators or maybe they could give up some of their budget to establish more scholarships.
The fact is that most students at RCC are dealing with more serious issues and crises than ever before and they deserve representatives who will take their concerns to more seriously do something about it.
After all this isn’t high school anymore, so student government should be about more than planning dances and pizza giveaways.
If the current crop of officers and senators can’t be trusted to put the students’ needs above their own, perhaps it’s time for some government restructuring.
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