Amanda Arroway | News Editor
The Associated Students of Riverside City College is currently holding elections for student offices.
Elections will be held from 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. and 4 – 6 p.m. on April 30 and May 1, outside of the Martin Luther King Jr. Teaching and Learning Center.
A total of 16 senators will be elected, as well as student body president and vice president.
The current student body president, Doug Figueroa, is running unopposed for his second term.
Figueroa has recently been in the news after an anonymous flier found on RCC campus revealed that he is a registered sex offender.
At the Associated Students Candidate Forum April 18, three of the candidates running for senate answered questions and discussed their goals outside of the Martin Luther King Jr. Teaching and Learning Center.
The first candidate to speak at the forum was Sabrina Hodge, who has served as a senator for approximately a year.
“I like to represent the students to the best of my abilities,” Hodge said.
“With the Senate, I see a lot of problems come up to us that we can’t always handle… My goal is to have an actual plan so students have the ability to get the knowledge they need here, and move on to transfer.”
The second candidate to take the podium was Garrett McCarver, who claimed to be “the most propuppy senator there is.”
In his opening remarks, McCarver said that his No. 1 priority as senator was to “make sure all puppies have homes.”
A student from the audience asked how McCarver planned to represent the students, and improve the student experience at RCC,
“I am not counting on your vote, there are not enough candidates for the senate at the moment, so I am only dependent on my own vote to get me in the senate,” said McCarver.
McCarver then spoke about how he assisted in streamlining ASRCC’s constitution, and emphasized his primary concern of preserving freedom of speech at the California Community College level.
Rebecca Flores, the third candidate to speak, is running for her second year in Associated Students government.
“I can tell you (being in student government) has been one of the best experiences I have been through in college, she said.
“It has taught me a lot, and helped me to help other students.”
Flores also said that she knows that there are struggles to being a student, and she plans to make student concerns a priority.
“I am here to voice any concern or opinions (students) have. Their concern will be heard, and there will be something done about it.”
Voter turnout at RCC Riverside is notoriously low, with only an estimated 300 student ballots submitted last election.
