Photo by Jesus Rios | Staff Photographer

Article by Lawrence Manns | Staff Writer

Sept. 18, 2014

One of the challenges that comes with being the president of a community college’s student body is the constant indifference of the students. Often, all the students want to do is come, get their degree and leave, caring little for the clubs, events, community or government. Newly elected President Ray Orozco and Vice President Ryan Rudolph are aware of this, and are already beginning on remedying the apathy as working toward the other goals of the year.

Orozco’s job as the president is to set goals and lead his cabinet and the rest of the Associated Students of Riverside City College toward them. Orozco has two main goals for his term, the first being that he wants to raise student involvement in the government and the events it puts on. During his time in some of the clubs on campus and later on while he was in the executive cabinet, he noticed that students would come to him during events and express their obliviousness about the event or its status, not knowing that it was free, or open to the public.

“I want to make more awareness of these events and services that we have, because the money we use to get all these together comes from the student services fee, the students paid for it,” Orozco said. “Having a student come up to me and say ‘Oh, I didn’t know’ is bad because we are essentially robbing them of their money and the things they paid for.”

Orozco feels that the use of this money must go back to the students, and to be used effectively, the students need to utilize it.

The second goal Orozco has is to mend the rift between the different parts of the government. In years past, the branches of the government have developed a degree of disjointedness, according to Orozco. In an attempt to bridge this gap, he plans to have all the members of his cabinet attend events put on by any section of the government.

“Having my executive cabinet show up to these things sends the message that it’s not just one section’s event. It is ours with the whole government,” Orozco said.

In addition to his other goals, Orozco also wants to have more options for textbooks. Currently, there is no policy regarding the length of time that a professor is obligated to use one single textbook or edition of one. A professor has the ability to swap out a textbook with another every year if he or she so chooses. In order to combat this, the government is compiling a list of textbooks professors are likely to use for a longer period of time.

“It’s not easy for students to get textbooks, to get the book they need, especially when professors change the book,” Orozco said.  “We are trying to get a list of books that professors will use for the next few years so that students can get a book and actually use it.”

At his right hand, Ryan Rudolph sits as the ASRCC vice president. His job is to make sure that things run smoothly and to manage the different parts of the government.

“I make sure that any of the students that come in here have their questions answered, and are served in whatever ways they need” Rudolph said. “I also help plan events for the different branches of the government. I also make the agendas for different meetings. I’m all over the place.”

His goals fall in line with the president, as he wants more opportunity to serve the students and wants more student involvement.

“The biggest obstacle I see this year is overcoming the student apathy towards getting involved in things,” Rudolph said.  If you get involved, RCC, and community college in general, can do great things for you. We want to figure out how to get the message out there.”

As far as Rudolph is concerned, his main goal is to set an example for others as to how things get done. “This year, I want a little R and R. Reliability and Responsibility,” Rudolph said.