The votes have been counted and the winners have been announced for Moorpark College’s new Associated Student Board of Directors on April 20.
Although the future directors-to-be have technically not been sworn in as of yet, the anticipation for the year ahead seems to be one that will be a plethora of growth for the campus.
Moorpark College proudly welcomes the future President-elect Jon Foote; Vice President-elect J.T. Mendoza; Director of External Affairs-elect Andrew Blackwelder; Director of Finance-elect Moe Moe Chaee; Director of Academic Affairs-elect Krysten Jones; Director of Student Organizations-elect Kris Dowling; Director of Constitution and Rules-elect J.D. Zelman; Director of Public Relations-elect Rachael Weitz, and our next Director of Student Services, Hannah Coyle. The director of Campus Events position, currently to be occupied by Marirose Manuel, may end up being vacant due to talks of Manuel possibly transferring at the beginning of her term.
Composed of a ten-member-board, the MC ASBoD holds weekly meetings on campus, which are open to the public and students. At the meetings the directors discuss strategic plans to enhance the needs for Moorpark College students and other campus issues.
All the elected positions are going to be sworn in after finals and will serve for a one-year term. There will not be any formal meetings over the summer. They will start meeting the first week in the fall semester and will continue on into the Spring 2012 semester.
Future Director of Constitution and Rules J.D. Zelman, said that one of the main tasks that he wants to take on when he begins his duty as director of constitution and rules is to further stream-line our constitution and standing rules, and to work with the new board to instill new policies for the campus and students, while making sure the standing policies are upheld.
“My real goal is to be sure that our constitution and all of our rules are represented and in use with all of the decisions the board makes,” said Zelman. “I also want to help work to promote the best interest for not just the board, but for the students as well.”
Zelman went on to say that our president-elect has set his sights on developing new positions and environmental policies in the year to come.
MC had 726 students who voted in this election, a slight increase from last year’s 689 students.
There were a total of 19 candidates this year running for 10 open board positions. When comparing to last years numbers, there were a total of 21 candidates running for the same 10 positions.
Kris Dowling, director of student organizations-elect said that one of the first things that he wants to do, as director of student organizations, is to unify the campus clubs.
Dowling believes communication is the key for any organization to be successful.
“Being director of student organizations, you are chair of the Inner Club Council,” said Dowling. “During the council, all 36 campus clubs come together, talk about the agenda and all the clubs will communicate on what they are doing. Because of new policies created by the current board, if the clubs don’t come to the meetings then they do not get funding.”
Dowling said that the incentive for clubs not coming to the meetings and not getting the funding is new and he is going to plan to apply the rule so that the clubs will be persuaded to unite.
“I am going to enforce this rule to the fullest,” said Dowling. “That way more and more clubs can get the funding that they deserve and as well give the opportunity to the clubs that want to be active, have a chance to be active.”
For the student trustee position, there were four candidates running for one position and the winner was a student from MC, Arshia Malekzadeh.
Sharon Miller, associated student advisor at MC said that this year this year brought highlights for the student trustee position.
“What’s interesting about the student trustee election this year was that there was a student running from each one the three campuses, two from Ventura College, one from Oxnard and one from Moorpark and we have not had that in over probably over 18 years,” said Miller.
The election turn out is typically connected to how many students actually voted. The more student candidates that the campus has, the higher voter turnout will be.
Miller went on to say that having active student candidates and the fact that most of the student candidates were well known through out the campus, was a huge plus in getting the election in a tough and tight competition.
“Several of the candidates were affiliated with student organizations and they were endorsed by these student organizations that carry a lot of weight with them, so they would get their members to vote, which would bring in a lot of votes,” said Miller. “Those endorsements are huge.”
All new elected officials are responsible for the business of the Associated Students which is in keeping with the business of the college itself.
