A non-denominational space for prayer, an effort to boost office hours for part-time faculty and a carpool service to eliminate the parking issue at Moorpark College were some of the resolutions voted on from April 29 to May 1.
Moorpark College Associated Students took stances on 35 new resolutions and adopting a new constitution for the Student Senate for California Community Colleges at the General Assembly in Ontario, Calif.
Patrick Nordstrom highlighted some of the resolutions that the A.S. voted on, including one that urges California lawmakers to provide $30 million to increase the categorical fund in the state budget to additionally fund paid office hours for part-time faculty.
“It’s a huge issue affecting all community college students because there are so many part-time faculty on campus that simply don’t have the time or resources to have office hours when the students so desperately need them,” said Nordstrom. “We believe that a student should be able to sit down and discuss something at length with a professor whether they’re full time or not.”
“S 16-03: Implementation of a Non-Denominational Meditation/Prayer Space” resolution advocates for the implementation of meditation or prayer spaces at community colleges.
“Our A.S. decided to vote aye on this resolution because we felt that many Moorpark students could benefit from such a space being implemented on our own campus,” said Nordstrom. “Both UCLA and UC Berkeley have already implemented such a space on their campuses and we feel that community colleges should look to follow suit.”
“S 16-10: Carpool Incentive” resolution helps implementing a program offering discounted parking passes when two or more people purchase a parking pass for a car with the intent of carpooling.
“We feel that this resolution might be a possible solution to the ever present parking issues that face Moorpark College on a yearly basis,” said Nordstrom.
Julie Gonzalez, A.S. president, talked about other more controversial resolutions such as homeless student housing.
“With this we can speak to the president of the campus or another appropriate administrative figure on campus who would be concerned with this resolution and use this to try to get this resolution implemented on campus,” said Gonzalez.
Nordstrom also explained why adopting a new constitution was so important.
“Adopting a new constitution for the organization was of paramount importance because the constitution that the SSCCC currently had was essentially drafted by the then Chancellor of the State, Mark Drummond with limited student input,” said Nordstrom. “The SSCCC has had that constitution from it’s inception in 2006 up until a new constitution was adopted last weekend. The SSCCC has tried for the last four years to adopt a new constitution but was unable to do so until now.”
Nordstrom looked ahead to next year’s A.S. board and how it is ultimately up to them to pursue the measures.
“As our terms in office are ending, we will pass these resolutions on to next year’s board for possible implementation,” Nordstrom said. “Every resolution is only a suggestion of the General Assembly, all individual student governments must look at each resolution and decide what they would like to try to implement on campus.”
