Tuesday’s court meeting had the presence of both Student Activities Coordinator Amna Jara and Dean of Student Services Dr. Gilbert Contreras.
Jara was there to express her congratulations to the court for doing an “outstanding job” in the ASCC presidential and trustee elections.
She also made the recommendations for the court members who will be continuing in court in the fall semester. A couple of her recommendations were to plan for in person elections next year and make corrections to the bylaws now.
Associate Justice Trent Coates also suggested the increase of mobility for court during the elections. An increase in mobility would make addressing complaints faster.
The next agenda item was an update by Contreras on the proposed upgrades to the student ID center. He expressed the need for an increase in branding on the cards. There will also be a new card vendor in order to increase the quality of the cards.
The new vendor would also have onsite technical support and a backup printer. There will also be upgrades to the hardware that makes the cards and the software that programs them. The location of the I.D. center will also change.
Of course upgrades aren’t free and Contreras is requesting to spend about $23,000 from the ASCC special projects account to pay for the upgrades. If approved, the new ID cards will be used in the fall semester.
Contreras’ second update was on an upcoming proposal to renovate the student activity center building. The building will cost about $100,000 and would last until the year 2021 or 2022 which is when the building is scheduled to be torn down in the Cerritos College construction schedule.
For Contreras, the proposal and the new renovations are needed because of the lack of functionality in the current building.
“I don’t see in this area enough work stations or space, or access to technology for our student leaders, so I would like to improve their ability for them to do their job,” he said.
He also expressed the need for more branding and art works to make the ASCC government meeting room actually look like a government meeting room and move away from the temporary furniture.
The money for the renovations would come from the ASCC budget reserves which currently has about $1 million in its account. The proposal is still in its early stages and needs the input from Cerritos College students.
The question students will be asked is “do you want to spend money and invest in renovations to the student activity building?”
Associate Justice Trent Coates, who is planning on returning to court next year, said the upgrades to the building are a great idea.
He said, “The students six or seven years from now will have a great building, but they are not here now and the students now and six years from now work hard, it’s not fair [that they don’t have a great building.]”
He goes on to say that even the addition of a basic printer would be an improvement to the building. “Right now the ASCC court has to use the presidents’ and vice presidents’ printer and sometimes they are not available, that causes delays and leads to things [on the agenda] being missed.”
