The exclusion of the ASCC-appointed student in the full-time faculty employment selection committee has emerged a lot of doubt in whether or not Cerritos College is committed to its mission statement and is instead determined to silence the student voice.

Human resources prepared a draft of the full-time faculty employment selection procedures in which it excluded the participation of one non-voting student representative appointed by the Associated Students of Cerritos College.

Whereas before, a student representative was required to be part of the selection committee, now it is considered optional, meaning it is up to the department that is hiring to determine if the student will in fact take place in the committee or not.

Human resources should be ashamed of itself to have even considered excluding students from the selection committee and depriving students their right to voice their opinions in such a critical matter.

Cerritos College’s Web site states its mission is to serve the community and build futures through learning, as well as promote student success.

If that is its mission statement, then how dare it have the audacity to even consider making such an inconsiderate and imprudent move like that.

Faculty senate president Debra Moore stated that once she received the draft from Human Resources, she resorted to the California community college academic senate listserve to try to get an idea of how other community colleges went about in including or excluding students in their hiring processes.

Out of the 27 responses she received from 27 colleges, two-thirds of them excluded students in their hiring processes and had no student participation whatsoever.

The other third included students in their processes whether it was as a non-voting member or a voting member.

However, just because most other community colleges are deciding to ignore the voice and participation of the people they are there to serve, does not mean that Cerritos College has to go that same route.

The issue here is not that students are not voting members in the selection committee because they were never voting members to begin with, but it is that they are being omitted from the entire process.

The purpose of the student representative is solely to provide his input and knowledge of what he thinks in respect of the candidate and whether or not the candidate should be allowed to move forward in the hiring process.

No matter what his opinion might be though, it is only expressed and does not influence the vote in who gets to move forward.

If it does not affect the vote then, why is Human Resources so determined to keep students out of the selection committee?

The only thing left to believe is that it is focused on doing so because it simply wants to silence the voices of students and feel their importance in the process is too insignificant to be recognized or considered.

This not only gives off a horrible reflection of the school, but it also shows how much it takes into consideration its students.

It obviously does not care about its students and would rather suppress their voices in the process of selecting someone who is being hired to teach and serve them.

How dare the school say that it is building futures through learning and promoting student success when it is ignoring and excluding the very students it is here to serve?

It is like saying that a parent is looking to hire someone to watch over and teach his or her children without taking into consideration said children or listening to their needs and wants.

It is utterly inconceivable, imprudent and inconsiderate for the school to be considering such a decision.

The ASCC, as well as the rest of the campus, has every right to react and stand up for its rights and for the chance for its voice to be heard.

Show up at faculty senate meetings, express letters of concern and raise awareness that the voices of the students on this campus are being ignored and silenced.