New ASGRC Formed
The ASGRC is being led by a new president, Patricia Argie, 17, who is an international student. She has been on the public relations committee and judicial board for a month. She is partnered with Harjot Singh, 17, who is the vice president. He is a domestic student and was on the finance committee last year. They want to make Green River College a place where people communicate more.
Argie said such a lack of communication was reflected in the Q5 movement last year. Having more communication among faculty, administration, and students would have made the problem a lot smaller, she said. To make changes, the ASGRC is planning to have “lunch with faculty” and “lunch with administration.” This will make it easier for students to converse freely with faculty and administration.
The ASGRC wants students to be aware of its presence and future plans. Argie said having meetings as an open forum would allow students to be aware of what the ASGRC is doing.
“I want to make sure that ASGRC is as productive as possible,” Singh said.
“Doing a survey to hear the voices of the students would be another way,” Singh said. The senators have to provide the ASGRC students voices. The student government would make sure that the senators are always interacting with the student body.
“The diversity on the campus is growing. However, the domestic students and the international students don’t have a lot of communication among each other,” Argie said. The international students tend to speak with people from their own country. Forming a bridge between international and domestic students is one of their goals. Even though this movement has been in the ASGRC for a couple of years, there are no changes yet.
“So,” she says, “it is difficult, but starting from having diverse members in the ASGRC would be a good first step for the students.”
Singh wants to assure students that the ASGRC will hold meetings on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so that everyone follows the rules and meetings are productive. These meetings will promote student government; answer any students’ questions about government and let them know what they are heading into.
On asking whether they feel any apathy toward the student government, Argie said that she doesn’t see it now, although she did felt it at the time the election was held. The election, which was held in spring, had only one candidate, although the numbers of seats for senate were extended. This was due to the sheer amount of people applying for the position. They also extended the interview days from two to four.
The ASGRC is a political group in the Green River College. When questioned about whether students should pay attention to politics and get involved, Singh said that it is important to know what is going on. Though Argie said that it is “important but should not be your main focus.” She thinks it is not the main thing to focus on while you are a student, in reference to the students who went to the Bernie Sanders rally instead of attending school.
The year has just started and the new government is working hard to create good plans for it. However, there are some worries that come with this. “The dates are not working the way we expected,” said Argie. The clubs have not yet been ratified. This affects the clubs greatly as they cannot create any events till the ratification is done.
The ASGRC is always open and waiting for your voice. “We are always able to speak,” Singh said.
