2008 Woodie Awards
Our Readers React
ByLast update: 5/17/06 at 8:20 AM CST
- Page 1 of 1
| |
|
Join Student Assembly
Editor:
The pulse of any educational institution is its students. When a college or university doesn't know what their students concerns and ideas are, it is missing out on the most vital part of its purpose and meaning.
It is similar to a democratic government not having a forum by which its citizens can be heard or represented.
Here at San Antonio College, we are missing out on one of the links between the institution and the people it serves.
The student government organization has had a history of ebbs and flows. But that is natural in a student life cycle. Some semesters you have the time, others you don't. That's life.
With this cycle in mind, the administration, faculty and students are trying to plant the seeds for a new structure for a student assembly at SAC.
The endeavor has three components.
First, in our pursuit to include as many students as possible, we have opened the door to all enrolled students at SAC, without any limitations based upon GPA or semester hours. The faculty and administration will work to actively recruit interested students.
Secondly, because we know students are busy and may want to attend a meeting to tell us what they think but can't, we will reach out to students through a student survey.
From academic to financial and student life issues, the survey will simply attempt to find out what students are thinking.
It will be distributed campuswide, hopefully every two years. By supporting this idea, the administration has committed to reaching out to the student body in an effort to respond to their needs.
From this survey, we hope to create an agenda that the assembly will adopt to take action on.
Third, the structure of the assembly itself will be maintained by volunteer faculty advisers, so that when students rotate in and out of the assembly, it will not fall apart.
The assembly will function in the form of a direct democracy as opposed to a representative one.
Students will be able to assume leadership positions within the assembly based upon their interest and time.
The faculty adviser will simply help guide the students in their pursuits and assume responsibility for the administrative tasks.
With the institutionalized support system of faculty and staff, it is hopeful that SAC will always have a forum by which student voices can be heard and represented in a legitimate way.
We have a big task ahead of us. And the main ingredient to this is student participation.
So when you have a bit of extra time, come by a meeting, fill out the survey when it comes your way and tell your fellow students about it.
Suzanne Martinez
Political Science Instructor
This is an open forum for the readers of TheRanger.org. Abusive, inflammatory, slanderous, obscene and libelous language will not be tolerated. Please be considerate of other readers when posting comments. This is not the place for personal attacks. The staff of The Ranger.org reserves the right to deny publication of any posts. The comments posted here do not reflect the opinions of The Ranger staff, San Antonio College or the Alamo Community College District.