Next week, I will vote for candidates I truly support. Claudia Andrade, (former Inter Club Council Chair of Finance, Salsa club founder), Luis Bocaletti(current Senator), Geraldine Garcia (current VP of Finance) Colleen McGuire (current VP of Administration) and Izaac Singh (current VP of Programs) are the few senatorial candidates who have fought for student rights and equity. They have demanded change. They are students who seek to protect fellow students from powerful government and beauracratic procedure.
Garcia led a budget that passed with a unanimous vote and came up with an effective timeline to get the budget complete. The the only reason why the process was delayed was due to the dispute over the marquee, a project that all of these candidates objected to, in terms of the way it was brought to the table, with no documentation. Garcia has been one of the few people who has gone out to talk with programs that asked for funding.
Some other major accomplishments over the last two years included canned food drive for student parents at the child development center and a dance that raised over $700 for victims in San Salvador.
In addition, McGuire was one of the four students who demanded the math department’s accountability for equity in success rates for math, at the district board of trustees.
My voice is not alone in the support of these individuals. Faculty members, including Eugene Fugimoto, a director of the Student Equity Plan and Rowena Matsunari, adviser to Asian Pacific American Islander and to the Women’s Awareness and Allies club support their ideals on diversity and equity.
Over the past year, La Voz witnessed much inactivity from your student government. (See last week’s editorial.) Singh says, “I want to clean-up the senate and take the constructive criticism of La Voz.” (See last week’s editorial.)
So please, if you are interested in seeing progressive change on campus, if you want your interests represented, if you are tired of business as usual in campus politics, vote for these candidates next week and encourage your friends to do so as well. Support the progressive revolution here on campus, and please do not let the progress that we have lost, be gone forever.
These senators “Got My Back.”
