By Gregor Elgee
The 2016 Student Leadership elections
Four student candidates are running for two elected positions in the Associated Student Government (ASG) this month. three are running for Club Affairs Officer — formerly known as the Recognized Student Organizations Officer — and one is running for ASG President. While candidates were required to submit a series of essay questions last year, the application dynamic changed in 2016 as students were asked to collect 50 signatures to petition for the ASG positions. The petition deadline was April 11.
Although there were three elected Student Leadership positions open last year, the Communications Officer position became a non-elected, hired position in 2016 at the discretion of the ASG.
The Positions
ASG President Job Description:
The job is to act as a liaison between the students and the administration of the college. They chair all ASG Board Meetings and act as the student voice in Shoreline’s board of trustees meetings. The president is responsible for sitting in on College Council, joining the Governmental Affairs Officer in coordinating with the Washington Community and Technical College Student Association (WACTCSA) and working in conjunction with the Vice President and Director of Student Life.
Club Affairs Officer Job Description:
The Club Affairs Officer is responsible for overseeing the 54 current recognized student clubs and organizations on campus. With around 10 students in every club, it is ultimately their duty to communicate with over 500 people on campus. They act as a liaison between clubs and the Student Leadership Center Staff; Assist students in the creation and renewal of Recognized Student Organizations (RSOs), and they coordinate and chair United Club Council (UCC) meetings.
The Candidates:
Editor’s Note: The Ebbtide incorrectly published Jia “Bruce” Ji’s responses as Yuron Anggara’s in the April 22 edition of the Ebbtide. These are the corrected answers.
Yuron Anggara – Club Affairs Officer candidate
How are you currently involved on campus?
“Recently, I volunteered for the international student orientation so I was involved in helping new international students get their way around school, (where to) do their compass test. I also helped to organize the orientation.”
Why are you running for the Club Affairs Officer position?
“I was motivated by Winston, the current Club Affairs Officer. I see people involved in clubs and I think clubs are a big deal when you’re actually in school.. I think it not only helps you to double up as a person but it also helps for your University (transfer). I want to be involved in organizing clubs and make it more comfortable for other people (to get involved)…“
What do you see as your biggest challenge for the position?
“I think the biggest challenge will be adjusting to what people want. Different people want different things. To satisfy the whole school as one, making the adjustments will be a challenge for me. There will be pros and cons to everything and I will have to make the best (decision) to make it good for everyone.”
How do you intend to improve student life here at Shoreline?
“What I want to do is to make it comfortable for all the students, to motivate them to get involved more…I want everyone to get involved in something and learn how to get out of their comfort zone, not just make it a club for the sake of a club… make events out of it and make something productive out of it.”
Rexiati “Ed” Dilimulati – Club Affairs Officer candidate
How are you currently involved on campus?
“I am involved in DECA and the Economics club. I also work at the tutoring center and help students with their ESL, accounting and geology, classes.”
Why are you running for the Club Affairs Officer position?
“I really started running for this position when I joined the DECA club. From the DECA club and economics club, I know the importance of managing clubs and the importance of involvement in clubs. I gained lots of good experience and I have lots of good friends in those clubs.”
What do you see as your biggest challenge for the position?
“I think my biggest challenge would be to increase the quality of our clubs. I know we have 54 clubs active on campus now but for example, the Kung Fu club, (has) 20 to 30 students signed up but actually we only have like 3 to 4 people really going to that club every week. I think the biggest challenge is to increase those clubs’ quality and make more students attend those clubs.”
How do you intend to improve student life here at Shoreline?
“I think I would encourage students to get involved in lots of activities. The interaction you have with the students will help you to gain more friends and the friends will help you do more stuff out of your classes or during your free time…I think it is (also) integral to set a goal for each club to encourage club members to be fully involved in their club’s activities… I know lots of clubs that do not have that much interaction with others.”
Jia “Bruce” Ji – Clubs Affairs Officer candidate
How are you currently involved on campus?
“Last winter I was a member of Chinese Culture Club, last quarter I was a member of DECA club, right now I am a member of the Economics Club. Since last spring I have been the president of the Kung Fu Club. I got a mini grant and acquired funds for the (Kung Fu) club and credited activities.”
Why are you running for the Club Affairs Officer position?
“First I want to improve myself…In this position I can learn more about how to manage and how to build leadership. And for other reasons, I can help more people if I’m the ASG officer, especially for the clubs. Many Shoreline Community College students, they won’t have the funds to get their activities and also they want to make friends and have a better community.”
What do you see as your biggest challenge for this position?
“I think the biggest challenge is how to manage these clubs. As a Club Affairs Officer, I think you should know every club and what their duty is. The best way to know this is to join in every club. The most challenging thing is balancing your time and asking ‘how do you do this well?’”
How do you intend to improve student life on campus?
“Give them more opportunity to improve themselves…When they are doing these activities they will have the opportunity to improve themselves because they know what they should do and even in the future, with business or other things, they know what students should learn and they have the bearings of how to do it.“
Winston Montgomery Lee – ASG Presidential candidate
How are you currently involved on campus?
I am currently the Recognized Student Organizations Officer, which next year will be called the Club Affairs Officer. I oversee 54 recognized student organizations on campus which is double compared to last year.
Why are you running for ASG president?
“This year I have seen, like what my platform says, is that we have a lot of really good things happening on campus. We have our Civic days, we have our Earth Week and as well our school is doing a lot of construction projects. Like currently we are doing the welcome table construction, over the summer we were doing a library construction remodel, the school is planning to build a new building; a new science building. As well, we are doing research for a dormitory and furthermore they are going back to the PUB to review all the offices and student use and our hang around area to see if they are appropriate and stuff. That needs someone who is experienced in the student government, to make sure the student voice is being heard by the administration. That’s really important because why we have to fix this latest building on our campus is because seven years ago or ten years ago when the old administration started planning on this building, they don’t really….care about…I am not hesitant in saying, they were not very mindful and careful about student voice and student opinions…My job is to ensure that the student voice is being heard. As well, a lot of the system’s transparency we still need to work on; keep doing the good work our current president Ashley (Cowan) has been doing. I think that’s really important and feel I have a lot of unfinished business and a lot of promises that I made over this year that I couldn’t finish within a year so I see the need that I should run again as a higher position to better serve our students.
Do you think that running for President will make it easier to get those things done?
“Of course, definitely. Because as a Recognized Student Organizations officer if I have any concern I have to go through my supervisor, I have to go through my president and President Cowan will represent my voice in board of trustees and regular meetings with the deans as well as other communication that she is currently doing right now. And if now, I’m president, I can bring the concern up right away… And I was saying, the school needs an internal student body president, who is always around the campus, that students always know where I am, that students know where to find me, and what I am doing.”
What do you see as the biggest challenge for your position next year?
“I’m not considering challenges, it’s opportunities and chance. How can you achieve a better SCC campus, how do I achieve the things I put on this two page platform. What, after a year in office as a president, will students have afterward… everything will be challenging maybe, everything can be difficult. Do you think managing 55 clubs, almost ten members each club, almost 600 people is easy? Absolutely not but I consider it as opportunity, as a chance. How can we do better? Never is it best. Always do better.”
How do you intend to improve student life here at Shoreline?
“This year we’ve been doing a lot of great jobs, it’s one of the most productive years. We have the first Tech Expo, I have almost doubled the recognized club system. We have a lot of good stuff happening this year. What I’m doing next year, based on what we have done this year, is to do deeper studies. Sometimes I didn’t project what is going to happen next year. Maybe 3 gender neutral bathrooms is not enough. You will never know what is the reality and the reactions from the student body on different projects, not only the specific one. That, we can figure out how we can do it carefully and mindfully about all the student needs and what they are thinking. What I am going to do next year is to build on this year and to continue to do it better.”
