The entirety of SCC’s ASG is about to graduate.

As the new guard prepares to take over, it bears the responsibility of having to look at the shoes they intend to fill.

According to Yorin Anggari, the current ASG president, the ASG was assembled at the beginning of the year to brainstorm their annual vision.

“We decided to focus on social justice and (serving) students that are underrepresented,” she said.

Anggari said she started to think about what she wanted to accomplish right after she was elected. She said she sees every student as individuals who are collectively facing the same problem, which motivated her to fight for students.

Student Fee Committee and Student Led Projects

Shuttle Extension

Extending SCC’s shuttle service was a project proposed by last year’s Sustainability and Commuter Options Fee (SCOF) committee.

Starting from this past May, the route has been extended from the Aurora Square parking lot to 160th and Aurora. The extension runs Monday-Friday mornings.

New Student Orientation

Before last fall, new domestic students and international students had separate orientation programs to sort things out because they received different information at orientation.

Starting last fall, however, both orientations now come together for the first day of orientation.

According to Anggari, putting them together during the welcoming session could create a form of unity.

Free Menstrual Supplies (ongoing)

In some of the women’s restrooms, there used to be vending machines of tampons and pads where women could exchange a quarter or 50 cents for some menstrual hygiene products.

But in the heat of the moment, people either jammed the machines to get the products when they didn’t have coins, or were unable to get what they needed because it was jammed, according to campus security reports.

Tampons and pads are necessary supplies for women, Anggari said, and they should also be provided for free, like tissue paper.  

Currently, pads and tampons are available in both the Student Life office and the library. But in order to make them more accessible, the ASG is also planning to install lockers in bathrooms for women to get them for free.

Water Bottle Refilling Stations (ongoing)

In 2015, the SCOF committee installed five water bottle refilling stations in the PUB, the library, the gym and the FOSS building. The new refilling stations possess automatic sensors that make refills faster and more convenient.

According to the counters in the top-right corner of each station, approximately of 400,000 plastic water bottles have been saved since 2015.

This year, the SCOF committee has installed six more stations on the campus and 11 more will be installed on campus by this summer. Most of the old stations that don’t have automatic sensors will be replaced by these brand new stations to make refilling more convenient.

Rain Garden Project (ongoing)

A rain garden is a small depression in the land to save up rainwater runoff from higher landscape for plants. This project was proposed by the SCC Economics Research Group a few years ago, and the SCOF committee has been researching and discussing it with other students and faculty in these few years.

This year, the SCOF committee initiated a drainage test and searched around campus to find a good location. They decided to set it up in front of the 1500 Building and have successfully signed agreements with different contractors.

SCC will soon be even greener.

Community Engagement

Led Students to Two Marches and Volunteer Experiences

Following their stated focus on social justice, the ASG helped students participate in two local marches, by having pre-march sign-making workshops and providing shuttle service for students who participated in the protests.

Invited by the SCC Black Student Union (BSU), the ASG led students to Seattle’s Annual MLK Jr. March held in Downtown Seattle. The other march was the March for Our Lives Seattle, which was held on March 24 to aid in the national push for gun reform.

During MLK Jr. Week, ASG also led students to volunteer at Mary’s Place, an emergency shelter home for homeless families.

Moment of Silence

The ASG and the BSU led a 17-minute silent protest on March 14 in the PUB to honor the 17 victims of the Parkland shooting and to protest against gun violence. More than 15 students lined up with signs at the PUB main floor lobby as several more crowded around.

From Margin to Center

From Margin to Center is a social justice program aimed at “bringing marginalized conversations to the center” of the campus throughout winter and spring quarters. Events, such as lectures, discussions, film series and artwork galleries, were held, discussing the LGBTQ+ community, people of color, Native Americans and issues of the prison industrial complex.

According to Anggari, each event of the series usually attracted a full room of attendees. “Some people even had to stand just to hear those speakers,” Anggari said.

Highlighted Events

Club Awards 2018

The second annual club awards ceremony was put on by Student Life, to honor the contributions from all the clubs this year, with 25 trophies being awarded in total.

“Clubs work individually all the time,” Anggari said, “but it was one of the few times clubs could be in a larger and collective club community.”

SunFest 2018

Student Life has been holding SunFest events annually every spring quarter. This year, they had a three-day festival for students to listen to live music, eat at food trucks and join activities and games in the courtyard.

Anggari said there were a lot of ups and downs in all these experiences. She recalled being on the first shuttle ride to the E-line station and said seeing it work was so gratifying that she almost cried.

Anggari said listening to student voices forced her to be mature and open-minded when “10,000 students (had) 10,000 opinions, and different lives in general.”

“This year being at the president position was very empowering for me, especially as a woman of color, (being) able to represent different students,” she said.

She said she hopes the future ASG members keep focusing on social justice and representing students who are underrepresented.

“Think in a bigger picture and think big (when working on a project),” she said, “because you are the nine students who were chosen to represent the 10,000 students.”

As she prepares to transfer to the University of Illinois, she said she feels thankful to be part of SCC.

“All the students made me feel like the part of the community,” she said.

By Frances Hui,
Political Editor