Ilona Horvath

JOU 1400L

01/18/2007

SGA 2007; Back and Better Than Ever

The January sky was gloomy and overcast, with a faint drizzle of rain in the air, which, combined with the torturous humidity Florida is most infamous for, made for the coldest and most uncomfortable, but pleasantly familiar Thursday afternoon. The time was one p.m. On the grass in the mall area of Valencia Community College’s East Campus, were a set of roughly 24 chairs arranged in two tight columns in three rows of four. A game of musical chairs, perhaps? More like the Student Government Association’s [SGA] first official town hall meeting of the new school year. Seated in these chairs were an extraordinarily diverse group of Valencia students, as well as a few members of the SGA itself. Everyone was leaning forward in their seats, eager to listen as the SGA’s Legislative Liaison, Tim Mason, energetically began the day’s meeting. “We try to give students an answer,” began Mason, as he explained the meeting’s chief platforms.

Among the list of important legislative issues on Mason’s agenda were several bills recently passed during a debate in which all 130 members of the Florida Junior Community colleges Student Government Association held a vote on November 16 and 17 of 2006. The FJCCSGA voted on a wide variety of topics that have, and continue, to impact the lives of many students today including a bill that will allow all textbook purchases on campus to be made tax free and another that will provide financial aid to students who have been labeled as part of a gap defined as “the working poor,” that supposedly makes too much to receive aid and, yet, not enough to attend college courses. Some other bills passed involved residency for tuition purposes for both documented and undocumented individuals, a proposal to allow certain community colleges to grant bachelor’s degrees to students enrolled in specific degree programs, as well as a bill that will allow students who have exceeded the minimum number of credit hours required to graduate to attend college classes regularly without penalizing them by forcing them to pay costly out of state tuition. In addition to what these new bills have already accomplished for the student body, Mason, who quoted the SGA’s motto of “Representation, Advocacy and Service,” along with fellow SGA member and head of Student Services, Kenneth Berio, said that there are a number of other issues they would like to tackle this year that will include smoking on campus and parking.

If you would like to voice your opinion on any, or all, of the above mentioned issues the next SGA town hall meeting will take place on February 15 in the mall area at the East Campus, again between one and  two p.m. and the SGA welcomes all to attend. If you are more of an actions-speak-louder-than-words type, please visit the East Campus SGA office in building five, room 212 to find out how you can become a member and start making a difference.