Although students may complain about what happens on campus, most fail to take the next step and make their voices heard.
For the 2010/2011 school year, there are 46 available seats for student representatives on 29 committees. Currently, only eight SRJC students represent more than 35,000 students on committees.
SRJC has a total of 37 committees, 16 of which do not have a single student representative. “There are not enough students interested in sitting on committees,” student committee member Jude Rowe said.
The low number of students on committees does not surprise Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Mary Kay Rudolph. “In the five years I’ve been here it has been up and down.”
Committees give the student population a way to voice their opinion about issues like parking and the budget crisis, however, most students are unaware that they can become committee members. “[A committee member] serves as voting member of the Committee representing the student opinion, in a similar way faculty and administrators do for their respective constituents as part of the SRJC academic community,” Brian Phifer, director of student affairs said.
Elected Associated Students members are required to be on two committees. President Amanda Swan is on six committees.
The SRJC student committee members have the power to voice their opinion and make changes on campus. Swan points to the smoking ordinance that was approved last November. “We [Associated Student Senate] formed a committee to review the policy and worked with faculty, staff and administration as well as the City of Santa Rosa to draft a proposal,” Swan said. “Within the course of an academic year, we became the first school in the state to have an enforceable smoking policy, and the change originated with the students.”
Most of the committees deal with issues pertaining to students. “Committees like the International Studies [committee] and IEE [Institute for Environmental Education committee], which directly affect the students, should have a student on them,” Rudolph said.
The only requirement to be on a committee is to be an SRJC student. Interested students have to fill out a Leadership Application at the front desk of the Student Affairs Office in Bertolini Student Center and return it to the vice president of committees before the meeting. Once approved, Swan puts them on the agenda for the senate to officially appoint them to the appropriate committee. Appointed students can participate as a voting member at the committee’s next meeting.
One way of improving student participation on campus would be to involve the teachers, particularly for classes that cover material outlined in a specific committee’s purpose statement. “Students in environmental studies should know we have an Integrated Environmental Planning Council. Political Science majors should be made aware of the entire committee system and how it came about and be encouraged by their instructors to participate,” Swan said.
Help may be on the way with recruiting students to join committees. “We have just appointed a new Vice President of Committees, Mr. Aaron Crotty,” Swan said. Crotty’s duty will be to recruit as many students as possible for the A.S. Senate to appoint to the shared governance committees within the district.
It may be an unrealistic expectation to fill all the seats, but more student participation is an important step. “You have no idea how ecstatic it would make me to have all student positions on all shared governance committees filled. I would consider it one of the Senate’s greatest triumphs if we were able to change this,” Swan said.
