Santa Rosa Junior College’s Student Government Assembly discussed the Ralph M. Brown Act and approved a letter endorsing a flexible attendance and participation policy at their meeting Monday.
Student engagement coordinator Joshua Pinaula addressed how best to avoid violating the Ralph M. Brown Act, a California law that prohibits elected bodies from making collective decisions outside of public meetings.
Pinaula suggested if SGA members privately and collectively decided to eat somewhere together they would be in violation of the Brown Act, prompting a response from an assembly member.
“I will be at a place that rhymes with bennies. Not inviting any of you, I will just be there,” Vice President of Sustainability Anthony Cornejo said.
The SGA also discussed a letter they wrote supporting making the optional, flexible attendance and participation policy mandatory. The policy will support students faced with “work responsibilities, health issues or immigration related challenges (that) affect their attendance and participation.” The letter further states, “The SGA believes that flexibility in attendance, deadlines and participation should be a shared institutional commitment, not an act of goodwill.”
SGA members wrote the letter following the Academic Senate’s “Resolution in Support of Student’s Flexible Attendance and Participation at Santa Rosa Junior College” this past August.
The Academic Senate’s letter contained a similar message in support of a more flexible attendance and participation policy, “particularly for students impacted by recent changes in the detention and deportation policies of the federal government.”
Assembly member Lua Cruz suggested an amendment to the letter to include any student who may be targeted by ICE along with the initial categories, though the exact wording was not finalized during the meeting. The letter was then approved.
Student Government officials voted on, and unanimously approved student trustee Kaya Clark to read the letter at the Academic Senate meeting Oct. 15.
