Two new members were voted onto the ASB Student Senate at their first meeting of the semester Thursday after one member resigned and another is considering leaving.
Tamara Dunning, who is acting as ASB student senate president, said Director of Communications Katheryn White resigned due to a “class conflict” and that Director Legislative Affairs Kenneth Hinton may not be returning due to a class scheduling conflict at Sacramento State University.
Richard Dean and Samuel Kinsey were approved as new student senators.
Kinsey has had experience being on the student government at Arizona State University, where he says he advocated for disabled students.
After hearing complaints of problems for disabled students at a satellite campus of ASU, Kinsey says he drove down there to help.
“I missed all my classes one day, drove down to Tempe, talked to the dean and asked what I could do,” said Kinsey. “We set up a booth where disabled students could get all of the info they needed.”
Kinsey says he moved back to Sacramento from Arizona due to “family issues,” and wants to continue serving in student government at the community college level.
“You can come to a junior college and achieve great things,” he said.
Richard Dean became interested in student government after his friend Tim Lipuma, a former ASB student senator, recommended he join the board.
He touted his time as an Eagle Scout as proof he’s dedicated and hardworking.
“I hope to represent STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) majors on campus,” he said.
Director of Public Relations Cameron Weaver defended the board’s choice to make Dean a senator while rejecting Gerald Sturgill, the former ASB student senate vice president at Folsom Lake College.
“I had this man saying I did this in the eagle scouts,” said Weaver. “I didn’t get that from Sturgill.”
Dunning informed the board that the Student Senate for California Community Colleges, the statewide governing body for the ASB student senate, may not be putting on the protest march portion of the March in March.
The March in March, an annual event at the state capitol where students advocate for more affordable college, traditionally involves a march down J street from the Tower Bridge to the capitol followed by speeches on the capitol steps.
“SSCCC has not scheduled a march,” said Dunning. “There seems to be some back and forth on this. That’s the information I have at this time.”
Nevertheless, there will be speeches on the capitol steps.
