Here in America, we have the liberty of exercising our democratic freedom by voting for those that represent us. Students at American River College are allowed this same opportunity by voting for the students who represent them in the Associated Student Body. The ASB consists of two groups, the Student Senate and the Club and Events Board.
ARC’s ASB elections were held on April 23 and 24. The ballot included local candidates, proposed constitutional changes for ARC and the Los Rios Community College District student trustee candidates. According to Brett Sawyer, student life supervisor at ARC, almost 400 students participated in this semester’s elections.
“Good number, but we can always do better,” Sawyer said. “We are thinking about ways to promote next year and advocate for students having a voice on campus.”
A carnival was held on the election days to promote the elections and to increase voter turnout.
“Student’s go ‘what’s this, what are y’all doing?’ and we tell them what it’s all about,” Sawyer said about the carnival.
The votes that student’s cast are kept hidden, but Sawyer was able to see the turnout results that the carnival provided for the elections.
“What we can do is get timestamps of when people voted, and I think we had about 125 students who voted from that 10 [a.m.] to 1 [p.m.] time frame. That’s almost half of all the total votes cast,” Sawyer said.
With the votes finalized, winners from the elections were revealed to students. The results showed the newly elected board members to be Soraya Amin, senate vice president, Giovanni Ferari, senate legislative analyst, Margo Gomes, director of legislative affairs and senators Luke Bourez, Elizabeth Chemyavskiy, Laketa Johnson, Cat Meyers, Kloi Orans, Xander Pinnegar and Duran Suma.
According to Sawyer all but three winners are new to ASB.
“In July I see all their heads spin when I go over everything they need to know,” Sawyer said. “Once they immerse themselves, being on the board, being on committees and working on bills and resolutions, you start to see it click.”
One notable returnee is Alicia Szutowicz-Fitzpatrick, who is currently the vice president of CAEB and the CAEB representative for the Student Senate. In the fall Szutowicz-Fitzpatrick will be taking on the role of senate president.
“I am hoping to make a lot of positive changes for students, that’s why I wanted to be in this role,” Szutowicz-Fitzpatrick said. “I am very passionate about advocacy for DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and all aspects of student life.”
Szutowicz-Fitzpatrick said she aspires to represent students and build community on campus.
“I think it’s good to be nervous, so I am nervous because I want to do a good job, but I know that we have a lot of great mentors and support on the board,” Szutowicz-Fitzpatrick said. “I hope that we all can work together to make this campus somewhere we all feel comfortable, included and supported.”
