Members of student government from two-year schools across Minnesota gathered at the Breezy Point Resort in Breezy Point for the spring Minnesota State College Student Association General Assembly from Thursday, April 14 to Saturday, April 16.
The association represents all students at public two-year community and technical colleges in Minnesota . The association, according to President-elect Patrick Christner, helps and supports the students of two-year universities and empowers and educates them on legislative issues that have great potential to affect them.
Many students understand very little of what the association, or the NCC Student Senate, does. This lack of knowledge is one of the reasons why Christner said a goal of his term to spread the word about what the two-year student association does. He also said he wants to improve the overall communication the group has with average students.
The Good
NCC Student Senate President Joshua Schroduer was elected vice president of the two-year association. Extensive campaigning during the weekend and years of working for the association payed off for Schroeder when he edged out rival candidates Jordan Brandt and Sam Gutierrez.
Schroeder based his weekend campaign on the fact that he spent a great deal of time working with the legislature to secure a tuition freeze and that he had more experience in the organization then either of his rivals.
“My experience alone should carry me through the campaign,” he said.
Schroeder stressed that he knew how to deal with people and that he would be a very effective communicator. He also discussed his extensive knowledge of the various documents, bylaws, rules and platforms that the association uses.
Brandt stressed his involvement with charitable groups opposed to the legislature as being the quality that should put him beyond his rivals. He also said his efforts to communicate with assembly attendees was important.
“I tried to meet and personally talk to just about every senator that attended the assembly,” he said. “I want to fully understand the problems and issues that are affecting every school within the state, not just my own.”
Gutierrez based his candidacy on the idea that minorities and illegal alien students should have more of a say in student government.
Schroeder's experience and expertise won out. After being elected, he stressed that he would work hard to keep the grassroots structure that the association had established during this past year.
The Best Platform awarded was presented to Schroeder at the formal dinner on the second night. After receiving the award, Schroeder thanked his officers and said he couldn't have done anything without them.
Schroeder's other major accomplishment during the weekend was getting the assembly to approve a change in the voting structure at future assemblies. As it currently sits, every school regardless of its size gets five votes per motion. Schroeder suggested that larger schools should have more votes in order to represent all parts of the state fairly. Schroeder's proposal called for a graduated scale that gave more votes to schools with the highest student enrollment.
Another issue discussed over the three days was the proposal to create a new paid administrative position in the association. The position would cost the association, and the students whose fees make up the association's budget, $32,000 per year.
Association President-elect Christner didn't support the new position, calling it “a waste of money.”
Supporters of the additional staff said that the association's workload was too large for the current paid staff of five.
The motion failed to pass.
A five-hour meeting on Saturday night included elections of the 2005-2006 association cabinet members. Christner and Schroder were elected to serve as president and vice president. Amy Bothun was elected treasurer for the second year. Stacy Kelinwachter was chosen to be the new director of communications. The last member elected was director of development Nicki Bottko.
The Bad
Unfortunately, any attempt at democracy means slow progress in meetings. The regional meeting was a perfect example of this. After the meeting, I asked NCC Student Senate President-elect Judi Obeid how productive the meeting was and he said, “The meeting was productive as it could be, given both the time constraints and the fact that they have to follow certain rules.” Those rules are the Roberts Rules of Order and are the standard rules most organizations follow when holding meetings. Unfortunately these rules “make things long and tedious to outside observers,” Obeid said.
It took 40 minutes to approve the minutes at the general assembly meeting. The hang-up occurred 5 minutes after receiving the meeting agenda. The agenda didn't say anything about having nominations for the various positions on it. However, because nominations were completely absent from the agenda, the president and vice president decided to do them at the beginning of the meeting. One person had a problem with the fact that it was not on the agenda, and called for a motion to put it on the agenda. After 40 minutes of argument and debate, it was decided that it would not be added due to the fact that it would be impossible to print new agendas. It was basically a waste of 40 minutes, according to Hennepin Technical College Treasurer Christopher Bangs. This lack of efficiency causes these meetings to become unnecessarily long and boring. So much so, that when actual important matters are brought up most senators have become disassociated with what is going on.
The cost of the trip to the assembly is paid for by student activity fees. The Breezy Point resort is an expensive place to stay because of its location on a large lake and its distance from any nearby towns. Obeid estimated the cost for the assembly at $30,000. Schroeder said the cost to NCC students for the trip was $1,800. Food cost $140 dollars per person for only 6 meals. NCC senate member Chad Lunaas said the event is held at Breezy Point as a matter of convience for all schools in Minnesota .
“It is located in the middle of the state, and thus services not only metro schools but also schools up north like Duluth and Detroit Lakes ,” he said.
The other major problem with the organization is most of the people who are in the positions of leadership don't really reflect the students that they are supposed to represent. This sentiment was echoed by Jordan Brandt, who lost the vice president election to Schroeder. Brandt said it was always an uphill battle against Schroeder because he has been around for so long and done so much. Most students at 2-year colleges take 12 to 14 credits and are at the schools for 2 to 3 years, but many of the association officers have been at the same schools for close to 4 years and take between 6 and 8 credits.
The Ugly
Immediately when I arrived at the event, I was given a code of conduct form to sign. The form asks students to behave like upstanding citizens when representing their schools. Brandt said he liked the code of conduct form.
“I'm glad we have it,” he said. “The schools and student fees are paying for us to be here and we should follow it.”
The problem is when the issue of appropriate conduct dominates the assembly because everyone goes to great lengths to conceal their actions. My question is if it's so bad, why do they do it in the first place? To be fair, most of the students at the assembly were over 21. As Lunaas put it, “As long as everyone gets to where they are supposed to be in the morning, what's the problem?”
The issues of alchohol and underage drinking have given the assembly a bad reputation for some time. President-elect Christner said he was aware of the issues.
“Something does need to be done,” he said. “It is a hard thing to regulate, because the senators are taking their time out of the week to come up here and sit and work for many, many hours on issues important to students, but at the same time, those same senators are expected to have a higher accountability then most, especially when they are attending an event funded by state dollars.” |
