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November 16, 2004
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| Rebecca Straughmatt Mesa Lgend |
ASMCC President Alisha Bloom represented the student body.
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Issues get student feedback
Lisa-Jean Mugler
Mesa Legend
The MCC Student Issues Forum was held in room AS121, on Oct. 26.
The purpose of that forum was to provide information about several issues, including Proposition 401 (The College Bond), the new Student Information Services, and to gather feedback from the students to help make changes regarding the issues students feel need to be addressed.
From a student body of over 27,000, only 26 people attended.
Representing the Associated Students of MCC was student body government, Alisha Bloom, President, Kristin Weston, Executive Vice President, and Todd Bolser, Vice President of Communications was the moderator. Also present, and giving a final summation, was ASMCC Treasurer Cade Furnas.
The first presenter was Janet Felton, the Executive Assistant in the Office of the Maricopa Community Colleges. Ms. Felton provided information regarding the monies from Proposition 401, and how they will be used in the Maricopa Community Colleges.
The first question asked of Ms. Felton, even before her presentation had fully begun, was whether the money earmarked for MCC included funds for additional parking. When she replied in the negative, there was a slight murmur of irritation, and some complaints made.
Among the topics covered in her presentation was the primary purpose of funds from Prop 401: the breakdown for MCC included an emphasis on replacing and improving the infrastructure and technology on campus. She cautioned, “However, the money will only meet some of the campus’ current needs, not all.”
The breakdown for the Red Mountain campus was a plan to add on to “the village” buildings already there.
On both campuses she assured that any designing and renovation would be done with consideration for the disabled.
Next was an informational presentation on the new Student Information Services, given by Dean Joni Grover. The new SIS is powered by Peoplesoft, and is more user-friendly, and much quicker because of the extra bandwidth used. The administration will begin testing this in spring of 2005, with a tentative goal of having it running by July 2005.
A concern voiced by students is the use of social security numbers as Student Identifiers, and that will be taken care of through the new SIS, by burying the SSN under a different identifier number.
The last half hour of the forum was dedicated to the ASMCC board as they listened to student complains and gripes. The most predominant complaint seemed to be about the high cost and lack of variety of food in the Thunderbird Café. Since the café is run by Aramark, under a contract deal, which MCC is presently in the third of a 10 year contract, there does not appear to be any immediate change forthcoming.
The vending machines are part of that contract, and Aramark is responsible for the prices of the snacks in them. Todd Bolson reminded all present that there is a food committee, to which students can address their concerns regarding the cafeteria and vending machines.
Several students complained about the “icky” condition of the water fountains, and the cost of buying bottled water. ASMCC President Alisha Bloom promised to put the fountain complaint before the maintenance department.
Students were reminded that there are free legal services at both campuses, and the remainder of the meeting time was finished with a number of smaller complaints, primarily focusing on the needs of the disabled population, the desire for yearly teacher evaluations by students, and the perception that many female students had that campus security was unavailable at night.
The final question raised was if anyone present wanted the campus police to have the use of handguns, and that was met with a loud and vehement “NO!”
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