Cindy Quiralte, president of MEChA, was elected president of Fresno City College’s Associated Student Government in last week’s election. She defeated Gabriel Cordova, current ASG senator and Reggie DeLeon, community activist.
Quiralte said she had “tears of happiness,” upon hearing the news. “I was very overwhelmed with the news,” she said. “It was shocking to me to know the numbers, and I was very thankful of everyone who was supporting me because I alone wasn’t able to do anything.”
Others who were elected to the Executive Board of the ASG include Desha Black, president pro-tempore, Carlton “Tut” Brown, legislative vice president, Pedro Navarro-Cruz, executive vice president, and Chris Coronado, student trustee. Virginia Wild was elected senator.
Student Trustee-Elect Coronado said, “I was excited, obviously, but it was tempered by the fact that I know that there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.”
One issue that Navarro-Cruz, Black, and Quiralte have already committed to working on is increasing the library’s hours of operation, and Fresno City’s tutoring services. Vice President-Elect Navarro-Cruz said, “I want more students to stay on campus to use our resources, and stay at school.” This, added with the looming budget cuts and the implementation of Fresno City’s new smoking policy, promises a vital year ahead for ASG.
With more than 800 students participating, this was the largest voter turnout for an ASG election in the last decade, and it nearly doubled last year’s student participation which drew only 431 students.
This increased participation has been attributed to the use of an online voting system through students’ SCCCD email as opposed to the traditional paper ballots used in years past. However, former ASG candidate Desha Black also attributes it to “the diverse array of candidates.” Black also said, “All of us are really different and new and (the students) want to see what we have to offer.”
FCC students were also asked, during the April 26-28 election, to decide on a new campus smoking policy. The results indicated that the students who voted chose to limit smoking on campus to designated areas only.
The only surprise in the results is the fact that no ASG incumbents won election to office. Rather, every candidate elected will be a member of ASG for their first time. The elected candidates have different views on voters’ reasons for not electing any current ASG officers.
President-Elect Quiralte said, “I don’t necessarily think it was against them. From my understanding, it was just that the people who were elected were reaching out to the students more, while those who weren’t elected didn’t as much.”
However, President Pro-Tempore-Elect Desha Black attributed the defeat of present ASG members to a “sense that there is a need for change, and they understood that we wanted change as well.”
In fact, four out of five of the newly elected executive board candidates ran on the same ticket. With the exception of Trustee Coronado, all of the other elected officials ran as a pack and are active members of either MEChA or the Pan-African Student Union. United behind similar goals and hopes, those on this ticket considered their elections a great success.
Coronado chose to run as an independent candidate and said, “I prided myself that I ran as an individual because I’m representing 25,000 different students, and I shouldn’t be attached to any particular tickets or any particular philosophy, just my own.”
Even after the close of the polling booths, ASG still has 14 Senator spots open on its roster. To fill these spots, the president, with assistance from the other elected officials, will appoint select students who submit applications for to be senators. President-Elect Quiralte said, “I encourage anyone who’s dedicated to students and the betterment of this campus to consider student government as an outlet to be involved in, regardless of their past experience.”
A number of ASG candidates who were not victorious in their campaigns have already showed interest in being appointed as senators. One such is former Student Trustee Candidate Jesus Garcia. Although he did not gain enough votes to secure his position, he said he is interested in serving the student population.
“[The elected candidates] show the passion and readiness to work for the students next year,” Garcia said. “They plan to visit their voting constituents before the end of the year to actively represent the student body. Seeing the board assures me that our student body will have strong representation next year.”
