Q: What do you think about the Accreditation warning?
A: Cindy Quiralte: I think it’s an opportunity for the campus and the district to align the vision that we have for the campus. Clearly, the warning does state that there hasn’t been enough communication between the district and the campuses. In the past 11 months, we did do well; prior to that, we haven’t. I think it’s a good opportunity for us to align our visions and see where the district is going for the next five years. It [the accreditation warning] basically solidified a lot of the views that we, as students, understand — that there is a lack of communication between students and the district.
Q: Do you think we have the time to make the necessary changes by October?
A: Cindy Quiralte: Yes, definitely. We just had a strategic conversation on Feb. 7 with the representatives from each campus, students, faculty and administration here on campus. That was a stepping stone in the right direction. I do believe we will be able to accommodate some of the changes that are necessary in the time frame before October.
Q: Do you think students are even aware of the accreditation warning?
A: Cindy Quiralte: That we’re on a warning, no. As student government, we were very involved in that visit [accreditation]. We had some representatives on the accreditation steering committee. Now we have new students who are going to be co-chairing that committee. So from a student government stand point, yes, we are very involved in the accreditation and the warning. If you look at the recommendations from the team, we got really good remarks in student government. We take care of our responsibilities with the students. I think it’s [students not knowing] an example of the district needing to step up their own leadership. From the student’s standpoint, we’re doing well.
Q: In the editorial board meeting, conducted on Friday, Chancellor Blue made a comment about students assigned to the task force for budgeting by ASG not showing up for meeting.
A: Chris Coronado: This semester, I took over district committees because constitutionally as the trustee, I’m supposed to be focusing on district stuff, and last semester I was heavily involved in the campus. There have only been two district resource allocation meetings this semester and the last one I did not attend because I was in a meeting with Dr. [Chris] Villa, which was right around the summer school crisis.
As far as last semester, we did have a senator assigned. I think she attended most of them. The thing about that is: the senators that are assigned to committees also students. People forget that we’re not being paid to do this, we’re volunteering. We have different schedules and some of us work; we have families, and we have commitments here on campus. As for last semester, I can definitely see that that was a problem; at the same time though, they need to understand we do the best that we can. I understand their argument, but don’t forget that we’re students. We aren’t being paid. That’s another thing; we’re supposed to go to these meetings, but we have other things come up, like summer school, so I have meetings to go to for that.
A: Cindy Quiralte: We have conflicting schedules; there aren’t enough of us to go around. We are also students first. I think there is a two-way street, to keep communication flowing. I think it’s important for them to know; if we’re actively trying to communicate with them, they have the responsibility to communicate back with us as well. It’s too easy to say ‘Oh, they don’t go.’ There is a lot more to the story.
