26,367 enrolled students, 304 votes
Joseph Starkloff
Slightly more than 1 percent of the student population voted for the individuals selected to represent all those attending MCC.The turnout was a totaled 304 votes out of more than 25,000 students, and it was not an issue to MCC’s student life and leadership program advisor Meredith Warner.
“Am I disappointed with the 300 student turn out? Not at all. I think that the 300 students that voted are our student senators and leaders of our clubs. Having this sort of informed voter being the ones that vote says something,” Warner said.
The 304 votes was a dip of 236 votes from last year’s total.
Suhail Rahim defeated Andre Salais and Andrew Kuhn for president. Ray Arecco won the vice president/senate chair position over Danielle Najar. Parisa Mardiha ran unopposed for vice president of fiscal affairs.
Arecco, who ran on increasing ASMCC’s communication with the student population, said he is ready to start implementing his goal.
“I do plan on getting out there and interacting with students . I’m going to walk around with Suhail and meet every single representative from the clubs before the fall semester. I don’t think they fully realize what senate can offer them,” he said.
Warner and Arecco both credited the low voter turnout to candidates only campaigning on the main MCC campus.
“We were hoping to at least double our number from last year, and the fact that we got almost 200 less is shocking,” Arecco said.
The ASMCC senate gave the MCCCD governing board their approval of the recent $5 per credit hour tuition hike for in-state students, but didn’t make any decision on the $241 per credit hour tuition hike for undocumented students.
Arecco said he hasn’t heard any plans for senate to discuss the recent $241 hike.
“It’s a touchy issue. The money has to come from somewhere. The majority of students fall into the in-state tuition category, so the majority of the students were represented,” he said.
President-elect Rahim said he plans on doing what he can to represent all students and give them a chance to have their concerns heard.
“They are all my constituents now. I have to task myself with hearing their concerns,” he said.
He assured his goal was to provide undocumented students a voice, but said the tuition hike they face is small in the long run.
“The tuition that our community college students have to pay is substantially less than (the major universities). Although it is a substantial increase it’s still the cheaper route in higher education,” Rahim said.
Mardiha, the newly elected vice president of fiscal affairs, said she plans to inform clubs about the funding available to them.
“The position I’m in has a lot to do with clubs and senate so I’d probably try to get all the clubs to have a senator in senate so they know that there’s this money for them to use,” she said.
She attributed the low voter turnout to a lack of advertisement.
