Members of the student government are in frenzy after Trustee Marisa Perez uttered some suggestions about reallocating revenue from the bookstore to go towards the new negotiations for vendors in the food court.
Trustee Raul Avalos said that at the Board of Trustees meeting on Sept. 20, Marisa Perez brought up “how the money is split.”
“I spoke up,” said Avalos, continuing, “Saying that taking that 10% from ASCC […] affects the students because that means that ASCC will not be able to fund clubs, athletics or anything that has to do with helping the students.”
Avalos brought up the fact that attendance at Cerritos College is dropping, as the administration is clawing for the number of full time students to increase.
He suggested that helping the students succeed through funding ASCC would increase enrollment.
He then recalled that during Vice President David Ramirez’ presentation at the senate meeting on Sept. 27, Ramirez declared that ASCC would see a hole in its budget to the tune of $200,000.
After the presentation, Ramirez professed to senate that he would like to have demonstrations in order to illustrate to the Board of Trustees how the money positively impacts students.
In an interview on Oct. 1, he expounded, saying that he would have students and clubs present to the board their experiences after coming back from events such as remote internships, conferences and special services.
Before the closed session on Oct. 4, Perez stated that her interests revolve around making sure Cerritos College is “getting the best deal.”
She recalled that 10% of the revenue from the bookstore goes to ASCC and one percent goes to the district for facility costs.
Then, she commented, “I have no idea where the 10 plus one percent came from; and [if] that [is] a good return on our investment.”
Perez concluded, “these food vendors are providing a service but they’re also doing it because they’re making money. Those are all issues that we need to explore as we pick new food vendors.”
Perez said that reallocating money away from ASCC is not a solution she’s going to pursue, but a mere suggestion.
“I said we should take a look at that,” Perez said, “because we renegotiated the contracts.”
