As students, we need to take advantage of the options available to us to have our voice heard on campus.

If you don’t do anything to impact change, you have no right to complain. Impacting change begins with education. We are in school to educate ourselves so wouldn’t it stand to reason that we educate ourselves about the things that exist on our campus to assist us in that regard?

With committee’s like operation outreach available on our campus to inform students about the different things that are going on around campus, there is no excuse for not being involved.

Operation outreach has what it calls “Falcon Booths” which is also a way to bridge the divide between students and student government.

It’s dumb to simply be an uninvolved student with no knowledge of campus activities.

Decisions are constantly being made both by our school administration as well as our student government and a large majority of students have no idea about why those decisions were made, what they mean, or how they impact students.

There is no excuse for why students don’t speak about issues that concern them because the Associated Students of Cerritos College student senate allows any student to speak about any issue that the student would like to speak about before the senate.

We always talk about having a voice and wanting that voice to be heard. Well, that voice can’t be heard if you don’t speak, so speak up.

Students often complain about classes being cut while money continues to be spent but have they generally have no understanding as to why classes are cut, or why money continues to be spent for that matter.

As students, we are completely ignorant when it comes to the things that go on around our campus as is related to our student government.

Most people are shocked to hear that we even have a student government, much less have a clear understanding about who it is and what it does.

Another good option for getting involved is to actually serve as a member in student government.

Along with the ASCC president, vice president, and student trustee positions that the student body elects each April, there are a lot of other student government positions that students can apply to be a part of. There are also senate and court positions that students can apply to be a part of.

Cerritos College is our school. Decisions that are made here impact us. How would you feel if a program that you cared about was in danger of getting cut? What about if discussions were taking place to make some type of changes to something that you are heavily involved in?

Don’t wait until something like that happens before you decide that you want to get involved.

There are so many clubs and other things around campus that students do get involved in but that involvement does not always translate to involvement within our student government.

Sure, each club is required to have an Inter-Club Council representative at ICC meetings but that does not do enough to help increase an individual student’s involvement with student government.

Take a chance, students. At some point during your day on campus, stop by the ASCC which is located right next to the book store and ask what you can do to be more involved on campus.

Just by walking in, you will know where your ASCC president and vice president offices are, and very possibly leave with a sense of accomplishment, knowing that you can make a difference.