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With claims from students of frequent absences and a lack of transparency and advising, ASCC Director of Student Activities Holly Bogdanovich is being placed under the magnifying glass by members of the Cerritos College student government.
ASCC President Jasmin Ramirez issued an address during a meeting of the ASCC Senate on April 11 stating the student government’s concerns with Bogdanovich’s performance.
Ramirez explained the purpose of her address, “The purpose was to express concern to the senators on the issue that our director has not been here for five months and has failed to do her respective duties.
“It has been hard to fulfill our duties without the proper guidance from our director, which is necessary. We feel that when she is here, it is not in the best interest of the student body.”
ASCC Vice President Julian Del Real-Calleros elaborated on Ramirez’s claims of Bogdanovich’s presence not benefitting students.
“We actually dug into our constitution and found a lot of things that we were not allowed to do, but yet we could do based on the context of our constitution.”
“Our director failed to educate us in anything with regard to student government. We didn’t know parliamentary procedures, we didn’t know about the Brown Act, we were kept ignorant,” Ramirez said.
“It’s very unfortunate that we wasted a whole semester just because we were told that we couldn’t do certain things and it’s not so.”
She also mentioned that one of the concerns she had is about budget transparency. Ramirez requested information regarding expenses made on behalf of the ASCC and did not receive it.
“We did not know about certain accounts that we had and that made it very difficult for us to be able to give transparency to the student body,” she said.
Bogdanovich recently returned from a five-month medical leave, but according to Ramirez, continues to leave on certain days and not return for the remainder of the week.
Student Trustee Areal Hughes believes that this issue could have been approached in a more professional manner.
“I believe that when you bring up issues, especially when it’s in regard to people’s occupations, you need to make sure that those people are there so they can vouch for themselves.
“They’re (student government members) trying to blurt everything out to the public, which I think there should be a meeting or mediation before that had happened. When you look at situations like this, you have to look at both sides and you have to come to a compromise and understand that both individuals or groups need to talk to each other,” Hughes said.
ASCC Court Justice David Kerr claims to remain impartial to the issue that is taking place, but believes that if necessary, rules and bylaws need to be enforced if there is indeed a violation.
“There are always two sides to every story and everybody has an opinion, but she (Bogdanovich) really knows whether or not she needs all that time off.”
Kerr also compares this situation to a student missing class due to illness.
“A doctor’s note will get you out of lectures, but you can’t take that and say, ‘I’m sorry I missed three tests because the doctor said I had to stay home.’ What happens then? You fail the class. Those are the rules.”
Del Real-Calleros hopes to see some clarity after this issue is over.
He said, “I hope that we can get a scene where our director could say, ‘I need to change the way I conduct my work, maybe I should change the way I behave toward student advocacy,’ or maybe this is not the line of work for her.
According to Del Real-Calleros, it is up to the senate to issue a vote of no confidence, at which point Ramirez can file a grievance on behalf of the student body.
Del Real-Calleros also said that the senate can file a recommendation to the Cerritos College Board of Trustees to review Bogdanovich’s contract with the college before it can be reviewed.
Bogdanovich was unavailable for comment.
