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Associated Students of Cerritos College President Jasmin Ramirez signed into law the amendment to the Student Integrity Act on Friday, which will change the ways in which ASCC awards committees are selected.
On Feb. 14, the ASCC Senate passed the original bill, introduced by Senate Clerk Yidegar Santiago Zuniga, but Ramirez vetoed it. Ramirez said that the change was not what the ASCC needed right now.
The original bill set out to remove authority from Ramirez to select students from the ASCC to the awards committee, and allow the committee to be selected by a committee consisting of four official recognized advisers from clubs under the Inter-Club Council, four local residents from the Cerritos College district and four students of Cerritos College.
Ramirez addressed the reasoning behind vetoing the original bill.
“It [the original bill] was not in the best interest of the students. It would have left the committee being more faculty and adviser led, rather than being more student led.” She said.
She also said that it would have been the only non-student led committee within ASCC.
Zuniga addressed the major benefits in the bill, saying, “Now we have people choosing one representative from each student government branch, and then the [ASCC] president and vice-president will choose the three faculty.”
The amended bill changes the amount of ICC officially recognized advisers from four to three. It also places one retired faculty member from Cerritos College, one volunteer from the Cerritos Community College District, one Cerritos College alumnus that is not currently enrolled and seven students of Cerritos College.
Zuniga spoke on one of the unique benefits of the bill.
“The thing is, now, we as the student body, we know who we are sending into the committee, rather than the way that it was, where the committee was only selected by one person.”
Although Ramirez signed the bill into law, she requested that Zuniga amend some grammatical errors and present those changes for her approval.
Ramirez feels that student integrity is something that needs to change.
“We’ve had many issues in the past with student integrity,” She said.
Zuniga feels that the bill now gives more accountability to the students.
According to Zuniga, a decision on whether to sign or veto the amended bill will be made by March 19.
“By Monday, we needed to put in the senate agenda whether it was going to be vetoed or not so that we [the student senate] can go over it.”
Zuniga commented on why he decided to change the amount of retired faculty that will be a part of the awards committee process.
“Before, I was proposing to have four retired faculty and four advisers, but with the opening of the hall of fame, I thought, why not bring alumni in because they were once Cerritos College students.”
With awards applications also being available on Monday, Zuniga wanted to have a decision rendered on the state of the amended bill, so that specific flaws could be addressed regarding the Man and Woman of the year awards, which the Student Integrity Act also addressed.
Students also expressed opinions on the act.
Gabriela Granados, who majors in social work, likes the way that the new law is worded.
do we keep everybody working and how do we serve our students.”
The guidelines show that if classes are reduced, the deans of each division would have to consider certain requests such as protecting major requirements, certificate requirements, and classes that are taught every other year.
The Health Occupations and Technology Divisions have both made very drastic cuts to the point where if they cut any more from their programs, they’ll lose their accreditation requirements and major altogether.
A campus-wide budget cut forum will be held on March 29 in the Teleconference Center.
The forum will be for the entire campus to have the opportunity to listen to the options of what can be cut from programs for the 2012 fall semester.
