ASCC President Michael Barrita has some plans in mind for the upcoming term he is serving with Shola Shidoya, ASCC vice president.

His main plans are for the student government to contribute to the faculty senate’s “Habits in Mind” campaign, increase scholarships, renovate the outside of the student center and continue its book service program.

The faculty senate’s “Habits in Mind” campaign involves a 5×8 card to help first-generation students succeed in college.

“80 percent of our campus (is) first generation,” Barrita said.

It uses the acronym, F.A.L.C.O.N. which stands for:

• focus,
• advance,
• link up,
• comprehend,
• organize and embrace
• new ideas.

In Spring 2008, Barrita was working on a similar idea to create a pamphlet called “Tips by Students for Student.”

Barrita is now contributing to this because he doesn’t want to give students mixed messages.

In the spring, the ASCC gave out $2500 in scholarships. Barrita says he wants to continue doing that.

Barrita has also expressed his distaste for the look of the outside area of the student center. He spoke with Tom Ritchie, head of facilities, about this.

As for the area between the student center and the game room, he wants to add some more benches, shade, plants, and trees.

For the front of the student center, he wants to see something done with the empty fountain.

“It’s ugly,” he said. “What is this?”

He was thinking about putting some material in it to fill it up and put some rocks over that.

“(I will) be talking about this at the Campus Transformation Committee,” he said.

He wants to see this project “student-funded,” using student reserves to pay for the renovation, in hopes that it gets done quicker.

In Barrita’s term as vice president in the last school year, he was pushing a book exchange program as a way to battle the bookstore’s prices.

The founders of the UC Davis book exchange program came to Cerritos to show the ASCC Senate how it works.

There were changes made to the UC Davis system by the ASCC.

“It’s changed from a book exchange to a book service,” he said.

Instead of giving books to the ASCC with prices that students choose to sell them at, the ASCC simply sets up three bulletin boards over campus where students can post their books at.

Barrita says there were more than 300 hits on the boards.

“They were full,” he said.

“(I’m) working on making (the book service) an institution of the ASCC.”