Members of the Cerritos College student government have come together to address possible issues with the current ASCC constitution.
The group, called the Constitutional task force, has gone back as far as 2010 to view these possible problems.
Assisstant to the Dean of Student Activities David Gomez works with the students and has organized the group.
“The idea of the Constitutional task force started off with a little bit of an issue,” Gomez said.
“There are two constitutional and bylaws floating around. We are following one, but we saw the other ones has some older ideas, things that were a little outdated,” he added.
The two differences in the constitutions required attention from members of the ASCC.
Daniel Flores, student trustee, was assigned the years 2010 to 2012.
“The biggest challenge that I noticed is making sure that the corrections we will advise are the right ones and that we are being diligent in the work,” Flores said.
“Also being transparent in the process and holding ourselves accountable that we are following the correct procedures,” he added.
To make sure that the members of the task force are accountable for any actions and decisions, Gomez requested a laywer to help with the legality of their actions.
“When we got students together who wanted to work on it, we met with a laywer to make sure every thing we were doing was legal. It is updating the bylaws,” he said
One issue that the task force has run into according to Gomez is the need for gender neutral terms.
” [The descriptions] all said things like his office or his term, which are obviously out of date. We’ve already had a female ASCC president.”
Gomez stated that while working on the changes, he and ASCC Vice President Charles Caguioa found an explanation in the Disney film “Cars”.
“In the film there’s Mater, the tow truck, and then there’s McQueen,” Gomez explained. “Mater is old, outdated, and out of place but he has a job. He tows trucks, that’s what he does, and he’s good at it.
“Our old Constitution is very much like Mater. Old and outdated, but still trying to do its job.”
While the task force has remained relatively small, Flores sees no harm in allowing students to possibly observe or inform themselves more on the subject.
“I believe there is no harm if there is more participation in students interested in this, whether it’s looking at the previous legislation or observing us work,” Flores said.
He added, “I can only speak for myself that I comfortable being watched, however I can’t speak for others in their comfort level. However if students do want to get more information, they can receive more information from student activities.”
