The LC 155 room served as a town hall for the College community as ASCC Senate held a three-hour town hall style meeting on Thursday, March 2.

The meeting had a continuous flow of students as some left others arrived having an audience max of 15 people at a single moment.

At the front of the meeting was a panel made up of Commissioner of sustainability Phil Herrera, Senator Art Hanney, and President Saul Lopez-Pulido.

The panelist listened to students voice concerns and give suggestions for improving the college.

Student Melissa Sanchez voiced her concerns on the students’ lack of awareness of the existence of ASCC government.

Sanchez cited the low ASCC election turnout as an example of the lack of student involvement with ASCC related events.

She also proposed to have an in-person orientation for incoming students instead of the current online orientation.

During the discussion other student outreach events like, a prom type dance, a free coffee day, a movie night and offering free food for students were suggested by other senators in the audience.

For Business and Economics major Damante Brown, the town hall was an informational event to get to know what types of concerns students have.

Brown agreed with the idea of having a college dance.

“I really like the dance concept it can help socialize student government and all the other clubs,” Brown said.

A topic during the meeting that kept being repeated and talked about was food.

Herrera said, “As a culinary arts major feeding people is something that is very close to my heart, it’s what my passion is […] not a lot of people know this but our theme on campus for the last couple of years has been food.”

According to Herrera ASCC and other clubs on campus have been working on expanding the college pantry, feeding students and letting students know of the resources available on campus.

“Those resources need to be expanded and those programs need to be re-enforced. I think those are all things we can do through student government find them funding and help promote the clubs that are working to feed the students,” Herrera said.

Senator Linda Sanchez who joined the panel during the second half of the meeting said “We need to care for our students […] we take their money let’s give them something.”

Another discussion topic that was brought up was the need for a resting or a sleep area for students and a remodeling for the Student Center.

Senator Lucio Ramirez agreed with the need based on his own experience of being on campus for more than 10 hours in a day and trying to sleep in the hill grass area outside of the music building; yet not being able to because grass and ants are itchy.

Lopez-Pulido brought up a previous ASCC agenda discussion item that proposed the purchase of sleep pods however College President Dr. Jose Fierro said Title IX issues with the pods should be considered before going forward with the project.

Fierro also reminded those in attendance that any money spent on the renovations or upgrades to the current Student Center should be made taking into consideration that the building will be torn down. The Student Center will be replaced with the Falcon Center a three story building, that will house the food court, ASCC and Student services.

Engineering major Kay Uraizee, attended the meeting to gain information.

She said, “There’s a lot of information here that can potentially benefit a lot of students, and you get to meet your [ASCC representatives] people you interact with on a daily basis.”

She was impressed with the senators’ commitment toward the college community.

Hanney states his reason for being a part of the town hall meeting, “Because I want the opinion of the students.”

He also sees a need for a new student orientation to let students understand the services and organizations located on campus because, “The new students coming in [to the college] are our new student government.”

As a senator Hanney wants students to approach him with their ideas, thoughts and concerns, “I want to be their voice, I want their opinion, I don’t want to go in [to ASCC Senate] and assume anything, I want to know what they want. I’m open to any student sitting down with me and talking about anything.”