Best Student Government (Community Colleges)

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Best Student Government (Community Colleges)
     Valencia Community College’s East Campus Student Government Association, led by President Eddie Ruiz, has had a phenomenal year, despite losing dedicated advisor of 15 years, Elaine Turner, who passed away in 1998. Like most SGAs, Valencia’s team is battling apathy. But this year, VCC leaders found creative ways to boost turnout at SGA-sponsored events and promote campus involvement—without dipping into their budget. Members proactively visited five local high schools to get prospective students fired up about campus activities, before they even fill out their college applications. During each visit, VCC reps handed out leadership packets, with tips on decision-making and employment skills. Back on campus, Ruiz and his staff targetted freshmen in almost 60 Student Success classes, which ballooned the group’s membership by 75 percent, from 20 to 97 active members.
     Programming highlights for this year have included the 4^th Annual Mashed Potato Sculpture Contest and the Matador Day, a popular VCC tradition featuring water slides, a dunk tank, and a hula-hoop contest attended by 2,000 students despite rain. In addition to these campus staples, new for 1998 was a "Think Fast" trivia game show that attracted 200 students to compete for a cash prize. SGA hopes to start new traditions with the first Halloween Mash and a Holiday Fest. To serve working students who take classes at night, VCC’s representative for evening services has planned activities including "Night of the Bull" and a barbecue to let students know their SGA is working for them. Beyond campus, committee members marched in the Orlando Cancer Walk, and SGA sponsored an Adopt-N-Angel Project to collect more clothing and toys for 36 kids in a local Headstart program.
     To give students another outlet to communicate with their representatives, SGA created a first-ever web page with services such as surveys and applications to join on-line. To increase student feedback via e-mail, SGA offers incentives such as movie tickets, mugs, frisbees, T-shirts, and CDs.
     Valencia’s leaders also work with other VCC campuses and neighboring district schools to bring issues such as localized technology fees and the Bright Futures Scholarship to a head at the state level. Prior to attending district and state meetings of the Florida Junior-Community College Student Government Association, Ruiz and his team surveyed Valencia students to determine their top concerns.
     Valencia students also were represented by their SGA at a national level last March when six students travelled to Washington, D.C. to attend the National Legislative Conference sponsored by the American Student Association of Community Colleges. During the trip, members put their new lobbying skills to work by visiting Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) to urge him to vote against Pell Grant decreases.
     "Their sole purpose is to serve students and not themselves," says Advisor Mike Bosley, coordinator for student development. "This group is dedicated to making sure students’ voices are heard on campus."
     Ruiz says making their dream come true by getting more students to "Come Make a Change"—SGA’s theme for 1998-99—has been the team’s biggest accomplishment. "All eight of us really make the whole group a success," Ruiz says. "This year, we wanted to make a difference, and we’ve done it."

Honorable Mention (tie)
     With only four other campus clubs available on the Plant City campus, Hillsborough Community College’s SGA has the added challenge of developing fun and educational campus programs for its 1,680 students. To fight apathy for SGA events, the Plant City officers meet monthly with Dean of Student Services Donald Bowman to discuss concerns such as campus safety and funding issues. Instead of guessing what students want from their SGA, leaders gather feedback with regular office hours, event evaluations, and suggestion boxes. To address the need for adequate student-leadership training, SGA members helped create Student Opportunities for Advocating Responsibility (SOAR), a peer-education program.
     SGA was instrumental this year in achieving a compromise on college-wide funding equity for student organizations. To get more students involved, HCC’s leaders write to all students who apply to attend the Plant City campus to invite them to join SGA.
     SGA put a twist on the old movie night by negotiating with a local theater to give students vouchers to pick their own flick, rather than renting a movie to show to everyone. Members still host the popular Forrest Gump Tournament for National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week, which awards trips to Medieval Times, Pirate’s Dinner Theater, Planet Hollywood, and Sea World. Although they’re not involved in FJCCSGA, HCC’s SGA prefers to lobby locally and is an active member of the local chamber of commerce, says President Teresa Taube.

Honorable Mention (tie)
     Led by President Davien Fernandes-Jones, the Student Government Association members at Miami-Dade Community College-North Campus deserves applause for their attempts to pinpoint student needs, invent solutions, and offer new programming on a budget of $3,500, serving 15,000 students and 25 clubs.
     To fight the rocketing cost of textbooks, SGA created an on-line book exchange to give MDCC-North students an economical alternative. When SGA leaders learned that students had to enroll in a three-credit-hour fitness course to use the Wellness Center, even though the students’ Bill of Rights includes access to all campus facilities, they took action. SGA drafted a proposal, met with the Center’s staff, and hosted a Town Meeting with the campus president, finally reaching a compromise to lower the fee to the cost of one credit hour for unlimited access. Fernandes-Jones says the group also serves students who take evening courses at the college by scheduling late SGA office hours two to three times a week. This year’s SGA also held a United Way fundraiser "Blast to the Past—a 50s, 60s, and 70s Party," which sold 150 tickets, and a Holiday Ball benefit that raised $3,000 for scholarships. In the community, MDCC’s student leaders have prepared food at the Miami Rescue Mission, pitched in along with PTK in the Heart to Heart toy drive, and collected food and clothing for Hurricane Mitch victims.

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