Bakersfield College student Dominic Kodysz, 31, wants to help out with improvements at BC by helping to write grants because he is concerned with the safety and education of the students.
Kodysz is enrolled in the welding program and this is the first year that he has attended BC, but he has taken classes at Cypress College and Cerro Coso Community College previously. Kodysz was treasurer of the Student Government Association at Cypress College from 2002-2003, where he helped write a bond measure to build a new student center. Kodysz works two jobs as well, one as a night auditor at the Best Western downtown and also as a server at Denny’s.
Upon his arrival at BC, Kodysz said that he noticed the broken wheel chair lifts, so he talked with general council member Nick Acosta about what they could do to fix stuff on campus.
“I am just going to help write the grants,” said Kodysz. “I have experience in dealing with college finances and experience in writing grants.”
Kodysz said that he is going to meet up with Bonitza Steele, who is the grant writer for the Kern Community College District, so they can work together on the short term and long term money situation at BC.
He is also meeting with the SGA president to talk about possible projects they can tentatively plan.
“I really wanted to get some kind of survey going so that I can see what the students want to see improved,” said Kodysz. “The SGA are the ones in control of where the money is spent, but I think they can sometimes be a little biased.”
Kodysz said that he would like to see improvements for accessibility and mobility for disabled students. He also said he has heard a lot of students complain about the computer situation. So he would like to see more computers purchased for student use.
Kodysz also expressed his beliefs on Obama’s education challenge for colleges and proposition 30.
“When I arrived at BC I met with a counselor and instead of talking to me about my future educationally it seemed almost as if she were trying to push me to vote yes for proposition 30,” said Kodysz. “I don’t like how college students are expected to vote yes for proposition 30, it is like a shot gun wedding because the state can’t balance their money.”
Kodysz said that he doesn’t want to see money cut from schools, but said funds would have to be cut in every other federal agency as well.
“There are all kinds of federal funds out there that can be used for making schools safer,” said Kodysz. “Even though our state is pretty much broke right now, we can still get money for specialized projects.”
Kodysz said that he thinks the money provided for schools can be distributed better and more evenly. He said that for SGA, extra people are paid to be there that aren’t really involved with anything that needs to get done.
“So you have a committee for your committee?” he said. “How much overtime are they being paid to just sit there and advise these committees?”
Kodysz asked one of the SGA members, he said that they couldn’t really answer it.
“Everything is kind of in the works right now,” said Kodysz. “I just wanted the paper to do some kind of survey and get the word out there so that students are informed. I think if we keep working at this then we can really improve BC for students.”