The Delano Campus will not be its own college, but it may have its own student government.
Richard McCrow, the Delano Campus director, said the campus will eventually become its own college, but it requires certain standards that are yet to be met.
“It’s going to take 10-15 years,” said McCrow.
The Delano Campus is composed of some old buildings and is under construction in building new ones.
Since the beginning of December 2007, four Bakersfield College and Delano Campus students have been chosen to represent Delano in the BC Student Government Association senate meetings.
“I got a call from the director. He addressed he wanted some representation for our senate meetings,” said John Lopez, BC’s SGA President.
At the beginning of this year, Loy Salarda, Maria Zamora, Roberto Ibarra and Rovia Enblera were chosen by McCrow to be representatives.
Though these students are just representatives, they want to improve the Delano Campus for their students. “Delano has been in the shadows for too long,” said Ibarra, molecular biology major. “We have old equipment like computers, printers, and vending machines that break apart unexpectedly. It takes months just to fix these things.”
According to Zamora, business administration major, there is no cafeteria or library. Things at the Delano Campus lack student services. “It would be nice to have someone there to help out the students,” said Zamora. “Hopefully, we can do something about it.”
Having a Delano Campus SGA would not only bring improvement to their situations but also bring events to the campus. “BC does not inform us of news and events going on at BC,” said Salarda, business administration major. “We have no student leaders, and we are completely overlooked.”
Ibarra mentioned one of his goals is to bring rallies and Spring Fling-like events for the students at Delano.
According to Salarda, past BC SGA candidates have gone to Delano Campus giving students false hopes of improvement. “They did that to get our votes but nothing would happen.”
This year, John Lopez has been involved with the Delano Campus very closely, according to McCrow.
“We are bringing BC and Delano together by creating a SGA,” said McCrow. “Give the voice to Delano.”
But in order to have an SGA at Delano, the BC SGA needs to modify their constitution. “Delano also has to make their own constitution. Maybe they will be done by the end of this semester,” said Lopez. “This is a pretty bad time because of SGA elections and finals coming up.”
Maria Zamora mentioned that the Delano representatives have been working on the constitution and making a student survey for Delano, which includes topics like having more classes, transportation services, student services and recycling bins.
The Delano Campus has more than 1,300 students, and all of them have to pay the registration fee. “None of the student fees go to our campus. It goes to BC,” said Salarda. “It’s unfair.”