The Delano campus has had its first student government election on Nov. 24, and the results were up by Dec. 1.
During the summer, Delano and Bakersfield College were originally supposed to meet, but, according to Loy J. Salarda, there has been no communication from the main campus. “We would have had an election at the beginning of fall,” said Salarda. “We got tired of waiting, so we had the elections.”
In order to have an official Student Government Association at the Delano campus, the BCSGA needed to approve the constitution, which was written by Delano representatives.
As of now no constitution has been approved because of the lack of communication. Rovia Eublera, who ran for Delano president, said, “The two campuses need to work together.”
Originally John Lopez, the previous SGA president, got representation for the students of Delano. “After his term everything was at a total standstill, there was little or no action taken thus far,” said Salarda. “I wish John Lopez was still here.”
Because of this delay, the crew had a small amount of time to prepare for the election, which resulted in poor participation. But the candidate participation did not lack. About nine candidates ran for president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. “Those who were not elected can still be part of the SGA. They can bring ideas to the committee,” said Eublera.
There were also the alternative positions like finance director, event coordinator representative, club representative, class schedule representative and commissioner.
During the spring semester, a survey was given to the Delano students for the representatives to get an idea what the SGA needs to work on. “What we got from the survey was that students want more classes,” said Roberto Ibarra, biology major. The Delano campus needs certain approval from the main campus, which makes small projects a long process.
An incident that got Eublera worried about the approval procedure was when the campus had a toxic problem. “We did what we were supposed to do during a fire and we waited for a couple of hours,” said Eublera. The firefighters were notified after the campus was evacuated. “Why couldn’t we call the firefighters first and then notify the main campus after?”
According to Eublera once the constitution is revised, they would like to become their own institution.
“I feel like what Obama says, ‘It’s time for change.’ This change may be good or bad but it will push us,” said Ibarra.