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STUDENTS for CHANGE
As a campaign that began one year ago to make a change in leadership and to create a new system of student representation based the pursuit of access and success for our students through diversity, community, dedication, and responsibility, we took the name “Students for Change.” One year later, we have made the change that we promised with our victory, and that change has brought about tangible and positive results that our students can see. One year later, we are still the Students for Change, but now we are the change that you can see, we are the change that has worked, and we ask for your vote to continue to fight for your right to access and success.
What began as a campaign has become much more, we have become a community of leaders. We are your current Associated Student Body Leadership, but we are also a larger community of leaders. We are the collective Leadership of the ARC Community. We are ASB leaders, we are ICC leaders, we are International Student leaders, we are PTK leaders, we are Mecha Leaders, we are Model UN leaders, we are Automotive Leaders, we are Free Thinkers leaders, we are Students for Ethics and Education leaders, we are Anthro Club leaders, and we are so much more. We are a community of leaders, a family of leaders.
Core Beliefs
The mission of the ARC Students for Change is to elect quality student leaders who will represent all American River College students equally, pursue policies and resources that will improve student access, promote student success, and enrich the collegiate experience for all American River College students.
Diversity
As experienced student leaders, we understand our responsibility and privilege to promote student access and success and an enriching college experience by embracing the diversity of our student body. We understand that it is not our right to exclude parts of our student body from equal representation because of our individual biases. We understand that our student body is diverse in beliefs, life styles, cultures, and virtually every other way imaginable, and it is our responsibility to pursue an agenda that equally represents the interests of all our students. We know that this means making the students’ cause our cause and nothing else. We believed in these principles one year ago when we took office, and one year later our record speaks loudly that we are still champions of diversity and new ideas. We are nothing if not a campaign of ideas.
Community
As leaders who have mended the fences broken by our opponents and built strong new relationships with our faculty, administrators, and fellow students, we have made clear that we believe in fostering a community partnership built around respect and cooperation. We recognize the Inter Club Council and club participation as the cornerstone of a vibrant student community. We believe in supporting our clubs to enrich the collegiate experience through active participation. We believe in working together with faculty and administrators to improve the opportunities and resources available to our students. Through respect and cooperation, our community can accomplish great things. This has been our belief since our beginning, and our investment in this belief as elected leaders has bore tremendous fruit for our students. This was the component our opponents lacked as the former Student Association, and this belief in community is what has made our Textbook Rental Program, Digital Signage, and so many other programs possible as the new Associated Student Body.
When our campaign began, we opposed the former Student Association for its lack of a commitment to its students. Student leaders are volunteers, but that does not mean our leaders only volunteer their time for their personal agendas. As Students for Change, we have the experience in student leadership to understand the strong commitment it takes to do our jobs. As the Associated Student Body, we have dedicated ourselves to improving your college experience. When textbooks are available to rent next semester, it will be because of the countless hours of research and negotiation that we have invested. We are dedicated to our responsibility as your elected voice, and we are congnizant of the enourmous responsibility you have entrusted to us. Our leaders are ready to make responsible decisions every day. We humby ask for your renewed trust to allow us to volunteer our time for you.
Accomplishments as the Associated Student Body
Textbook Rental Program
As your current student leadership, we have made good on a promise made by the former Student Association two years ago. We have taken on their false promise and delivered real results. The ARC Textbook Rental Program will be available to students in the Beaver Bookstore for the Fall of 2010. It has taken a year of dedication and hard work to make this possible, but through hours of research and negotiation, we made this promise a reality. This accomplishment was made possible by our belief in dedication and community. We spent our year in office building support from the entire ARC community for this program, and next semester’s students will reap the rewards. This program will become a monument to what can be accomplished by students when they have the passion to see a commitment through to its completion. Grab a school newspaper to read more how this program became a success and what you can expect to see in the bookstore next fall.
Social Reform
As a primary component of our campaign last year, we upheld our promise to undo the damage caused by our opponents and to heal a campus community still injured from a year of bigotry and social injustice. In our first month of leadership, we adopted a groundbreaking resolution resolving our student body to make a commitment to diversity, cultural awareness, acceptance, and an embrace of diversity of ideas. We overturned the former Student Association’s support of proposition 8 and made clear to our community that American River College is once again a place of ideas and mutual respect. We see the fruits of our labors every time we venture out into our community and see first hand the gratitude of our community and the awareness that ARC is a college our students can once again be proud of.
Investing in our Community
Our Opponents reduced or stopped funding to virtually every campus club or student led initiative, including the Inter Club Council and the American River Review, an award winning publication depending on student funds and well worth the investment as a primary vehicle to building the quality academic reputation of our college.
As your leaders, we have invested the student’s money in quality initiatives and programs that reassures students their money is working for them. A $30,000 investment has been made into a digital signage network that has been delivered and is waiting to be installed by the college. This network will connect students to their campus with 21st technology allowing you the student to quickly and easily find out what’s happening on your campus without having to stop to read and be late to class. Look for this network to be operational in May this Semester. This is just one example of how we make access and success for our students our top fiscal priority.
“ARC’s A Haunted Festival”, a Halloween event helping struggling ARC families and children enjoy being part of a supportive community was fully funded and carried out by The ASB, ICC, and ISA, all organizations that are led by Students for Change.
“Beaver Week,” scheduled for April 19-24th, will be the largest celebration of the ARC community our campus has seen in years. Beaver week will become a tradition at ARC, engaging our students in a community event and showing our students that ARC has more to offer that just classes. We have a culture to offer. Come out and see the community that we have fostered for yourself. You won’t be disappointed.
The Associated Student Body has invested almost half of its primary budget directly into clubs and student led initiatives so that you the student could reap the benefits of a student leadership that puts you first. We have invested in the Interclub Council, The American River Review, The ARC Jazz Ensemble, the Center for Teaching and Learning, The Umoja Project, the ARC Welding Club, and Multicultural Night. We believe that our budget is your money, and we are dedicated to making our budget benefit you.
Reform and Transparency
Our opponents and the former Student Association dedicated themselves to secrecy and the mismanagement of student funds, even attempting to make a secret $5,000 donation of student funds to an off-campus fundamentalist newspaper.
As your Associated Student Body leaders, we have dedicated our selves to open government and the free flow of information to our student body. In our first month, we adopted the Access and Success Advocacy Act, a piece of student legislation paving the way for reforms and open student government at ARC. In the same month, we successfully established the website of the Associated Student Body, www.arcstudents.com, and created an open source for retrieval of all ASB documents in the campus life office. On our website or in the Campus Life Center, students now have complete access to the Associated Student Body, our work, and our expenditures. We have created the open and transparent government that our students demanded but failed to receive from the former Student Association.
These are our highlights. Find us on campus to ask about our state level advocacy, our shared governance representation, our prominent student leadership role in leading the California Community College system, and much more.
