Voice Interview

The bad news is less than 200 people voted during this election cycle at Cabrillo. The good news is yours truly has been re-elected. Even better news is that there are vacancies to fill- all you need is 50 signatures from enrolled students, a 2.0 GPA and 6 units (actually legally it's only 5). So step up and serve your peers.

Following is how I responded to a Voice reporter's questions about my objectives for the next year on the student senate:




Hey Alex. Thanks for reaching out. It's long. Bear with me... maybe this should be an editorial?

Here's what I wrote for my candidate goals statement:

1. Continue to build the environmental sustainability movement on campus, with the help of faculty and UCSC students.

2. Continue to build the foundation for a student-run organic cafe. I'll work with the new food service provider, but ultimately their decisions come down to economics, not social or environmental responsibility. This means we have to work hard to make up the difference, or just do it ourselves. Basically the new food vendor will be evaluated after 2 years and either the contract will extend, or it goes out again for a bid. At that point we will know if the service is acceptable, or if we know we can do a better job, and we'll remove the cafe from the contract and take it over.

3. Work with the new cafeteria vendor to offer more healthy and local organic foods, especially for the large number of vegetarians and vegans on campus.

4. Work with the new cafeteria vendor and maintenance and operations to develop a compost program.

5. Advocate for the creation of a full-time staff sustainability coordinator position. This person would augment efforts by facilities management to increase energy and water efficiency, research environmentally preferred products and equipment, help coordinate recycling and compost programs, advertise alternative transportation options, support faculty efforts to develop sustainability curriculum, liaise between different departments, write grants, and support student environmental initiatives.

6. Develop programs to support student-run businesses.

7. Sponsor more art and music activities.

8. Partner with more local businesses for student discounts.

9. Reach out to community organizations for events.

10. Increase the CabrilloStudentSenate.com functionality with QNet (See MPCLife.org for an idea of what our website will look like).

... Additionally there is some unfinished business that needs to be settled. Our current constitution is not in compliance with the Education Code, specifically that we require student senators to take 6 units, instead of 5. It may not seem like a big deal, but it's an additional barrier to access for would-be student leaders. To change this, we need to have a special election with 20% of registered students voting. We need to change the constitution anyway, because in the present document there is no ICC representative, though in the bylaws the position does exist. Basically, for a few years now we've been violating the constitution because of this discrepancy.

Also there are some other projects that I will have more time to work on next year.

I would like Cabrillo to draft some procurement policies. In addition to the EPA's Environmentally Preferred Purchasing guidelines for products, we should look into socially responsible purchasing. I want to work with the bookstore to source all Cabrillo apparel from companies that have good labor practices. We can verify this through the Designated Suppliers Program, which was spearheaded by United Students Against Sweatshops with the help of labor organizations. The UC system, after significant pressure from students, has recently drafted an apparel policy. For a $40 Cabrillo sweatshirt, we should expect this kind of standard, but currently this isn't the case. Eventually I would like to see such a policy extend to Cabrillo sports uniforms, too... but my research so far indicates that it'll be a complicated process because the production and distribution systems for uniforms and equipment are so diffuse and unregulated, even the suppliers can't give an answer about where their products ultimately originate.

Students make valuable and insightful contributions to the classroom. Why not extend these contributions to curriculum development? I would like to work with the faculty senate, curriculum committee and instruction council to create a petition process for new courses. Whether for the arts, humanities and social sciences, applied physical sciences, computer science, digital media, physical education, really any discipline or department at our school, we can be offering more courses that interest students. The curriculum process doesn't have much room for creativity and entrepreneurship because of budget constraints, issues of articulation with other colleges and universities (for transfer credit), staffing and faculty limits, and all kinds of other variables. But if we democratize this process to some degree, and the best curricular candidates win (so to speak), then we can offer more innovative classes that are guaranteed to be filled, without jeopardizing existing classes. I'll give you an example. Finance, Environmental Science, and Education are only offering one class this semester. I'm certain there is more student interest than can be met by those course offerings.

Cabrillo just started a new committee for marketing and outreach- the committee will be researching all the different populations in the county and who registers as a student, then reviewing their student experience through graduation or transfer. I would like to contribute by outreaching to ASB organizations at county high schools to educate about the Cabrillo experience, and offer peer mentoring to ease the transition. The statistic that the planning and research office has is that 20% of people who register at Cabrillo don't follow up and apply for classes. It's the task of the committee to find out the myriad reasons why this is, and to devise solutions. I'd like to help!

As always, there is more... but you only have so much column space!

Ryan Kaplan,
Legislative Representative