PAC Student Media

By Christian Vera
Pulse Staff Reporter

Students voiced their opinions to the Alamo Colleges administration with the goal of creating a transformative community for current and future students.

Over 50 student participated in the Conversations for the Future meeting held in the Ozuna Legacy Room on Jan. 29, 2019. Students discussed issues on campus and worked to offer solutions, hoping to yield a positive change for the student body.

Student Trustee Monica Scraper opened the meeting with the intent to clearly and factually communicate the needs of the Alamo Colleges’ students to the Board of Trustees. She encouraged students to serve their communities and advocate for the changes they want to see in education.

“Not only can the student voice change the educational climate effectively, it can also strengthen student achievement and foster workforce readiness… through our voice, we can share who we are, what we believe in, why we believe in what we do and what we value,” said Scraper.      

Dr. Mike Flores, chancellor of the Alamo Colleges, led the conversation and asked students,“What do you like about your student experience here at the Alamo Colleges, things like security and service and prices within the school bookstore and cafe?”

Flores wanted students to talk about anything they thought the faculty and staff should know.

“What changes do you students hope to see at the Alamo Colleges in the next five years?” Flores asked.

Students engaged in tabletop conversations with peers to discuss the current status of the campus. Three questions guided the conversation: What’s working well on campus that we need to protect and preserve? What processes are not working that we need to stop? And what services on campus do we need to improve?

Students also discussed broken record topics, such as misinformation from departments and expensive cafeteria food.

Palo Alto work-study Jasmin Gil, a Business Management major, proposed issues she faces while working with students at the Academic Learning Studio in the Ozuna Building. Gil addressed issues such as  the MacBook not running Office 360 offline, and she asked about the possibility of certifying work-studies to be able to sign out computers without a supervisor present instead of turning students away in their absence.

A strategic meeting will take place on March 26, 2019. Administrators from the Alamo College District will address the issues presented at the Conversations for the Future meetings.