Editorial

Palomar’s Associated Student Government (ASG) needs to do more to involve students on campus.

The ASG recently held their annual elections for the positions of president and vice president. The two candidates, Senators Chris Hopp and Amber Bancroft, ran uncontested for the respective positions, Hopp for president and Bancroft for vice-president.

This paints an ugly picture regarding the lack of student involvement in our administration’s government, and although to some extent it can be attributed to a lack of student interest, the inability of our ASG to garner students’ attention cannot be ignored.

At the beginning of this academic year, the ASG held in its coffers $126,000. However, that is not the set amount of funding they receive every year when the district distributes funds to Palomar, that amount is only $30,000. The $126,000 comes from excess money left at the end of the year that then rolls into their budget for the following year.

We are not necessarily saying that the ASG isn’t throwing enough luaus for students, but clearly they have the budget to offer more services to students and to advertise those services better. As well has having stronger advertising campaigns for campus events and clubs. Furthermore, they could conduct more events for students, to try to instigate greater involvement.

We realize that the ASG can’t be throwing money out of windows, and that they need to keep some of their funding in reserve, in case something unforeseen comes up. Additionally, we appreciate that they are students who have lives outside of the ASG.

However, over the last year they have nearly filled their roster and currently have 17 active members serving, so there are certainly enough people to distribute the workload and produce better results in regards to student involvement on campus. Right now they are operating at the same efficiency they were when there were only seven members, it was excusable then, now not so much.

Allow us to be as clear, we are not condemning the inevitable election of Hopp and Bancroft. On the contrary, we view both senators as good candidates for their respective positions, and commend them for their roles in growing the ASG to a near full roster.

Rather, we are asserting that is time for the ASG to kick it into high gear. They finally have acquired the necessary number of members to begin to take on greater challenges, and offer more events to students looking to get involved at Palomar.

It’s time for the ASG to make its presence known on campus.