By JAJUAN BROWN & NICOLAS HERNANDEZ
Staff Writers
As campaign posters begin to proliferate throughout the campus walkways, candidates running for Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) student leader positions are preparing for the upcoming elections.
Students had their first opportunity to get to know the candidates running for ASI president and vice president in a meet-and-greet event that took place Feb. 27 in the University Park. The elections will take place from March 9 starting at 7 a.m. through March 12 at 7 a.m. All voting will take place online via the MyBar system.
Kimberly Cortez and Tyler Palonsky
Third-year agriculture science student Kimberly Cortez is running for the position of ASI president, and alongside her is third-year industrial engineering student Tyler Palonsky who is vying for the ASI vice president position.
The pair’s mindsets are student-centric. They find it important to express the role of ASI to the student body.
“We want to enhance the Bronco spirit,” Palonsky said. The two highlight this, mentioning they both have personal experience with the student community as they both reside on the campus housing grounds. The recurring comments made by the duo were the lack of community taking place on campus and where they would like to see it in the future under their administration.
The duo said their priorities will focus on enhancing the campus community and shedding the university of its commuter school designation through this focus on school spirit.
“We think there is a vibrant community life on campus and we just have to expose it,” Palonsky said. “If we’re elected, we really want to focus on our student leaders (and) meeting with our constituents on a personal level.”
Reinforcements of personal communication with students echo throughout their campaign. However, they are aware of issues that CPP students face in their campus experience.
On the issue of safety, Cortez touted her experience working for the University Police Department (UPD), which is reflected in the pair’s action plan and includes allocating more resources to the safety escort program. This existing service from the police department provides students accompaniment to their cars in university parking locations or to their campus residence.
The action plan that Cortez and Palonsky were pitching to students at the meet-and-greet also focused on raising “the Bronco spirit,” allocating resources to the Poly Pantry and university parking, and fostering transparency in student government.
(Jannett Diaz | The Poly Post)
Lucy Yu and Manshaan Singh
Lucy Yu, a third-year hospitality student, is running for ASI president alongside Manshaan Singh, a third-year environmental biology student, who is running for ASI vice president.
Both Yu and Singh highlighted their experience in student government. Currently, Yu serves as the senator from the Collins College of Hospitality Management, while Singh holds the position of ASI attorney general.
“I think we’re qualified for these positions because of our ASI resumes,” Yu said. “We’ve gotten a lot done in ASI because both Manshaan and I are in the board of directors in student government right now.”
Singh specified what he and Yu have accomplished during their tenure in student government. “Together we’ve removed the 20% fundraising guideline for clubs, we got turbo vote on this campus by working with our secretary of external affairs (and) we’ve completely revamped how clubs are funded. We’ve done a lot. We know how we’re going to do our things.”
In terms of specific policies, Yu and Singh mentioned wanting to further support the Poly Pantry, as well as expand the operating hours of the library to 24 hours. “We want to open the library 24 hours … specifically during midterm season and finals season,” Yu said.
Singh stated that he would like to reallocate funds from the student success fee to keep the library open longer, something he said is “definitely within ASI’s reach.”
The administration also looks to amplify knowledge of CPP’s Poly Pantry services.
“Poly Pantry is a gold mine and we want to be the dynamite to blow it up,” Yu said. “We have an amazing team inside there right now expanding it, but we want to partner with outside companies to bring in more donations and products for our students.”
“We also want to market it more. I can’t tell you the number of students I talk to and they’re like, ‘No. What’s that?’” Yu said.
However, Singh also mentioned goals that are not fully within the scope of ASI, but that he would like to assist the university administration in accomplishing. This included decreasing wait times for Counseling and Psychological Services and a Foothill Transit Class Pass to provide free bus rides for students.
Yu also expressed the importance of spreading information to the student body that will support mental health and performance.
Randell Monzon and Marco Rosas
Randell Monzon, a third-year political science student, advocated for more satisfactory communication between the on-campus colleges, the UPD and the ASI administration. His administration looks to solve the problems affecting CPP’s campus.
“My first week last semester, I went to every department to find out what they have to offer their students and what issues they are facing,” Monzon said. “First and foremost, I’m trying to build a relationship between students and faculty (and) staff; second, basic needs for students; and third, provide advocacy support for underrepresented students.”
The duo had a list of “focus goals” which included initiatives on parking forgiveness, a behavioral intervention team and enhanced campus security.
“I’m really big on security,” Monzon said. Enhanced campus security includes sexual assault prevention, student emergency training and student protocol in case of these emergencies.
Concerning parking, Monzon wants to implement a one-time parking forgiveness pass. This means using the UPD database to determine whether a student has previously been issued a CPP parking ticket. If not, the student will receive a warning placed on his or her windshield. If so, the student will be given a ticket. He believes in order to live up to these ideals, his administration will have to build an understanding with the powers that be.
Finally, he describes his plan to create a Behavioral Intervention Team – a group of officials that will train students on how to react in an emergency. “These concerns aren’t going to be solved if we don’t build a relationship with the faculty and staff.”
His running mate Marco Rosas, also a third-year political science major, encouraged student communication with him and Monzon if elected.
“I want students to be able to come to me and say, ‘Hey, I need help with this,’ or ‘This happened to me,’” Rosas said. “I’ll make sure their needs are covered.”
