Meet and Greet held to gain ASU support

Associated Student Union senators met with Contra Costa College students on Oct. 3 to encourage them to join the ASU and to give out information about the upcoming Nov. 6 general election.

The Meet and Greet event, held in the Recreation Room, was supposed to start at 2 p.m., but the doors were not open until 2:10 leaving students to wait outside of the room.

“We need to do better at promoting ourselves,” Culinary Arts Club President Erlinda Vance said. “This is our first attempt to get them to know who we are.”  
ASU President Jasmine Ramezanzadeh said the food provided at the event was an incentive for attendance and she hoped students learned something about each senator. Some of the participants said they were upset that some students came only for the free food, missing an opportunity to learn about the ASU.

Early childhood education major Jayla Miller said, “It made me feel that people are unappreciated. There are starving people all around the world.”

There was no speaker booked for the Meet and Greet because the ASU was aiming at not having a boring event, Ramezanzadeh said.

“We do not have a guest speaker. We just wanted to have an event that is fun,” Ramezanzdeh said. “We wanted to give the students a break (from lectures).”

There were some positives to the event as students who stayed were well informed about the current senators. Miller said it made her want to come out and learn more about the election and the ASU helped provide that for her.

Early childhood education major Stanley Dishmon said, “I’m a new student and I want to get more involved in something (on campus).”  
“I want to be a senator,” communications major Dominique Harrison said.

“I just want to be a part of something and have my voice heard,” said psychology major Walter Lipnosky
ASU Treasurer Ysrael Condori said the fact that the college has not recognized CCC students who have  who have lost their lives to violence is an issue to the ASU. The achievement gap is also a concern.

The achievement gap occurs when minority students have less success in the classroom than their white classmates.

The culinary arts department catered the food at the Meet and Greet. Vance, who is also an ASU senator, was in charge of serving. The ASU set a $300 budget for the culinary department’s services. Vance said culinary plans to use the money for its spring semester Food and Wine event.