Leaders absent

Thousands of students, parents and workers joined a Day of Action mass rally to defend equal access to public education at San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza on Thursday.

As the speakers on the main platform engaged attendees by acknowledging the participating Bay Area schools through roll-call cheers, representatives from Contra Costa College were nowhere to be found.

The main purpose of the demonstration was to show Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state's legislators that we will no longer tolerate California's oppressive budget cuts and capitalistic approach to education.

Apparently, CCC students were either unaware of the assembly, or they simply did not care enough to join the fight. Perhaps it was a combination of both.

Regardless of each student's individual reasons, however, the Associated Students Union failed to take responsibility for spreading the message.

It is not a surprise that none of our students showed up, considering the fact that none of its leadership did.

As elected leaders, the ASU's Executive Board is looked upon as the primary student voice of the college. As office holders, they are obligated to address the concerns of the students to the public's best interest.

But how useful can the voice of student government be when it is soft-spoken or silent?

The lengths at which the Executive Board advocates for student activism reflect the values of our campus.

Sadly, there seems to be a major lack of enthusiasm.

On multiple occasions, members of the ASU told The Advocate that their group was not participating in Thursday's rally. Yet, it never occurred to them that maybe fellow scholars not affiliated with student government knew little about the march.

"What march?" mathematics major Justin Lim said. "I might've gone, if I had known about it."

Across the district, a rally was held at sister college Diablo Valley, which attracted hundreds of students.

While the ASU has a Fireside Chat and rally scheduled for March 18 as a prelude to a protest at the state Capitol on March 22, there still have not been any notable efforts on their part to publicize it.

There is no excuse for the ASU skipping out on the Civic Center Plaza protest, especially since the local rally was accessible by public transportation and of equal importance to the upcoming Sacramento demonstration.

Students have a right to know about these events.

But we cannot expect them to follow, when student government fails to lead the way.