—By Adriana Sanchez
On November 17, PCCC’s Board of Trustees held a meeting live on Youtube at 7pm. In the meeting were all members and trustees, watching live were a little more than one dozen people.
The meeting started with all members and trustees and the Pledge of Allegiance. After that roll call was completed.
President Steven M. Rose asked for nominations for Chairperson of the Board of Trustees. Trustee Barbara Tanis nominated Dennis F. Marco, who also serves as part of Council of Community Colleges. Trustee Sharon C. Smith second and nominations were closed, making Trustee Marco Chairman of the Board of Trustees.
Newly appointed Chairman of the Board of Trustees gave a small speech in which he stated he had “big shoes to fill” and will continue to enjoy working with the other trustees.
Then Chairman Marco then asked for nominations for Vice Chair. Trustee Yolanda Esquiche then nominated Trustee Tanis for Vice Chair, who easily became the Vice Chair. New Vice Chairperson said she hopes they will meet soon in person.
President Rose then presented some members of the Student Government Association. Edwin Nava, a senator of the Student Government Association and theater major, gave a small introduction. Jaileen Torres, a Criminal Justice major and senator, also gave a brief introduction and went on to say that other members of SGA could not make it due to schedule complications.
Nava and Torres went on to give a presentation on SGA’s accomplishments and goals for the school year.
There were some SGA members who attended Leadership Academy in which they talked about advocacy, leadership development, and public speaking. This year’s Leadership Academy was held virtually due to the growing number of COVID cases rather than on campus.
Nava presented pictures of the virtual Leadership Academy and said he missed seeing his teammates in person but said he was happy to connect with them. He stated in one of their workshops they reflected on themselves and committed to doing their best.
They were also able to have previous SGA members attend and pass down their knowledge, which was valuable to current SGA members.
Torres spoke about two goals that will impact the lives of students. One was updating the structure and content of the SGA Blackboard page on the school’s website as well as making it visually appealing. SGA added a section for student resources as well as a user-friendly guide of Blackboard for new students.
The last phase for the first goal is marketing. SGA hopes to be able to promote Blackboard across all social media platforms.
The second goal was “to continue PCCC’s SGA history,” stated Nava. They intended to “complete the history and showcase it physically in campus.” Due to COVID, they could not continue as originally planned.
A second layer was added, which provided a catalog for students which made it more interactive.
Torres went on to talk about SGA’s accomplishments. One of them was a weekly listening session where they help students by answering questions and listening to concerns. SGA held the first Virtual Involvement Fair where students were able to look at clubs and join if they were interested.
The Student Leadership Developmental workshop gave student leaders online tools that they can use in their own clubs and become more interactive. Nava said, “I think that this is a really important time more than ever for us to show the students that they have a voice.” But if students are struggling there is a safe space for them to open to someone and get help on whatever they need.
SGA says they want to continue to give virtual opportunities for students and to improve student engagement. Torres said most students are handling our current remote learning situation “well” but if they had any concern or questions they could go to the SGA or the club’s advisors.
President Rose went on to talk about students dropping out and students enrolling for the next semester. He went on to thank members who can provide scholarships for some students.
Lastly, President Rose talked about the Firehouse Project, which is an old firehouse the school could use to teach welding. Due to COVID the project ran into some problems and had to be stopped.
The meeting stopped after having some laughs and talking about the building of the Wanaque campus. Members thanked other members for working together and on everything they have achieved. The meeting was adjourned until December 15, 2020.