Michelle Dowling is a woman with a can-do attitude.

In April 2012 she was elected to serve a one-year term as student trustee to the SRJC Board of Trustees. She had been the vice president of Advocacy for the Associated Students for the three previous semesters, so becoming the student trustee was a natural step forward.

“I felt qualified and compelled,” Dowling said.

Dowling has studied political science and global studies at SRJC on and off since 2004. She works full time, helps support her family and commutes by bus from Petaluma. She also sits on five standing committees. She just submitted an application to UC Berkeley for fall 2013. Even with all the responsibility, Dowling is calm and determined. She doesn’t want to succeed simply for her own benefit; her goal is to teach others.

The Board of Trustees is the governing board of the Sonoma County Junior College District. Board members are elected representatives whose main duty is fiscal and policy oversight. The student trustee serves as a liaison between the associated students and the board.  She has a non-binding advisory vote on both bodies.

Dowling attends all public meetings of the board and participates fully.

“If I have questions or concerns I can email the board and they get back to me very quickly. They take into consideration what I say,” Dowling said.

Board member Jeff Kunde said, “Michelle always has great input from the students’ perspective.

I am impressed with her passion and knowledge of college affairs.”

Her agenda has been to bring up statewide issues and see how the board addresses them. She also wants to get more students involved.

“As VP of Advocacy with student government, I was the delegate on all statewide issues,” Dowling said.  “I thought the JC as a whole wasn’t advocating enough regarding statewide issues. I wanted to find out how connected the board was to state legislators.  Going into this I had no idea. Now that I’m more closely involved I see they are connected. There are people who have experience working for legislators.”

The first issue to address was Proposition 30. Representatives from the student body, faculty and classified staff came together to support it.

Another issue that Dowling feels strongly about is the Student Success Act of 2012. The goal of the SSA is to increase the level of graduates and certificate holders in the state on a numbers basis alone.

“The term ‘student success’ sounds pretty, but in reality it is a form of rationing education; it says who gets to learn and when,” Dowling said. “The SSA contradicts the original mission of the master plan for higher education, in place since 1960, which stated that anyone has the opportunity to learn.”

Associated Students President Jessica Jones believes that Dowling has proved to be a strong student leader. When student government needed her, “she jumped on board,” Jones said.

“I can count on her. She follows through. She has a wide knowledge of policy from the state level down to the local level. It’s really hard to find students with such a broad perspective,” Jones said.

Regarding student participation, Dowling believes that student government over the last year has significantly improved.

“We have a very dedicated president, a unified senate, improved communication and increased relationships with faculty, board, and administrators,” she said.

“It’s hard to get students at the community college committed. People are working two jobs,” Dowling said. “I myself struggle. I have to go to work, I have to pay rent. If you care it makes a big difference.”
Dowling would like students to come to board meetings (second Tuesday of each month at 4 p.m. in the Student Activities Center).

“It’s a challenge to get students to care more. I don’t think students are apathetic, I think they’re just unaware,” Dowling said. During a board meeting “if the board members are speaking about cutting a certain program and all of a sudden they look over at the group people it’s affecting, they might think twice about what they say.”

Dowling plans to major in rhetoric to gain and master argumentation and communication skills. She’d like to continue in civil service and education but with a stronger voice and a better ability to persuade and inspire people.

“I’d like to speak to a room of strangers and be able to walk out having accomplished something,” Dowling said. She has partially learned what it takes to do this, but wants to learn more. “You have to get pretty personal with people in order to get them ignited,” she said.

“I was a college drop-out initially. Life sucked. I thought I was born to be a slave to debt.” Dowling slowly got through that negative phase. She met people who were passionate and she realized that there was another way to think and to act. “I realized I could make a difference,” she said.

“I really want to work on being able to teach. Not to become an official teacher, but to work on teaching abilities.  I’d like to get others to be able to recognize their own weaknesses and then help them get to the next level. It’s like ‘Each One Teach One’.”

‘Each One Teach One’ is an African-American proverb originating from the slave era. It was beneficial to those in charge to keep the slaves in a state of ignorance. However, when a slave did learn to read it became his or her duty to teach someone else.

Dowling said that in her most recent meeting with Dr. Chong he expressed an optimistic outlook for upcoming bills that favor education because of the newly elected California legislature. There is an increase in women, minorities and democrats in the House and Senate.

“It’s almost like the stars are aligning,” Dowling said.