Student trustee Robert Martinez announced the creation of the Student Trustee Advisory Group, making his mark on an otherwise sleepy Santa Rosa Junior College Board of Trustees meeting.
In light of the recent fires in Butte County, SRJC was closed two weekends in a row and several days during the week. The monthly board meeting was postponed last Tuesday on account of the closures, pushing it to Nov. 20. The effects of the off-week meeting were clear, as the number of attendees dwindled this month.
Student trustee Robert Martinez used this time to introduce his new student group, one that focuses on connecting the student trustee with the rest of the campus. “A lot of students don’t know that we even have a student trustee,” Martinez said.
The Student Trustee Advisory Group (STAG) will have three major functions. The first is the ability for students to tell their student trustee what they would like to see more or less of at SRJC. The second is for Martinez to share and read the report he gives to the other board members with his fellow students. The third function is for students to talk about bigger issues concerning not just SRJC but the whole district in which it resides.
“This is one of my ways to connect with students and to further outreach and really work with students on what we can do,” he said.
The group will discuss and express concerns about campus safety, student inclusion, and bigger issues, “things that you can’t just get done in a week, or even in a semester,” he said.
Martinez assured other board members and those in the crowd that the group was not another committee.
The first STAG meeting will take place at 3:30 p.m. Dec. 6 on the second floor of the Bertolini Student Center. The meeting will also be teleconferenced to the Petaluma campus.
Trustee Jeff Kunde took a moment to thank everyone at SRJC who has helped him over the years and for re-electing him to the board. “One thing I learned through this process, there is a huge amount of people out there that hold the JC in very high esteem,” Kunde said.
Trustee Mariana Martinez spoke on how proud she was of the SRJC theater department and their productions for the diversity in their programming. “How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” had a packed house, she said. “I think that’s really beautiful to see during Hispanic Heritage month.”
