On Friday, Sept. 20, four new members of The Associated Student Government (ASG) were interviewed and voted onto the board.
Addressing a full house on Friday, interim president Raquel Smith and other presiding members of the current ASG board interviewed and voted on candidates for the positions of Commissioner of Events, Commissioner of Marketing, Commissioner of International Affairs, and Vice President of External Affairs.
First to be addressed was the Commissioner of Events, which is tasked with the responsibility of organizing and overseeing the events hosted by ASG. The board voted for Aviana Bhatnagar, a first year student majoring in cognitive science.
“I think the first thing to do is try your best to communicate because when you’re planning events, that’s definitely one of the key factors, communication, and organization,” said Bhatnagar when asked how she would plan on navigating through arising setbacks and or uncommunicative outside parties when organizing events.
She also highlighted the importance of creating a welcoming environment for incoming students who may not have a strong social group going into college.
“As a first year, it can be really hard to meet people, especially like the amount of people I’ve met outside of class.” Bhatnagar explained. “They’re like, Oh, my gosh! Thank God! Like I have someone to talk to, like everyone in my class already has friends and I feel like that’s honestly a really big barrier in my classes, and even like in class discussions, it’s limited because by like, everyone has friends.”
Following the Commissioner of Events was the Commissioner of Marketing, which is responsible for the outreach and publicity of the club and the events that they host. The current ASG board voted unanimously for first year psychology major Hannah Jensen.
During her interview, Jensen highlighted the importance of using social media and working with school staff to broadcast what ASG has to offer.
“Another thing would be reaching out to teachers and making sure they’re talking about our events,” Jenson said when asked how she planned on increasing student engagement and student enthusiasm towards events.
She followed up to explain how working with specific departments could lead to more effective results in terms of outcome and be more beneficial for students in general.
“So [for example] let’s say we have an event about a book club,” Jenson said. “We can reach out to the English department and make sure they really aim it towards students who would go because at the end of the day we want a lot of people to come, but we want people to come to take the most out of it that they can.”
Next came the Commissioner of International Affairs, whose responsibility is to be a voice for the international students on campus and bring up any problems they may face. Lauren Merz, a second-year political science major, was voted into the position..
“I’m an international student, so I can kind of understand some of the problems one may face, especially when you’re starting over coming here,” said Merz. “You don’t know anyone. You don’t have any family. That’s something that most people feel once they come here, even though it’s a great place. People don’t really talk about it. They’re closed up.”
Merz also talked about the importance of the availability of information and resources to the international student body and how it can inhibit them and their studies.
“The thing is that sometimes the international students don’t know all the resources they can have,” Merz stated. “[The] stress of being here was enough, and I think we should add more resources to the international students as they’re kind of alone.”
Last came the Vice President of External Affairs who is responsible for overseeing and managing relationships between ASG and other organizations on campus. Being the sole applicant for the role, Zoe von Transehe-Roseneck, a first year student majoring in business administration was voted into the role.
“So I feel like the only way to really know people’s concerns is just to talk to a bunch of people and really empathize with their what they’re going through and what they need, and to be able to relay that information effectively.” said Roseneck when asked how she would ensure that the voices and concerns of City college students are effectively represented
The ASG board will continue to hold interviews for the other open positions in the following meetings, with the next ASG board meeting held on Sept. 27.
