3
Musician treads line between jazz and hip hop
May 18, 2012
5
Track team excels at Southern Region Championships
6
Advocate staff brings home 11 state journalism awards Volume 47, Issue 28
advocate the
www.Advocate-Online.net
ASG election winners share goals for 2012-2013 by Jill-Marie Gavin The Advocate
The newly elected Associated Student Government president and vice president for 20122013 hope to improve student life through campus activities and enhanced funding.
President-elect plans to focus on enhanced student funding William Miller, ASG director of diversity, and Antonio Guerrero, ASG senator pro tempore, won the election May 11 for ASG president and vice president by 139 votes with 415 of the 1086 votes. Both Miller and Guerrero spoke of their goals in interviews Wednesday and have indicated that their priority for MHCC student body is to gain recognition and support at a national level. Miller mentioned using MHCC’s involvement in the American Student Association of Community Colleges to advocate for student funds. Miller, who graduated from Reynolds Learning Academy in 2010 is headed into his third year at MHCC. He said he is majoring in political science and has a career goal to serve as an elected official. Miller also said his aim is to transfer to Pennsylvania State University and enroll in the public administration program. In a phone interview Wednesday, Miller Photos by Mike Mata/The Advocate
2012 ASG election results
William Miller (top) and Antonio Guerrero (above) were elected ASG president and vice president May 7 through 11.
According to an email from the ASG elections committee, this year’s voter turnout is the largest in MHCC history. The final cumulative vote count was 1,086.
spoke of his personal heritage of both Cherokee and Blackfeet tribes, and his interest in men’s grass dancing at pow wows before moving onto his ideas for diversity and more inclusive events at MHCC. He said next year he wants ASG to work on creating events similar to the ones they’ve already had, but make them more creative and target alternative students. Father-daughter/ son, mother-daughter/son picnics and pride week events are some of the ideas he shared for the upcoming school year. He also said sporting events are in need of revamping. “I went to a baseball game a while back and I was like, ‘Where are all the students?’” said Miller, “We have great teams and we need more students to attend games and show support.” Miller also said he wants to help students get more funding for college. In light of the $5 tuition increase, students will need better access to grants, scholarships and loans in order to broaden their opportunities, he said. Miller said ASG is currently working on a relationship with a potential sister school, Georgia University. He said the relationship will hopefully include visits to their campus and GU students visiting MHCC campus. He said GU student government has communicated with MHCC ASG to create this partnership.
See ASG continued on page 6
Final vote counts by candidate: 415 276 226 98 47 22
William Miller and Antonio Guerrero Tobin Shield and Garrett Larreau Luis Delgado and Marcelino Bautista Jeremy Likens and Natalia Figueroa Eric Cansler and Sadaf Saleem Michael DiNapoli and Jake Whitten
Student elections panel receives complaints of campaign violations by Jill-Marie Gavin The Advocate
An Associated Student Government Elections Committee member confirmed Thursday that there have been four official complaints filed involving this year’s elections. Temari Asazuki, ASG Elections Committee Support Coordinator, said the complaints have mainly been concerning alleged campaign violations made by William Miller and Antonio Guerrero. Asazuki also said several students and candidates
have come in with unofficial complaints. According to Asazuki, the official complaints allege that while campaigning Miller and Guerrero were offering off-campus food to students, using the MHCC portal to email students and two complaints refer to the two candidates offering their personal phones to students during voting. Asazuki said the last two complaints have been determined not to be in violation of the campaign rules. One ASG presidential candidate, Jeremy Likens, said Tues-
Mt. Hood Community College
day, “It’s come to our (ASG presidential candidates) attention there have been dozens of accusations against Will and Antonio’s campaign this past week.” “These violations appear to clearly violate the code of ethics and the campaign rules we all agreed to,” said Likens. Asazuki said the elections committee have discussed the matter and passed the information to David Sussman, manager of College Center Services and Grant Sponsored Programs, but she said it’s her understanding that no further action will be
taken. Miller, asked about the allegations, said in a phone interview Wednesday, “Nothing happened. We ran by the rules. What it comes down to is people are probably angry we won. That’s normal in things like this. All our campaigning took place in the Main Mall.” He also said, “I thrive on integrity and honesty, and these allegations just make me chuckle.” Guerrero, addressing the same issue, said Thursday, “The current election rules are unclear for the voting polls in the
library. ” He added, “We were 50 feet away from the computers in the library, but we weren’t 50 feet from the library. He said the rules have a lot of gray areas and it’s easy to twist them either way, so they need to be cleared up. Meadow McWhorter, Student Events and Center Coordinator, declined Thursday to comment on election complaints. She said ASG elections committee members were better prepared to answer questions. Sussman was out of his office Thursday and was unavailable for comment.
Gresham, Oregon