By Sarah R Baker
As spring quarter draws to a close, students are gearing up for summer break to visit family or transfer to universities all across the country. The freshly-selected Associated Student Council, however, is preparing months in advance for the following school year and familiarizing themselves with the duties that student government entails.
In fact, Kelly Kevershan, the President-elect, already has a primary issue in mind.
“There’s never enough parking and people are forced to park all the way down the street. This ties into car safety as well, a lot of people’s cars are getting broken into, which is really unfortunate.”
Kevershan moved to Washington State from Tucson, Arizona in July to play soccer. Attending University of Washington is her end educational goal. “It’s the reason I moved here,” she explains, “to become a resident and be able to pay in-state tuition.” Kevershan, as a student aware of the financial aspect of attending universities, wants to do her part for the community college as well.
“Books are always a problem, always really expensive. We do a lot to make cheaper books available, but if there’s a way to make them even cheaper for the people who need them, I think that’d be really beneficial for the whole student body.”
Kevershan’s colleagues, Bonnie Sires and Paige O’Dell, vice president-elect and vice president of programming-elect, respectively, are also considering financial issues as we enter the summer months, but of a much different caliber.
“Right now, my main concern is the overall budget because we’re having to make some major cuts this year,” said O’Dell, “if we do have to make some massive reductions, we’re going to do it across all clubs and activities so that no one budget gets slashed because that’s not fair.
“I want to make the cuts as well-rounded as possible so that it’s a tiny ratio from each separate reserve and not draining one or two entire activities.
“Every event and club represents a student interest and our jobs aren’t to rob students of their interests, our jobs are to bring them together, so it’s really our duty to do it fairly.”
Sires is choosing to focus more on the student receivement of the budget cuts. “My main concern is continuing the enjoyment students take in PC life, and have the students be able to participate in events and relax here at the same time as we’re dealing with the budget problems. Coming up with more inventive ways to continue in these fun events without as much money spent.”
The ASC still has room for summer break, however, and are trying to balance hobbies with their new positions and duties.
“My hobbies include soccer, obviously, and before I came here I was on a dance team, I really like dancing,” said Kevershan.
Both Sires and O’Dell are interested in hiking and nature-related activities.
“My family has a boat so I love to go tubing and wakeboarding. I’m a pretty sick knee-boarder, actually. I really love to get involved and I’m really close with my family and my nieces and nephews, they’re all pretty little so I watch them a lot and we all have fun.”
“Dogs are my favorite thing on the face of the planet and puppies are the absolute cutest. That’s all you need to know about me. I love dogs,” said O’Dell.
As a self-proclaimed social butterfly, O’Dell says she loves to make friends and encourages students to approach her. “I’m outgoing and friendly and I really want to get to know you guys. It’s not just my job, I care about your interests and all I want is to represent them and let you know we really care and really will do everything in our power to make next year the greatest, most exciting year any student has ever had.”