The past year has been a busy one for the Associated Student Senate, with two new presidents leading through rallies to protest the state’s fiscal decision making, the aftermath of Japan’s disasters and smoking and parking issues.

Interaction with the students was important for Atty Garfinkel, associated student senate president during the fall. The projects “Coffee with the Senators” and “McKinley Lunches” were turned into reality. The former was to provide an informal setting, where students could come and ask questions directly to the senators.

“There is now more direct interaction with the students as a group than ever before,” said Garfinkel.

“Students are really taking advantage of this opportunity by bringing forward their true concerns,” added Ruby Limon, the outgoing student senate president.

November was busy month for the Senate, as new projects had to be brought to the table as economically hard times were affecting many people both on campus, and the community.

To help those in need, a food drive was conducted in mid November and all donations from students, faculty and staff, were taken to the County Food Bank. To help the community even more, the Senate decided to expand their idea by creating a similar event to not only provide food, but also toys, and clothing for December’s holiday season.

The Senate cabinet was reduced from 20 to 10 at the end of 2010, due to an amendment of their by-laws. At the last meeting of the year, the Senate began to set their sight on the political climate for the coming cuts to education promised by Governor Jerry Brown

“We are viewing proposals for alternative cuts and collaborations, along with other student associations within the region and the state to begin lobbying efforts with all legislatures, both here and in Sacramento,” Garfinkel said.

December 16 was Garfinkel’s last day as President due to maternity leave, and 21-year-old Ruby Limon took the reins from Garfinkel for the spring semester.

“Ruby is the best decision I could make as a successor, and I wouldn’t have done it if she wasn’t ready,” Garfinkel said.

“I took this as a challenge because I felt I was not prepared for it,” Limon said. “But I have to thank Amy, Dr. Partee, as well as every single senator for their support and hard work.”

The spring semester began full of new plans including a flea market for fund-raising, the establishment of a food bank on campus for students in need; and an increase on book grants to help supplementing the limited EOPS book grants.

“The two goals I have for this semester are to make students aware of the vast number of student support services available, and to recognize campus events that would raise money and awareness of community non-profit organizations,” said Limon, earlier in the semester.

But not everything happens as planned. Three things abstracted the Senate’s original agenda: parking, smoking and the tsunami.

The first sparked a discussion over allowing faculty and staff to take student carpool spots for the first couple weeks of class and is not planned to happen in the future. The second was a campus wide smoke-free policy rejected by the Senators, who considered it to be unnecessary due to the well-distributed designated areas around our campus.

March was the most engaging month of the year as the Senate joined the annual “March in March” event on March 14, where a group of 20 students from different programs at City College traveled to Sacramento to protest against cuts to higher education.

Also, following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, City College students felt something needed to be done.

The Senate, along with Phi Theta Kappa and International Student Ambassadors, came together to raise money to send to Japan. Their goal was to raise $10,000, but were only were able to make about $6,500.

“One of the main things has substantially helped us this year was the increase involvement with PTK and student ambassadors,” Limon said. “By working together, we were able to tackle challenges more efficiently than ever before.”

From April 25 to April 29, elections were held to elect new officers, and a new president was chosen.

And Student Senate President-elect Jeffrey Englert has his goals set for the upcoming year.

“The thing that we will be working with the hardest is the increase of communication between the students and the student senate,” Englert said.

“With the future budget cuts that are going to affect City College during the spring of 2012, students need to be sure we will have their backs,” he added. “We will be doing everything in our reach to keep resources readily available for them.”

“The student senate will accomplish much more this coming Fall. I can see it coming,” Limon said.