Dan's Den

It seems that my last column created quite a stir. I wrote about some issues that I didn't agree with and that has angered a few people in the ASB.

I'm not here to justify what I said, nor to submit a rebuttal against the letter writing campaign, which has come from ASB and the Honor Transfer Society.

No, instead I'd like to talk about something both real and important. In all the letters that came in response to my criticisms, both pro and con, I noticed that only one spoke about my concerns regarding the most important issue, the ASB elections.

This past Thursday we (the few who actually voted) voted for a new ASB cabinet for the Fall '09 semester. Unfortunately, the Rio Hondo student community was once again left out in the cold.

Prior to the elections, there was a time period in which students interested in running for an ASB position could submit applications to be a candidate. The problem is that there seemed to be a lack of notification from the ASB.

I literally saw more signs and announcements for Earth Day than I did for either the ASB candidate submissions, who were the ASB candidates on the ballot, not even a sign for the ASB elections themselves.

I am here Monday through Saturday and as a journalist I keep my ears and eyes open and yet, I saw no evidence pertaining to the elections.

Last year the ASB registered less than 300 votes. That's 300 out of 25,000 students and I'll bet that this year they won't come anywhere close to getting even five percent of the student population to vote.

People may not like what I say or claim that I don't have all the facts, but unfortunately for them, the numbers just don't lie.

The truth is that the ASB does not reach the students and instead they get caught up with their pet projects and inner circles.

Fortunately, one of the ASB candidates for Senator, Kimmy Castillo took a few minutes to speak with me.

I asked Castillo where she had found out about the ASB elections. Castillo said that all schools keep to a regular schedule when it comes to elections and thus she knew when to apply, as well as asking her brother and friends on ASB.

Castillo also went on to tell me that if students were really interested in running for elections, they need to go ask questions and find out for themselves. She said that no one is going to give you anything; you have to go get it.

Upon further prodding, Castillo admitted that she first saw that ASB applications were due when she saw it announced in the El Paisano newspaper. This in turn led her to inquire about the ASB elections.

The funny thing is that the announcement in the newspaper came upon my suggestion that we run an announcement for ASB elections. The announcement in the paper did not appear because of any request from ASB, because we didn't receive any, but rather as a protest against ASB keeping the elections so secretive.

As anyone knows, with variety in any species, we get a stronger basis for excellence and survival, but when there is inbreeding, the organism suffers greatly. This is how I see the ASB elections.

Very little was advertised and thus we only have a gene pool consisting mainly of past members.

Instead of trying to get people from outside the organization and thus increasing the chances of having better debates and leaders, the ASB has resigned itself to ending up a weak and feeble specimen.