Newly Appointed AS Board Members

Ana Laura Paiva shakes the hand of Arthur Sanchez moments after Paiva is voted to be the director of student assistance at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Ethan Lauren)

President of AS Jennifer Chen watches as Secretary Ryan Ang announces the next candidate to speak for the elections. Jialing Li, the interim director for Instructional Support sits with the rest of the board as the primary director after being announced the winner at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Ethan Lauren)

Two candidates for Director of Activites, Jazzmin Sardin hugs interim director Saori Gurung after Gurung is announced to be the primary director at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Ethan Lauren)

From the left, Stephanie Hernandez and Ana Laura Paiva sit alongside the rest of the board in the new positions of Student assistance and publicity respectively. Also pictured is Maggie Lo, director of community relations and director of budget management, Charlene Alex Boyd at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Ethan Lauren)

Saori Gurung who held the interim position for Director of activities is shown speaking for the offical position at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Ethan Lauren)

Every Monday the Associated Students of Santa Monica College hold a meeting in the Cayton Center on SMC's Main Campus at 3 PM. The AS meeting that was held on September 18, 2017 had primarily been used for electing 5 new board directors for positions that had not yet been filled.

Jennifer Chen, AS President, instructed the candidates on the rules on this election process. Each candidate had up to three minutes to speak and then had two minutes to answer questions from current AS Board members. Looking down at sheets of paper, Chen called upon the election to commence.

Two students had applied to be candidates for the position of Director of Instructional Support. Jialing Li, a Computer Science Major at SMC, had been elected into office, as the other candidate Fu Hao had not been present.

The Director of Student Assistance had been the next position to elect a student into. Six candidates had applied for this position, yet two were not in attendance. The four candidates each spoke for 3 minutes, presenting what they each had to offer in becoming a member of the AS Board. Each member of the AS Board voted, which led to a second round of voting, leaving two candidates in the running. Winning on a 5-4 vote, Anna Laura had been appointed to becoming the Director of Student Assistance.

The third position to be filled had been the Director of Publicity. Three of the four candidates in attendance pled their case to the AS Board, which ended in Stephanie Hernandez becoming The Associated Student's new Director of Publicity.

Electing a new Director of Activities had been next on the AS Board's agenda. Two of the three candidates present spoke about their previous involvement with the school and with previous AS members. SMC student Saori Gurung had been voted into the position and took a seat alongside the other AS Board members.

Appointing a new director of student outreach had also been a quick process, as one of the two candidates originally being an applicant withdrew, leaving Max Gong becoming the new Director of Student Outreach.

Throughout the entirety of appointing students into their new position, AS Board members reiterated how efficiency, engagement, and equity had been made their vision for this semester. Prior to each candidate walking from the speaker, AS Board Secretary Ryan Ang asked each student how they would work efficiency in their position, had they been appointed.