By Blace Carpenter
On Dec. 1, Student Alliance sat down with members of the Raider Nation gaming club and other student organizations to discuss future events and budgeting for the next semester during their last Town Hall meeting of the semester at Grand Rapids Community College.
Shantasia King, the External Affairs Director, started the meeting off with an icebreaker using colors to guess the personality of everyone in the room. After, everyone took a test to see which color they were and to see how accurate everyone’s predictions were.
After the activity, Student Alliance talked about the budget that is provided to all organizations. This year Student Alliance has a budget of $220,000. The funds were generated by the campus activity fee and will be allocated for student use through campus events and student organizations.
“To any groups that are listening, if they have any events in mind or anything they would like funding in. They can request money to get that funding, and don’t be afraid, we have a lot”, said Alex Miranda, Student Alliance Director of Operations.
Miranda then discussed his recent meeting with Melissa Ware, Program Director of the Counseling Department, and explained that they want to promote mental health for students here at GRCC. He discussed a peer-mentor program and a Student Advisory Board, a board where students can make decisions about mental health programming at GRCC.
As of Nov. 21, Charles Lepper was appointed to be GRCC’s 11th President. Both Pablo Villalvazo, Student Alliance President, and King have been on the presidential search committee for the last couple of months.
“I’m excited to get to know more of Dr.Lepper. I think he is very qualified,” Villalvazo said. “I hope he continues the legacies of the two former presidents.”
Villalvazo wrapped the Town Hall Meeting with discussions about on-campus lunches and how he believes that there should be more options. Especially with the return of on-campus classes and more students returning to GRCC. Everyone agreed with his point and asked for healthier options or less American food and more cultural options.
