By Kevin Lopez
On Thursday, March 30, the Grand Rapids Community College Student Government had their bi-weekly. After discussing the idea for several weeks, Student Alliance members voted to change the name of their organization from “Student Alliance” to “Student Government”
Michael Zazzo, the Vice President of Student Government, was very adamant about voting on the name change.
“The talks of us changing our name to Student Government apparently has been going on since before I was even involved on campus, but for any number of reasons, the name change decision kept getting kicked down the road,” Zazzo stated in an email to The Collegiate. “I’ve heard virtually no students opposed to the name change and a large number of the student body in favor of the name change, so I pushed for the vote.”
Alex Miranda, president of Student Government, announced the name change back on Feb. 20 at a GRCC Board of Trustees meeting, but subsequently realized the change had to be put to a vote to be made official. Miranda noted this at the group’s March 16 meeting.
In other business, student leaders also discussed upcoming Student Life Center upgrades and reviewed renderings provided by Custer Furniture Design that included furniture arrangements and possible color choices.
Ashley Fox, assistant director of Student Life, mentioned in the meeting that some changes will happen in May.
“The flooring, the ceiling tile, and the painting of the walls, will be updated,” Fox said.
The main focus of the discussion of the renderings was whether or not the students felt the proposed colors – blue, green and gray – worked well together.
The Student Government also approved three budget allocation requests. The first allocation was for the Gerontology Student Alumni Organization for $550 that will be spent on catering for their meetings. The second allocation was for $900 for Stand Out, GRCC’s LGBTQ+ organization, to fund a clothing swap. The last allocation was $100 for the Democratic Socialist Alliance for resources to build their club.
The next meeting will take place at 2 p.m. Thursday, April 13 at the multi-purpose room in the Student Center.
