By Kevin Lopez
On Thursday, April 27, the Grand Rapids Community College Student Government canceled their bi-weekly town hall meeting when the board members were unable to attend, and moved a $30,000 allocation proposal online to keep momentum going on their proposed plan to renovate a common space inside the Student Life office.
Student Government leaders posted on social media that the meeting was canceled and had a QR code displayed in the Student Life Office and on social media to encourage students to vote on whether or not the renovation should be approved.
The allocation vote was posted on the agenda a week before the canceled meeting, but students couldn’t vote on it until the day of and then a decision was to be made by 5 p.m.
Ashley Fox, the assistant director of Student Life, said the Student Life area needed help to regain its status as an area for students to be.
“A lot of the feedback was that students don’t even know that it’s for them,” Fox said. “It doesn’t look creative or inspiring. It looks like a waiting room and it’s fully functional and it’s all here, but it’s really the vibe and the colors and how you can use this space.”
The Collegiate reached out to Student Government President Alex Miranda for an interview, but he couldn’t be reached Thursday for comment.
The Student Life front desk staff explained that he was on vacation. In a previous email, Miranda discussed the renovations and how it could possibly be more expensive.
“We’ve been allocated $30,000 to renovate the Student Life area, but it looks like our total may be more around $36,000,” Miranda said. “We may have to request more funds via an allocation request or potentially cut out some additions to remain inside our current budget.”
Miranda continued to explain that many students could be in the Student Life area.
“Also, for the capacity of the Student Life area, there is enough seating for 25 students, but since the space is very flexible, it is possible to have more students present as there has been before during events,” Miranda said.
Student Government was eager to move the project forward before the start of the weekend.
“We gotta close this out,” Fox said. “They’re waiting for us at the construction company, so we gotta keep this moving.”
Thursday evening, Student Government’s External Affairs Director Michael Zazzo confirmed that the renovation allocation was approved in an email to The Collegiate. He didn’t have the vote results but said, the vote was a majority yes
