Student gov. build initiatives

Associated Student Government President Malik Spence recently laid out his game plan for his second term as president.

Malik Spence, a 20-year-old, pre-nursing student, is looking to build from his first term as ASG president as he heads into his second year in his executive position. Spence will be focusing on student engagement as well as government membership and retention.

Getting students involved in ASG has been a large portion of Spence’s work and he looks to continue his efforts this academic year. The biggest driving force for this goal was from his experience at his first ASG meeting where he and board member Michael Nagtaion were the only members in attendance.

“A personal goal of mine is making sure that whoever the next ASG president is he doesn’t have to face that,” Spence said. “Even if we don’t have all the seats filled today, it’s good that they’re not in that position I was in that first meeting.”

There are seven senate seats available that have yet to be filled in ASG. Spence said its government members are constantly recruiting at their hosted events or through their classes each semester. Those who are interested in becoming a senator may get an application packet at the senator’s office in SU-201. A major component of the application is a minimum requirement of 50 student signatures from students who would like you to be their representative. Additional information can be found at the ASG website palomar.edu/asg/election-faq.

Spence said he also looks to increase ASG efforts to advertise services that Palomar offers its students.

“There are a lot of resources available to Palomar students, but one of the barriers to getting those resources is knowing about them in the first place,” Spence said.

Spence is welcoming the newly elected ASG Vice-President David Aguilar whose been involved in ASG since 2015. Aguilar is a first generation college student and looks to support Spence’s goal of increasing the promotion of services to students that he struggled to find as a freshman.

“My goal is to basically spread the word to clubs here on how to come to our meeting and ask us for money and resources, so that they can in turn convey their message,” Aguilar said.

Aguilar will also look to increase ASG awareness throughout the colleges satellites such as the Escondido Education Center and Ramona Community Campus.

Spence said that he believed the position was “well deserved” and that Aguilar is heavily involved with groups on campus, as well as across the district.

Spence assured that this would most likely be his last year serving as president. He hopes to be able to leave behind an ASG board that the next president can carry forward, without having to build back from the ground up.

“Hop on my shoulders, we got this far,” Spence said.