For the first time in Los Medanos College history all three governing bodies — the Los Medanos College Associated Students, the Classified Senate and the Academic Senate met to discuss future plans for the campus as well as other issues facing students, staff and faculty. All three bodies were given the opportunity to interact with one another collectively and were charged with questions all had to collaborate on to answer.

The three presidents of the bodies — Joshua Bearden of the Academic Senate, Priscilla Tatmon of LMCAS and Nicole Almassey of the Classified Senate — were given the floor to introduce themselves.  Attention then turned to LMCAS members who introduced themselves and their overall goals.

One topic of the meeting was the hefty expense of textbooks on students.  

“What we are proposing is to reduce the financial burden on students by encouraging professors with relevant subject matters to use free online textbooks,” said Dale Satre Treasurer of LMCAS.

The idea was entertained for moment but seemed to be lost under the sheer happening of the meeting.

Though there were other topics to be discussed the question of why this meeting had not occurred before in the college’s entire history dominated the conversation and managed to stump many instructors and students.

“It’s so difficult to get everyone in the table and everyone  included in the discussion is because of time schedules, teachers are teaching and students are either at school or jobs or they have family to take care of,” said Shagoofa Khan an LMCAS member.

However, in spite of scheduling conflicts all bodies agreed that this kind of meeting needs to become more regular to create better lines of communication among the bodies.

There was some friendly banter among the students and faculty, but above all unity was emphasized.

“If you are on the opposing side and I am on on the other side, we can still find a common ground that’s how it works in our democracy and our society,” continued Khan.

Better pathways of communication were also stressed, including the use of social media as a way to best get a point across and bring awareness to meetings, events and fundraisers.

The validity of student voices was also touched upon.

“We tend not to welcome them enough or give them a chance to speak and actually invite senators to speak, because they may be new,  [and] they may be intimidated by people at the table,” said Sandra Mills of the Classified Senate.

Overall, the meeting closed with a consensus that more could be done regarding student inclusion and that more communication among the three governing bodies would be to everyone’s benefit.