The results for Fall semester’s Los Medanos Associated Student have been announced with Thyra Cobbs as president, Shagoofa Khan as Vice President, Alyssa Compton as Commissioner of Campus Events and Deborah Tatmon as Commissioner of Publicity and Outreach. Treasurer remains the only position without a representative, but the incoming president hopes to fill it soon.

In the past two semesters, LMCAS advisor John Nguyen has noted an uptick in participation in student government, with almost a full board of senators being achieved last semester for the first time since he became their advisor in 2016. The turnout for this most recent election seems to support his observation with 98 qualified ballots submitted out of 102 ballots submitted in total. The advisor attributes the turnout to the healthy competition between candidates this time around.

“[The numbers] have increased since last year simply because there were people competing against each other,” said Nguyen.  

Although Thyra Cobbs ran for president relatively unopposed, with many of her opponents dropping out early on, campaigning and taking on such a big leadership role was still a new and shocking experience for her.

“This wasn’t something I’d imagine myself to be doing,” said Cobbs. “So if I was in high school and you told me I was in student government I’d be shocked.”  

Nonetheless the newbie is coming in with big ideas about how to increase student engagement.

“I want to do more consistent campus events… and work on closing the achievement gap amongst African American students,” Cobbs said.

Cobbs is currently analyzing how event frequency among different Umoja student organizations aids in retention and student success for the Stanford Honors Research Symposium. The new president hopes the project will provide insights that she can turn into effective practices.

As for the new vice president, even just campaigning made an impact on how she will approach her new position and the projects which come with that.

“Most students I talked to told me that they never knew about the events that occur throughout LMC,” said Khan. “Social media will definitely be the key to receiving more attention on not only events, but also what LMCAS does.”

Khan also hopes to work on the financial side of college, like expanding efforts in open educational resources, scholarship opportunities and other projects to make college more affordable.

The new commissioner of campus events Alyssa Compton has a similar focus on finances.

“The first issue I’d like to address is getting some sort of financial literacy workshops,” said Compton. The current workshops LMC offers are fine but, the new commissioner continued, “I want to take it a step further.”  

Compton looks forward to organizing workshops to better equip students with skills not just for college, but also for the different facets of their lives.

For now, the group will continue in their current positions in LMCAS until June 1 when their tenure officially begins. Those interested in filling the treasurer position can contact Nguyen at [email protected] for more information.