M.P. Hassel

April 2, 2024

The easiest union to take advantage of is a weak union, and we as a student body are one weak, fractured, and unengaged union. The upcoming elections for President and Vice presidents of the Student Government Association (SGA) are just another testament to the limited interest the regular student at Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) could possibly have in extracurriculars. 

Our Director of Student Engagement Jenavia Weaver included a form on college-wide emails, often referred to as “C-News” by faculty, for students to add their names to the ballot. Most students overlooked those emails or incidentally deleted the email before reading. Many of the current members on SGA, our most engaged students, unknowingly let the deadline pass and do not have their name included on the ballot. Of the 8,000 full-time students, 4 candidates are listed on the ballot. Director Weaver later responded, “If the student’s name does not appear on the ballot the candidate did not submit their information either by the first deadline (3/11/24) nor the extended deadline (12 noon, 3/19/24). They may be students that would like to be considered as ‘Write-in’ Candidates.” Due to the lack of plurality on the ballot and very apparent lack of cohesion as students, the President is a decided position. 

The true presidential candidate on the ballot, Frank Scales, will surely serve the student body very well. A graduate of Roman Catholic High School and subsequent enrollee at CCP, he focused more on his bartending job at first. He was not excelling in his classes at first. He has since left that job, which he started to see as a distraction to his education and is taking positive steps towards engaging with his classes, peers, and now the student body. He is working towards a biology degree and now resolutely plans to graduate in the summer of 2025. In the past semester alone, he has worked to start the chess club which hosts games you can now join on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons outside of the Bonnell building. He came across the Student Government Association for the first time when he was lounging in the Winnet Student Life building. He has taken interest in the meetings ever since. 

Mr. Scales’s largest goal is to limit distractions like the one that held him back from his own education. One of the ways he plans to make this college a better, all-encompassing experience is to help students meet nutritional needs without going off campus. As independent people, buying breakfast, lunch, or dinner requires a job alongside school. 

The snack rack is currently located in a quiet corner of Winnet, where very few people know about it and even fewer receive snacks from it.  If placed in a spot with higher foot traffic, some oversight, and open throughout the afternoon, students without cash would not have to worry about going without food while on campus. It only provides chips and other low nutrition snacks. Frank plans to start small, providing healthy food only once or twice a week, but the prospects of donations from local restaurants and farms neighboring Philadelphia could help keep students fed more often next semester. But he is very hopeful for the initiative, declaring, “In my presidency, I will increase the number of donations going into the snack rack and then I will move it so more people can see it and get to it.” 

He plans to have office hours Monday through Friday like the current president. But, differing from his predecessor, Frank wants to have a voice on Instagram that reaches the student body directly as a representative of the Student Government Association. To him, it does not make sense to have a social media account run bureaucratically that would post slow and lack following. 

Thomas Haley, the current Marketing & Events Secretary for the Student Government Association differs greatly from Frank as a presidential candidate. He works at a nonprofit nursing and rehabilitation center but has put in his two weeks’ notice in preparation for the election and his academic schedule. He talks enthusiastically about the current initiatives SGA has been working towards including providing SEPTA passes to students for free rides to and from school and digital ID instead of the physical cards we currently swipe upon entry to every building. But resignedly, he acknowledged that the expenses would be too great for the initiatives to succeed. 

Thomas is not a proponent of a singular person on the Student Government Association having such a large following, instead proposing a group social media account that could together share information with the CCP student body. He acknowledged the challenge of student engagement, though “we have the Pride Portal, people don’t know why they should join clubs and don’t know what different clubs entail.” 

Two months ago, he missed the sign-up on the Pride Portal, the website for student clubs and activities, that could have placed him on the ballot. His only hope of winning the election is on the write-in section.  

The 1st Vice President has two candidates, and no one is running for 2nd Vice President. One of the current candidates for 1st Vice President, Angie Orozco, said, “the loser of the Vice-Presidential race just loses,” meaning the 2nd Vice President will not be chosen by the students. All the other positions: 2nd Vice President, Senators-At-Large, Regional Senators, Treasurer, Marketing & Events Secretary, and Recording Secretary are all determined by the elected officials. 

Often, students commute from work to class or return to their family and rarely have time to go on pride portal. As the ballot stays virtual and garners little attention from the student body, the alternative of paper ballots is less feasible in terms of expense and time consumption. Professor Jeffrey Markovitz, the faculty advisor for SGA says he could “take responsibility for the lack of foresight,” noting that he gives the members freedom in responsibility, “I just assumed that those officers would have known already or in the email.”