As a full-time student at Gavilan College, Rito Ramirez feels
that he can offer a student’s perspective to the Gavilan College
Board of Trustees for Area 3.
As a full-time student at Gavilan College, Rito Ramirez feels that he can offer a student’s perspective to the Gavilan College Board of Trustees for Area 3.
And his first order of business if elected would be to expand communication between the students, Board and faculty of the college.
“There’s a big miscommunication between the Board, the faculty and the students,” Ramirez said. “The Board expects people to come to public meetings, but sometimes that’s impossible. The Board should be brought into the 21 century and at least e-mail everyone, take the initiative. I want to have them come to campus and ask students what they feel.”
Ramirez would also like to see the Hollister branch of the college expand by increasing the number of available classes.
“For Hollister, we have the Briggs Building, but the college needs to look at expanding out here where the growth is,” he said. “For the future we need the campus to come this way and also in Morgan Hill.”
Ramirez is also concerned about the cuts in vocational courses that have recently occurred.
“The college has done away with some vocations,” Ramirez said. “Things like automotive classes have shut down, and they were considering the airport classes over here. This is of concern to some students.”
Ramirez wants to help Trustees find a new president for the college and work with the new leader to eliminate budget cuts at the school.
“What I plan to do is to look into those issues and seriously appoint the committees, go through the process and work with Board members,” he said. “We need changes in the Board.”
But Ramirez biggest concern is the students and how the college Board should serve them.
“My biggest concern is the students because Board decisions effect them and of course the instructors, but I want to ask them what they think or perhaps what we should cut if it comes to that. Because we’re there, because we need them, not the other way around. I want to put the ‘I’ back in community so that it’s ‘you and I,’ not ‘I’ and ‘I.'”
