Improvements in ASO seen from increased fee

At Issue: Increasing the registration fee is a great improvement for EC representatives and students.

Students should feel satisfied knowing that the 50-cent registration fee

required at the beginning of the semester to help ASO is being put to good

use.

Because of the fee increase, $13,000 was raised to help support ASO in representing students on campus.

Although the use of money may be neither apparent nor clearly stated to

students, ASO has done some things to both help themselves as well as better represent the student body.

Members of ASO have gone to leadership conferences where they learned lobbying skills. They also sent some of the money to the California Students Association of Community Colleges.

ASO also used some of the money to attend the inaugural celebration for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger.

Although to some students it may seem as though not much has been done directly for them, ASO members claim they have a lot of plans to spend the remaining funds in ways that will be beneficial to the entire student body next semester.

In March 2004, EC and 108 other community colleges plan to place two fiberglass statues on the capital lawn that will represent students who have dropped out due to the budget cuts and fee increases.

Taking this into consideration, students should not feel that the 50 cent fee has been useless. ASO has been working hard to represent the needs and concerns of the students.

To be or not to be; just choose a major

At Issue: There is a workshop for EC students who do not know what they should major in.

Choosing a major is vital to the success of a student transferring from EC to a university.

Each major offered at EC has its own curriculum of class requirements which must be met for a student to receive an A.S. or A.A. degree.

Students should know what they would like to major in as soon as possible so that they can take the required classes for that assigned major.

It is ideal for students coming right out of high school to already know in which direction they want to go while attending college.

As far as community colleges go, the sooner one knows what he or she wants to major in, the sooner that student can transfer to UC or CSU.

EC offers a variety of workshops for students who have a hard time finding out what they would like to study for the next four years.

“Choosing a Major” is one workshop offered every Wednesday in Room 106.

So take advantage of the resources available to you here at EC-especially for something as important as finding a major.