On Wednesday afternoon, ASPC President-elect Richard Park ’00 sat down with TSL Editor-in-Chief Jeff Gernes ’01 to discuss the coming year. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Photo by Brian Rothman Newly elected ASPC President Richard Park ’00.

JG: The ASPC President, to a large extent, can set the agenda for the rest of the Senate. What’s on your agenda for next year?

RP: If you’re talking about broad agendas, I think some of things I want to focus on are encouraging more interaction with the surrounding community in terms of social events or in terms of outreach efforts like bringing high school students here. So that’s one thing, encouraging interaction with the local community. Another thing is trying to consolidate Pomona College’s and the other four colleges’ interests into the whole Five-College Senate. I think there’s a lot of hope surrounding the Five-College Senate. Among the things we can address is the whole Aramark issue. We can address things like parking across the five colleges. I’d like to move some of the issues we’ve being dealing with on a personal level to the Five-College Senate so we can be more effective. Those are the two big things I see right now.

JG: Do you see the Five-College Senate being in more of an advisory role or would it actually have the power to do anything?

RP: The way it was set up and the only way we got it passed by the five colleges is that we didn’t give it any really formal power. We gave it the power to make memorandums, to issues statements on behalf of the Five-College Senate. We’re not there to say "this is what students of the five colleges stand for." That is one thing we have to make clear. It doesn’t have any official power to do anything, but what it does is...it has some sort of informal authority to work. I think if we sent out a letter to Campus Security about an excess of parking violations from the Five-College Senate, that’s going to carry a lot more weight than individual students sending letters of complaint. In that way I think it will be effective. The Five-College Senate will also have a lot of implicit benefits that we won’t see immediately. We’re going to see the student governments from the five colleges working a little bit closer together in coordinating social events which is going to be important next year because of the whole alcohol policy. This way we might be able to spread the cost of events, have bigger events, have more people, and that will be a good way to sort of circumvent the alcohol policy. I just see colleges coming closer together and establishing better personal ties. That’s where it starts.

JG: What are some more of your individual goals for next year?

RP: I said on my platform that the way I see the role of the ASPC president is not necessarily to do a lot of outstanding individual achievements by itself. I see it more as helping individual senators to achieve their goals. Having said that, I’d say some of the specific proposals I’d like to address are the alcohol policy, making sure the social life doesn’t suffer. Some of things we’ve done is given a pretty big increase, over $15,000 more to CCLA so they can throw programming, and so they won’t be financially hamstrung by the ABC policy. I want to help [Communications Commissioner-elect] Emeka [Okereke ’00] bring language labs on-line so it will be easier for people to access that information. I want to help people like Janelle [Lin ’00], who’s going to be Community Affairs Commissioner to help the Community Affairs Committee and the Volunteer Center to have more of a presence on campus. I just want to help them achieve their individual goals more than anything else.

JG: In the election, there was a lot of talk about people aiming for unreasonable goals. Do you see your goals as being reasonable and obtainable?

RP: Oh, definitely. I’ve been at this for a couple years now, and I kind of know what is reasonable and unreasonable. If you look at my specific goals, like bringing speakers to campus, that’s one of the things I have been working on this year, so I know what is feasible, and I think it is definitely possible, by us setting aside $7,500, to bring a speaker a semester. If you’re talking about my being able to help individual Senators accomplish their goals, I know the ways to work with administration and work with all the resources on campus to direct them in the right way. In that way, all my goals have been reasonable. Next year you’ll see if they actually come to fruition.

JG: Your experience was something I noticed. [ASPC President Andrew] Sheppard [’99] had never had any ASPC experience. How do you think next year will be different?

RP: I think it took [Sheppard] a few months to get adjusted, to learn the ropes. He learned quickly, but at the same time, Senate started very slowly [this year]. For the first couple months we had trouble filling committee appointments. We had trouble helping individual Senators reach their goals. I think that’s one of the things I’ll be able to bring in. I’ll be able to step right in, help the Senators achieve their goals, and to go after my own goals, too. [I’ll] help bring a speaker first semester [and] go after big bands first semester so we don’t have to wait for those things until the second semester.

JG: People have said about speakers and bands that to get good ones is just too expensive and we can’t afford it. Have you seen that?

RP: I see what they mean. Obviously we won’t be able to bring people like Oliver Stone who are charging over $40,000. I don’t think it’s right for us to charge Pomona College students for a speaker. At the same time, if you look at what CMC did with Dave Matthews Band, they put in a bid for about $50,000 which is not really within their means either. But they took a strategic risk bringing them here knowing that they would be able to sell lots of tickets on campus as well as off [campus]. It ended up that CMC broke even on their end. I think if we’re willing to take risks like that–educated risks, of course, because we don’t want to just throw our money away–I think we can definitely come away with a substantial band for the first semester...you never really profit on those events anyway, it’s more of a service to the students.

JG: There’s been a lot of talk this year about communication between the Senate and the students. How do you plan to address that issue?

RP: I think we can do a little more in terms of publishing a Senate-only newsletter...just to let students know about the specific things that are going on in Senate. There has been talk about having an e-mail account similar to SUSAND where Senate can send out informational e-mails or publicity e-mails to all students. Of course we’d be very careful not to flood people’s e-mail accounts, but that’s another way of sending information. Another thing I like that some of the Vice President candidates brought up and that I didn’t really have a chance to get around to this year is full disclosure on the budget; full disclosure on where all of our money is being spent and where all of our unallocated money is being spent, too. I think if the students take a look at that, they’ll realize that ASPC truly does fund a lot of groups out there and we try to support people with good ideas, good programming. Hopefully that will encourage more people to come to us as well as for them to be better educated about where their money is going, because it is the students’ money.

JG: You talked a lot about communication from the Senate to the students. Is there going to be a way to increase communication from the students [back] to the Senate?

RP: This year we set up a Senate web page. There’s a comment link where you can e-mail Senate directly. Senate has an account where students can send one e-mail and it will go to all the Senators. I think we should publicize that a little better. I also want people to feel very comfortable coming into Senate meetings just to see what’s going on, to be an observer. Of course everyone is welcome if they want to come. I definitely want to make sure the individual Senators are receptive to their constituents’ views. I think there are two ways. Electronically, through e-mail, through the senate web page, and also through [us] being receptive to individual opinions.

JG: I’m interested in what your stance is on a few of the big issues which are going on around campus. First off the big one–Aramark and the Worker Support Committee. What’s your opinion about it?

RP: Before Senate can do anything to help them–and we have a lot of institutional resources to help them, I want to make that clear–they need to be receptive to our help and receptive to our ideas. We saw some members of the Worker Support Committee come in this semester as well as Scott Parry who is the manager for all the Claremont Colleges’ Aramark operations. We tried to bring them together just to talk to make sure to flush out the issues, get the facts straight, but the Senate hasn’t really seen a willingness to do that yet. And before we can help them, we have to see that. We want to help them, that’s clear, but if they don’t want our help, what can we do?

JG: Another issue that is always around is housing. What do you think about that?

RP: Housing’s always a perennial problem, but I’ve been told that Housing made a specific effort next year because of all the problems that happened this year to make sure that the [number of] people going to study abroad and people taking a leave as well as people coming back is balanced...It’s always a juggling act, and Housing does its best, and I think they’ve been doing a pretty good job so far. I also like what they’ve done in Walker. They’ve moved some sponsor groups out of the courtyard, and that will give more opportunities for juniors and sophomores, and I think that was a very good move.

JG: Finally, the student center. What do you think should be done with it and what role does the Senate have in deciding what is going to be done in it?

RP: Actually, we formed a committee this year for next year called the Smith Campus Center Advisory Committee, and the Vice President is going to sit on that as well as a couple of at-large students and administrative officials as well as staff people. What they’re going to do is set the policies for use, and set the guidelines for the next few years. The advisory committee should be around and should be able to address concerns about the campus center pretty effectively and pretty quickly, too.

JG: Do you have any final closing words you want to say to all your readers out there?

RP: I’d say it’s going to be an exciting year next year. You’re going to see some things that haven’t happened before on this campus, and I just want people to keep their eyes and ears open for all the developments next year.