Last Tuesday News Editor Matthew Preusch sat down with ASPC President Richard Park ’00 to discuss the agenda for this year’s senate, which ranges from increased volunteerism on campus to relaying student concerns about Aramark and the Smith Campus Center to the Pomona administration.

The following is the text of that interview:

Matt Preusch: It seems that in your convocation speech you had pretty clear policy goals for the Senate. Are other issues, such as Aramark or the Smith Center, taking precedence over those goals?

Matthew Preusch ASPC President Richard Park is serving his third year on senate.

Richard Park: Those are things we don’t need the whole senate to work on. We do need the whole senate to work on issues like Aramark or the Smith Campus Center. For example, we always mention it in meeting, but we had a volunteers forum meeting on the 16^th of September where representative from the RHS, Head Sponsors, Comm. Affairs Community, ethnic mentor programs…everyone was there. Those are ongoing projects on the side.

MP: Do you feel that these side projects are a more vital part of the senate’s responsibility, or is addressing pressing student concerns more important?

RP: We need to address student concerns seriously. If the senate ignores everything that’s going on in the short-term we’re not doing our job. But at the same time, we have to, or I have to, make sure we accomplish all of our long-term goals.

MP: What do you think the student senate’s role is in dealing with problems with a food service provider, or with an inadequate student center?

RP: We’re tying to figure that out right now. I don’t think the senate has ever had to deal with working on a student center. Before there was either the Coop or Walker Lounge, which we knew was temporary. We’re confronted with some really new challenges, and we’re trying to work out the senate’s role. The senate definitely has opinions on the campus center; we’re just trying to figure out how to implement changes. For instance, we’ve set up an ad-hoc committee to formulate requests to take to [Director of the Campus Center] Neil [Gerard].

MP: How responsive do you think the administration is going to be to requests, however formal, made by a student senate?

RP: I think that depends on what we ask for. If it’s asking for pool tables to be moved, that’s not a problem. If we’re asking for a spiral staircase from the Coop Fountain to the game room by next semester, I don’t think it’s going to happen. But we can definitely let them know what we want. I meet with [President Peter Stanley] every two weeks and [Dean of Students Ann Quinley] every week.

MP: How much do you, as the ASPC President, dictate the agenda of each meeting and over larger periods of time?

RP: Well, I physically write the agenda every week. But, over the long term, I do have the authority to set the agenda to a certain extent. Really, I just help assist the commissioners with their individual tasks, by writing a newsletter, or in general improving information flow. I’m sort of the mediator between the commissioners and the rest of the senate.

MP: How much energy are you going to put into the Senate of the Claremont Colleges this semester?

RP: That’s one of the institutions is going to be around for a long time. It’s going to figure pretty prominently in the things we want to do at the ASPC, especially with the five college social life. We’re planning on trying to get a party thrown by the end of the semester, one with all of the schools.

MP: How is this year’s senate functioning in contrast to last year’s?

RP: I think this senate has a lot of potential. We have a lot of commissioners who really know what they’re talking about. For instance, [Community Affairs Commissioner] Janelle [Lin ‘00]. I’ve been working on a campus life/community service effort with her for three weeks now. Also, [Communication Commissioner] Omeka [Okereke ‘00], is very knowledgeable. He’s setting up the language labs in MP3 format, and that’s awesome. I think we have a lot of experience and enthusiastic people. I think we have the makings of a really good senate.

MP: Do you think it will take time for those lacking experience on the ASPC to realize what they want to do is limited by what is possible to do?

RP: Pomona kids are pretty smart. They catch on. I remember when I was a sophomore senator, and I thought I could do something quickly and people would jump on. I learned the hard way. But, I’m here to help the new members, so I’m sure we’ll be fine in those regards. Of course, it’s going to take some time.

MP: What are you doing with community service right now?

RP: [Pulls out volunteerism letter formulated by senate] Here, this went out to all the sponsors and residence hall staff. We’re offering them easy ways to get involved. The entire framework is already in place. For instance, we’re trying to get funding for on-campus trick-or-treating. We’d like to supply the dorms with low-cost candy and decorations so it’s very easy for them to do.

MP: What sort of things are you doing to ensure more inter-action between the senate and the student body as a whole?

RP: Well, with this Aramark situation in particular, we’re really making sure we get plenty of student feed back. I think we would like to get more student participation and student input. One of the things I want to do more of this year is polling of the student body. Polling on all sorts of stuff: anything from food to social life. Whatever grievances they might have. We have a pretty good cross section in the senate, but we don’t represent everybody. I think people feel that sometimes their voices get lost out there.

MP: Anything else for the good people?

RP: The way I see my job this year is not so much to do projects on my own, but to help the other senators with projects of their own. I think I have the experience to do that. That’s going to be taking up most of my time. Also, the goals we have in mind as a senate we can’t get done by ourselves. We need involvement and interest from the student body. We’ve had good turnout for the committees, but as a whole the students need to be passionate about what goes on at this campus. If they aren’t passionate and aware about what’s going on, we can’t get our job done.