“We’re the bridge between the students and the administration” says President of the Student Leadership Council (SLC) Kiley Pooler. Pooler started her term as president of SLC with goals of changing things for the better. Courier News Editor Kitt Fresa got the chance to ask Pooler where those goals have taken her.

Kitt Fresa: What have you been up to since starting your position in the Fall?

Kiley Pooler: We’ve made a list of goals, one thing that we did was collect information from the students on behalf of the IT department. So we got their opinions on things like Blackboard, MyAccess, and the general website, and so we’ve been seeing some slow changes there which is good. The other thing that we have been trying to do is we’ve been looking  into trying to establish a multicultural center here on campus. Through our research we are still trying to figure out if that’s necessarily what we need on our campus, but we’ve been talking to Dr. Rondeau about it. We’re in a very big research phase right now.

KF: What goals have you achieved since starting in the Fall?

KP: Well, we obviously have a general goal of trying to do more outreach and speaking out to the students, but we’ve started to make up more apparent effort of about what Student Leadership Council is, a lot of people get confused by it. So we have our little slogan that we tell people, we try to have members talk about it more. So it’s something that we’ve been working on. The other thing was that we wanted to speak at board meetings. So we did a presentation awhile ago but we basically summarized what we did in the past semester and the successes of everyone’s different events that they put on and things like that. Those are kind of the goals that SLC have been working on as a whole, I think my personal goals of just trying to do a better job of being the voice of the students. It’s been a struggle but It think I’m coming into the role a lot better in that I voice my opinion more than I used to in the past.

KF: So for anybody that doesn’t know what the SLC is, how would you explain it?

KP: So basically we say we’re pretty much COD’s version of student body government. We’re the bridge between students and administration, so any student issues anything that is good, bad, everything in between we try to get the word out about those issues.

KF: What have you done to improve the amount of student voters in the upcoming election?

KP: We already have made our flyers for the positions being out in general. We have things through The Courier that we’ll be posting, but we have this whole calendar, a plan of advertising. A lot of it is flyers and things like that, but we want to hopefully maybe set up tables around school and say “Hey do you have five minutes to vote?”, it’s on chap life, things like that.

KF: What do you think about the new Muslim ban and how do you think it affects students at COD?

KP: Personally I think it’s ridiculous, but as the student body president I have to stay objective in the issue. However I have heard some students feeling personally victimized by it, things like that. So I do know that we’re trying to kind of talk about maybe doing something in support of Muslim students here on campus, or just doing another campus conversation.

KF: What’s your opinion on the status of the board of trustees since Rondeau started her term?

KP: I think that they are doing a lot better than they were in the past, and I think Rondeau’s leadership has really given them more sense of direction, and I really appreciate Rondeau’s willingness to reach out to the students. I have monthly meetings with her and so I think that she really takes what we talk about and tells the board. As far as their relationship with students in general I know they’re working on it, they come to events all the time. They talk to me, they try to make relations with students. So I think that’s really important because what happens so often is they kind of forget why they’re here. You know you’re here for the students. I think that they’re starting to get back on track

KF: Right because they had all those troubles with the old president and obviously that’s like the main concern right now.

KP: Yeah it definitely is. They’re very attentive to the issues, but I think as that becomes resolved, because I know it will, I have no doubt that COD will get our accreditation back but I think as we get our accreditation back they’re going to be working more on community relations and putting the students first.

KF: So as financial and official things get better, do you think the student relationships with Rondeau and the board of trustees becomes better?

KP: Yeah I think so, it is kind of hard because that’s the thing with two year colleges. The leaders only have so much time to get to know them, but we’re finally getting into a groove

KF: Do you think new coming students really take an interest in COD politics?

KP: I think that people are more open to it because of the way that we function because we’re not like a typical student body government. We don’t have a senate and all that other stuff, so people are a lot more open to it. However with the trying times you’ll be like “Oh your student body government, I don’t like government.” So I think it’s a little bit of both. As far as new students go in general I feel like community college students aren’t always aware of what’s going on, but I think COD does a good job of trying to get students engaged.

Final Comments

KP: We do have elections coming up so you can pick up election packets from the office of student life, if anyone has any questions about elections you can come and talk to me. Just known that we’re doing what we can. I think with the whole accreditation thing, once it calms down I think that we’ll be able to do more.