Finance senator plans reform

The ASG presidential race is in full swing, with polls opening in less than two weeks and campaigning officially under way.

PonyBoy Peterman, a longtime native of the Gresham area and biology major at Mt. Hood, was more than excited to talk about his goals and aspirations, as well as some of the greatest concerns currently facing our school.

Peterman is currently a senator with the ASG (Associated Student Government) at MHCC. His running mate is Corey Mcintosh.

“I have been a senator now for the year, and I’ve learned a lot, and I’ve learned that there’s a lot of room for improvement,” he said. “Basically I think that I have the know(-how) about what it takes. I was Senator of Finance, so I’ve seen the numbers, I’ve seen the logistics, and I’ve seen what we are capable of.

“I think that I can help enable people to be successful, be that ASG people or just students in general. That’s my goal,” he said. While there is no experience required for the ASG president job, he added, “I think that if you weren’t on ASG you would need a lot of time to get up to speed.”

Peterman also touched on some other traits he would bring. “Another thing is, you have to be pretty mature and able to problem-solve and delegate with people, and it’s always been easy for me to get what people are saying and interpret that properly.

“I value it. I put value in the individual,” he said.

A recurring theme Peterman hit was a lack of communication or the “centralization” of ASG and other departments as one of the major issues facing Mt. Hood.

“I’ve heard the voices of a lot of faculty. The faculty wants more collaboration,” he said. “One example is our events people could be doing a lot more to talk to the marketing department for the school. They meet individuals but they aren’t acquainted with what the department’s about.”

He discussed the need for the students to have a way for their voices to truly be heard, through continuing increase in education costs.

“What we do have control over (within ASG) is how our student fees are being used and how much they are. We can definitely use the money we have better,” he said. “I personally don’t think we need more money at all. I’ve seen so many ways that it has been misused this year… We can do a lot more to spend the money we have better.”

Peterman said he would like to focus on “increase(d) awareness of academic success services” on campus, and exploring a movement to “transfer to Open Educational Resources, which is basically open-sourced textbooks,” something he said was already accomplished at schools such as PCC.

Another major focus, which he called his “big, visionary goal” is to improve student retention – keeping students enrolled at MHCC –  which he believes “will be accomplished through the success services.”

Peterman said he’d love to gain the experience of being ASG president, getting “personal fulfillment” from the job. “I think service leadership is a big part of what I want and giving to the community that I’m a part of” is a main motivation, he said.

As for what he might find difficult, he said, “Probably delegating, like keeping to my goals and really grinding it out every day. People like to fall off at the end; like, they got this one big idea and then after that’s over and they make it they’re like ‘Now we can relax,’ but I think the whole (presidential) term is an opportunity to get great things done.”

He summed up his candidacy: “I have my own goals but we are a community of individuals and collectively we can accomplish way more than I could ever accomplish.”

To read Peterman’s official Declaration of Candidacy, click here.