McDonald’s and Gardens: Student Government elections bring unique ideas for MHCC’s future

Kyle Long

The Advocate

It’s been more than two years since the last election of the Associated Student government leaders at Mt. Hood. With COVID no longer holding students back from attending in-person classes, more are coming to campus. And, as such, the lack of food options and difficulty in accessing student resources such as Barney’s Pantry boxes has become more apparent. 

With a new election ending Friday (Dec. 2), a candidate forum was held Nov. 17 in the Fireplace Gallery inside the MHCC Student Union. Whether shooting pool with energetic music playing, to entering a heated match of table tennis, or discussing issues under the melody of the piano nearby, students were able to naturally approach each candidate and hear their opinions on the challenges facing students around the college.

From opening a student-led market, to inviting major chain food restaurants to offer more eating choices, each candidate expressed their own perspective on how to lead as the student body president or vice president.

Here is a summary of what each had to say:

Candidates for president:

SORY IBRAHIM DIARRA

Ibrahim Diarra’s main concern currently is the lack of proper response to student concerns from campus, due to poor knowledge of the role of the student body government. He said it should be more transparent for students across the campus by holding more campus events. This would be done by advertising to encourage students’ participation in student government and other college meetings to become more aware of Mt. Hood’s current issues.

With the current lack of food access, the college should open up serving opportunities to more companies besides the Riverview Restaurant (which now supplies food/coffee service at MHCC). His ideal vision is to bring in outside chains, such as McDonald’s and Starbucks, in order to get the cafeteria fully operational for students.

His Day One strategy is to hold a forum for students to explain their major concerns. He highlights the struggle for students to start clubs due to the availability of resources, such as obtaining a club advisor to start a club. Another main topic of this forum would be to gather opinions on what type of stores students would want on campus before reaching out to specific companies.

CHEYENNE WINCHELL

With her previous experience in student body government, Winchell wants to expand the public image of both it and student clubs on campus. This would be done by restarting the podcast program the college ran in order to advertise club activities and student events, and by re-working the MHCC website.

She also wishes to push for opening a student-led market, where students would be able to sell self-made products, like an art or farmers market. Her main goal for this is to give students experience in how to create and run a business while being able to make money for themselves. In her vision, there would not be a fee for vendors to sell their products, though the vendor would need to register to begin selling.

She also wants to use her position of president to expand Barney’s Pantry to supply more healthier foods, such as fresh produce and nuts. Her aim is to increase the communication between MHCC and Riverview Restaurant. The ultimate goal is to ensure the company brings enough supplies to feed students for the Winter Term.

Candidates for vice president:

ERICK SOLANO

Solano honed in on the online presence of the college, and wants to have a more open feeling for the student body, within the local and college community. He believes there is still an aura of “COVID fear” that is affecting community and college events. As such, he feels the student government should take on the task of creating a more open and engaged environment for students. This would be done by revamping the government’s presence online and by updating the college’s website.

When it comes to social media, Solano wants to increase the amount of content posted on the ASMHCC social media pages. Specifically, he wants to widen posts on the Instagram page to not only include ASG news coverage, but to also highlight student accomplishments or stories around the college. This would help feed into creating the identity of transparency between students and the ASMHCC. 

In terms of the food situation, Erick views the main issue in terms of the current suppliers to Barney’s Pantry. Ideally, he wants to gain products from bulk stores such as Costco to increase the amount of items available. This would allow for better quality and quantity of food options there, which would allow the college to then sort out opening the cafeteria. 

JAVIER ESTRADA

Estrada’s major concern is food access on campus and the lack of nutritional food Barney’s Pantry gives out. To begin fixing the food shortage, he believes reopening the former Bookstore café would help. This would also be a good place to allow students to meet with the student government members or find resources around campus while relaxing, reading books or studying. 

He said he wants to have more fresh produce be available to students, in contrast to the current supply mostly of energy drinks and chips in the pantry. His vision for both Barney’s Pantry and a reopened Bookstore café is to bring in more wholesome foods. This would be done by restoring and expanding the garden (horticulture) program on campus. He also would want to reach out to the current contributors for Barney’s Pantry to negotiate gaining more fresh produce on hand.

Estrada said he believes another means for students to become more invested in the college community is to open a student market in the former Cosmetology salon space in the main courtyard. The ultimate goal for the market would be to bring more life into the campus, with a variety of services. This would allow student vendors to gain connections with the college staff, students, and others.