Representative would hold the highest office

Tobey Veenstra
The Broadside

In a recent meeting, Terry Link, the Associated Students of Central Oregon Community College’s budget coordinator, proposed creating a position for a representative on ASCOCC’s council.

The representative would hold the highest office at ASCOCC and would be elected by the members of the council.
Link hopes to model the ASCOCC council after COCC’s Board of Directors and the Bend City Council; groups with an odd number of members, equal input from each member and one elected representative to help define the groups’ overall goals.

The idea, according to Link, was motivated by Courtney Snead, a former Political Science instructor at COCC. Link learned about the benefits of having a group leader during Snead’s lectures and from attending Bend City Council meetings.

An elected representative “can help delineate where the group is headed,” said Link. “Instead of six different people doing six different things you’ll have one group with one goal.”

ASCOCC is currently operating without an official leader, which can cause certain problems.
Having a leader could prevent the “fractioning and polarization that occurs in groups,” said Link.
ASCOCC also has an even number of council members, which poses the “possibility of deadlock,” according to Link.
Although no decision has been made yet, one argument against the proposal was brought up during the meeting by ASCOCC’s project coordinator, Josh Budish.

“Anyone with leadership power has more power over everyone,” said Budish.
Link clarified that with an elected representative each council member will still have equal input and that the representative is mainly to help conduct the council’s business.

Should the proposal pass, the leader would be elected for “one year at a time,” according to Link. After their term, a new leader would be elected.

The same representative could stay another year, “if the group is happy with him” said Link. “But there still is potential for change.”

During the meeting other council members discussed future changes in the council structure as well.

“We are definitely at the point to add more positions,” said Brenda Pierce, ASCOCC’s marketing and advertising coordinator, also favoring an odd number of council members.

ASCOCC will continue discussion on the proposed council changes in upcoming meetings.

You may contact Tobey Veenstra at [email protected]