Moria Dailey
Published: March 29, 2006
Rain may have dampened the ground outside, but it couldn’t dampen the spirits and drive of the Florida Junior Community College’s Student Government Association (FJCCSGA) members gathered in Tallahassee on March 23.
SGA members from each of Florida’s 28 community colleges’ campuses had gathered in Tallahassee the day before the rally for a FJCCSGA meeting and The Rally in Tally. The rally, originally planned to be held outside in downtown Tallahassee, was moved to inside Tallahassee Community College’s Downtown Center.
The rally was conducted to address three main issues that are currently facing community college students in Florida: Sen. Lee Constantine’s excess credit hours bill (Senate Bill 246), Sen. Fredrica S. Wilson’s bill concerning residency for tuition purposes, also known as the DREAM Act (SB 366 and its corresponding house bill, HB 366), which is co-sponsored by Sen. J.D. Alexander, and Sen. Mike Haridopolos’s tax exemption for text books bill (SB 1551 and its corresponding bill, HB 15).
“It was always the plan to make sure that people knew what FJCCSGA was all about; we’re working hard and calling our legislatures, but if they don’t know who we are [nothing will get done],” FJCCSGA president Maria Gabriela Pacheco said.
Pacheco went on to explain that this year, FJCCSGA has been successful getting the word out; in fact, all four previously mentioned senators spoke at the rally.
After the rally, the varying SGA groups, including the three from PJC, went to the Capitol to speak with representatives and senators from their districts.
“It was pretty interesting; we actually had enough time to go see both the House and the Senate in session. We also had a chance to go see the representatives and senators that we wanted to see; of course none of them were in their offices, but we did get to talk to their aides,” Joshua Simmons, the PJC Milton SGA president, said.
Simmons explained that though the group did not get to actually meet with the senators and representatives, as both the Senate and House were in session, the aides the group spoke with were very helpful. He said the aides gave them a great deal of information and were very interested in what they had to say.
The SGA groups were given packets of information regarding FJCCSGA’s stance on the issues that were discussed, and Simmons said that the group was able to highlight FJCCSGA’s position on the issues and give that information to the aides, who then would pass it on to the senator or representative they worked for.
Simmons and five other students represented PJC at the rally: Phylicia Richardson, president of the Warrington SGA, Jerrose Pugoy, also from Warrington, Veronica Walker, president of the Pensacola SGA, Sarah Blythe, Pensacola campus’s Historian, and Cynthia Williams, also from Pensacola.
The students were accompanied by Dennis Reynolds, the director of student activities at PJC, as well as Pensacola’s SGA advisor and FJCCSGA state advisor and Jacinta Straus, Warrington’s SGA advisor.
For photo galleries and audio of the rally, see www.ecorsair.com.