The student body are not being given the same rights as some students on campus. Without informing many of us, the Associated Student

Government has decided that only a specific group of people on campus has the right to vote on issues that affect all students.

Students on campus haven’t been represented the way they should with the passage of the new EcoPass bill. The bill passed with 76 percent saying yes according to Mike Casas, President of San Jose City College’s ASG.

But how many students voted? How many students had the ability to vote? Casas said it was limited to only students who paid the $5 activity fee for the semester.

This does not represent the students. It keeps the power of the government in the hands of the clubs, not the student body as a whole.

Students voted to change the student government in spring 2012 from a council to a senate.  The council was favorable to the clubs on campus first and the students second. The senate switch was made to give more power to the student body by tying the election of and amount of representatives to the student body, not the clubs.

The reasoning behind the fee being optional was that  most students were not interested in being part of the student government and would therefore not need to pay.  Those who were belonged to the clubs already paid as part of their membership. With the change in the form of government now every student has a voice on the council, not just through the club representatives.

Students voted that form of government out and joined the rest of the community colleges in the state in a senate form of government that has a representative for every thousand students enrolled, effectively giving power back to the whole student base.

What should have changed at the same time was how students funded our government. Instead of an optional fee, students should have made the $5 mandatory just like San Jose State University and other community colleges in the area.

Without this change students find themselves back in the form of government the student body tried to move away from, where mostly club members have the power since they are required to pay the fee to participate in their club.

This matters because the ASG just passed a bill requiring the entire student body to pay for the EcoPass, but only asked a fraction of the student body to vote for it.

With a mandatory fee, everyone would have the right to vote and the right to have the majority imposed upon them, rather than be forced one way or another by a minority on campus.