“Kudos to Ahyan Malik and Léo Migliaccio, who demonstrated their leadership by organizing a mixer for Associated Student Government leaders,” said Dr. Tammeil Gilkerson, Chancellor of the Peralta Community College District, during her Report to the Board on October 14th. The mixer took place at Merritt College on Monday, October 6th, and included nearly 30 student participants from Berkeley City College, College of Alameda, Laney College, and Merritt College.

Keynote speakers for the gathering included Peralta CCD Trustee Dr. Nicky González Yuen and Chancellor Gilkerson. Trustee González Yuen also serves as faculty in the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, where he teaches classes on American government, politics, and political activism. His main point was that students hold considerable power as change agents. Trustee González Yuen illustrated his point with two stories, first about students in the South Bay who successfully led the push to increase the minimum wage in San Jose, and next, closer to home, about a Peralta student trustee who several years ago successfully pushed the District to make the AC Transit EasyPass available for students. He called on the students to be leaders of change, particularly in this fraught political climate.

Chancellor Gilkerson thanked all the students for their leadership and their participation in Associated Student Government and Peralta’s innovative new Shared Governance system. She also shared a bit of her activism, in particular about her early career work on the strategy to help create University of California Merced. "We needed a world class research institution in the Central Valley," she said. That work taught her about the power of organizing and the ability to make change happen.

Following the Chancellor’s short talk, Student Trustees Léo and Ahyan took over with a presentation about why shared governance matters, followed by an exhilarating conversation, doubling down on the importance of student voices in shared governance, how to increase student participation in government at the college level, and also in local, state, and national government. The session included a “Socratic Seminar,” which focused on shared communication methods and ways to connect both online and in-person students with campus events and activities.

“From there, we broke off into focus groups where ASG leaders built personalized relationships with each other across campuses and also went more in-depth with setting actionable campus goals and stronger ties across colleges,” noted student Trustee Malik. “Our next steps following this event are to compile the feedback data and support ASG leaders in advancing their campus goals.”

Student Trustee Migliaccio added, “Thank you very much to Merrit College for being able to host it. I was not expecting how good a view that was. It was absolutely phenomenal to see the sunset. So, thank you very much for that.”

Associated Student Government Attendees included:

• Ahyan Malik (Student Trustee / BCC)
• Léo Migliaccio (Student Trustee / BCC)
• Umaima Raisa (ASBCC President)
• Glenn Mah (BCC)
• Maggie Lee (BCC)
• Sansar Chaulagain (BCC)
• Subigya Parajuli (BCC)
• Jake Estigoy (BCC)
• Asmaa Fatima (BCC)
• Harsheet Subedi (BCC)
• Navaneet Baniya (BCC)
• Hnin Wai (BCC)
• Samuel Reyngoudt (ASCOA President)
• Rosa Perez (COA)
• (Julie) Pich Hatha Deap (COA)
• Tuguldur Natsagdorj (COA)
• Anne Gormley (COA)
• Jomary Cabutotun (COA)
• Owen Flaherty (ASLC President)
• Taylor Hill (Laney)
• Aniah Willis (Laney)
• Blanca Ramirez (Laney)
• Kristina Hoessl (Laney)
• Davina Malbrough (ASMC President)
• Kosi Ugeh (Merritt)

Chancellor Gilkerson concluded, “That was a terrific meeting and I’m looking forward to following up on some of the many excellent ideas that were discussed. My thanks to the student trustees for organizing an excellent program.”