City ASG set for personnel changes despite unopposed races

Thomas Chesy

Though the election has yet to take place, the candidate for president of City College’s Associated Student Government has almost certainly clinched his win.

Ignacio Hernandez Valverde, the current ASG senate president, is running unopposed for the student government’s top position of president, and for student trustee (an honorary district position). Valverde will be replacing outgoing President Daron Woods, who has served in that position since the Spring of 2016.

“(This year) we’re hoping for more turnout,” Woods told City Times in an April 7 interview. “We have our fingers crossed.”

According to Woods, the ASG presidency, vice presidency, and most senator positions will be filled by incumbent candidates running unopposed, despite the wide circulation of election-information fliers on campus.

Ignacio Hernandez Valverde, the apparent victor in the ASG presidential election, defined his candidacy in an election document available on the City College website.

“SD City College’ ASG really needs a President, student leader, who will have enough time to give its student government organization members to be trained in their designated position and know what their responsibilities are, a President who will be out on campus speaking to constituents in classes and around campus and then taking their input and reaching out to the administration, SDCCD district, Student Senate for California Community Colleges, and the national American Student Association of Community Colleges,” Valverde wrote in his official election statement.

The online-only ASG election will be held April 19-20, with results posted April 28. There are currently no candidates for the positions of treasurer, public events coordinator, scholarship officer, health, safety & environmental officer, and several academic senate seats.

Outgoing President Woods, who himself has run unopposed in past ASG elections says the formalities of the election process should still be followed.

“I still want to have respect for the process, you know, never phone it in. … I have been running my campaign carefully. We need to see more students participating and that is my main goal,” Woods said in a City Times interview last April

Looking back during a recent interview, Woods says the accomplishment he is most proud of during his time as president was the successful lobbying effort for the installation of benches, and tables with umbrellas in the MS, AH, and BT Building quads.

Though the issue of student participation is absent from Valverde’s campaign statement, he does say he will lead ASG in a “more professional way.”