By Jack Taylor
The Associated Students Board of Directors approved two new positions at the May 10 board meeting. Presented as an information item at the April 26 meeting, the Blue Resource Center proposal passed unanimously with a vote of five to zero along with joyous hugs from people supporting the item. AS President Millka Solomon and AS VP for Activities Ama Monkah were absent.
Alberto Rodriguez-Escobedo, a member of Western Washington University’s Blue Group presented the proposal. The potential Blue Resource Center will create two new positions, which are AS Blue Resource Center Educational Program Coordinator and the AS Blue Resource Center Advocacy Coordinator.
According to the proposal, the two positions will enter a test period for three years to determine if the positions should be officially included under the Student Advocacy & Identity Resource Center.
The Blue Group is a group on campus that supports undocumented and mixed status students. Should the Blue Resource Center become official, the center will allow for more work to be done outside of volunteers working already in the club.
Cindy Marquina-Negrete, one of the speakers for the center, spoke on the lack of work being done to help the Blue Group.
“Outside of this, nothing has really been done,” Marquina-Negrete said when explaining how little work is being done besides working on the potential center.
Marquina-Negrete also stated how the group has not been able to function as it is supposed to as well.
“This is important for Blue Group, because we are supposed to be a peer support group, but we haven’t had any space to really do that this year or the past couple years at all,” Maquina-Negrete said. “We have become just another work group for the institution.”
Much of their time she said, is used up with holding administration accountable and searching for support.
Both positions will function as liaisons between the SAIRC in addition to working with the Blue Group. The advocacy coordinator will have to coordinate one community building event per quarter, while the educational program coordinator will have to plan at least one educational event per quarter.
The two positions, Marquina-Negrete said, will allow for the work being done to be paid as well as provide relief to the already overworked Blue Group staff.
“We will have more time to focus on building community, and have a place where we can just exist and not have to worry about our status,” Marquina-Negrete said.
Emma Caro, another worker for the Blue Group, also spoke on the value of having paid labor being a factor for the proposal.
“It’s huge because having this as a job builds a system for it to become sustainable for future undocumented students,” Caro said.
Calling it a more centralized source for people who need the resources, Caro said having more people will create more accessibility for students.
Additionally, both positions will be required to hold 10 hours of office hours a week along with maintaining client confidentiality as well as unbiased services to students.
The AS Board along with the proposal’s spokespeople agreed that Blue Group officers should work the potential positions.
“If anything it shouldn’t be Blue Group officers, because we want Blue Group to be a community space,” Caro said.
However, Rodriguez-Escobedo said that the positions are not meant to strip everything away from the Blue Group.
“No way is this center going to take everything away from the center,” Rodriguez-Escobedo said. “There is great possibility for new groups to emerge to address other facets as well.”
The pay for the positions will be $13.36. The positions will report directly to the coordinator for SAIRC.
However, questions were raised as to why there were not three positions being created as other SAIRC offices have three positions rather than two.
“We do realize we need more positions, but we thought two would be a good place to start,” Rodriguez-Escobedo said.
Being a three quarter position, the positions will begin the Monday two weeks before the start of classes in the fall and end the friday of finals week the following spring quarter. The total budget of each position is $20,325 over three years.
The proposal was passed to a resounding applause along with hugs and tears from the Blue Group officers. Should the trial period prove successful, the center will then officially be indoctrinated into SAIRC.
More information on the Blue Group can be found on their Facebook page.