Fellow Students,
My name is Christian Perez, your President of Student Government Association. I am writing to you for a very special reason: the election of a new Mercer County Community College President.
I urge all of you to take this seriously, because you have an opportunity afforded to you that not every student gets. You can be a part of a hopefully transformational process at our college. It all starts with attending and engaging with the upcoming visits and open forums with presidential finalists Patrick Tompkins, Deborah Preston, Matthew Reed and Warren Haynes on the week of Monday, March 7th.
As you may have read in the paper, I had the opportunity to represent all of you and your interests in the hiring process that narrowed down these finalists- something that I wish could’ve been afforded to more faculty and students. While I cannot discuss the details and deliberations of the committee due to a nondisclosure agreement, I believe they are all strong candidates- though I am admittedly most interested in Dr. Tompkins and Dr. Preston- and have arranged luncheons with each of them that club presidents and members of student government will attend next week. However, it matters just as much if not more that you all engage with them individually and prod them with questions me and other student leaders may not have considered.
If you are a first or second semester student, it is even more important that you take this seriously, because you will feel the impact of the beginning of their term. Your input matters- understand and embrace that. Don’t rely on me to be your voice for this- be your own voice, and a voice for your peers, and shine a light on the best and worst qualities of these candidates during the brief window you have with them, because it may cost all of us down the line if you don’t.
Sincerely,
Christian Perez
President of the Student Government Association
President of the Rainbow Alliance
