The 2007-2008 CCE SGA executives have been elected. Cephas Williams, Cheryl Davis, Natalie Brooks, Anita Wallace and Nicole Cornett were voted in as the new president, vice-president, treasurer, publicity and activities officers, respectively. “We want to do things to make sure that CCE students are involved, and they know what is going on . and there are great things about Guilford College that most CCE students are not aware of,” said Williams.

Williams cites lack of communication and community as problems in the Guilford CCE community. In fact, Williams’ platforms during the election were community building as well as leadership development.

“Community development is bringing CCEs together as working adults trying to get an education and having lives,” he said. “I wanted to do things that made CCE students want to be involved .The other thing is leadership development .how much real world do we get, and how often is what you get in a textbook like real life?”

According to the officers, the CCE government has been struggling trying to build stronger lines of communication with the CCE student population in hopes that they could provide a more effective student government and representation of the needs of the population.

Low community involvement is exemplified by the relatively low voter turnout and

minimal community involvement.

“A lot of the times when you are a commuting student, whether you are traditional age or CCE, you don’t feel that close of a connection (to the college) so you aren’t as interested in looking for ways to be involved,” said Martha Summers, CCE adult records technician and former student. “Some of it could be a lack of time and maybe lack of access to a computer (since elections were online). It could be a combination of all these.”

Williams and Davis plan to reach the community by holding events that CCE students would be more likely to want to get involved in and then disseminating information in places where CCE students cannot ignore it.

“Not enough people came to ask about our platforms, and even though we had active discussion boards, there seemed a lack of interest about the whole thing,” says Davis.

Jackie White, this year’s CCE SGA president said, “A lot of students don’t know how to go to The Buzz or use the technology available . a very good piece of information that is largely ignored . our orientations are good and we provided survival guides in Hendricks . but a lot of students come here in a community college setting mindset and see Guilford as a place just to get a degree.”

“If I can change one person’s mindset while I am at Guilford, then I have done my job,” said Davis.