By Colt Langley/managing editor
South Campus’ new student government association has been given the power to approve new clubs on campus.
First club up: the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Student activities professional staff members previously had the sole authority for admitting clubs. South Campus student coordinator Jason Wallace said clubs still have to go through the student activities office, but SGA has final approval.
“We want the students to have a voice in the types of clubs we have on our campus,” he said. “When someone wants to start a club, they will filter through student activities, and we will read their constitution and by-laws. Once we approve them, then they will go to the student government.”
Student development services director Cyrus Johnson also said without students’ voices, choosing clubs/organizations for the students would be like taking a shot in the dark.
“I feel without student government we wouldn’t know what students want,” Johnson said. “We could plug different programs, but the SGA will give students a voice of what the students’ needs, concerns and wants are.
“There needs to be a checks and balance within the clubs and organizations. We have both. Organizations have national chapters, and clubs are just for individuals who are like-minded. I wanted the NORML club to be under the umbrella of the SGA.”
It was South Campus student Janice Sanchez’s idea to start the club. Sanchez said even though she wished the club could have started this semester, she understood the change that was happening.
“To be honest, I was a little disappointed,” she said. “But after talking to Dr. Johnson, he explained they were doing things differently because he and Jason Wallace were new to TCC and they could overwrite it, but they wanted the student government to make that decision.
“They were generous in the fact of letting us have meetings as long as we didn’t advertise that we were affiliated with TCC until we got that approval. I honestly don’t feel that it’s going to be a problem getting approval and we’re going to be ready with a presentation [when they meet next semester].”
Sanchez said legalizing marijuana needs to happen. Just a year ago, though, she did not feel the same way.
“Last year, I had to do a controversial speech for my speech class, so I chose marijuana,” she said. “And after researching it, I was really shocked about all the information, history, benefits and diseases it treats like MS [multiple sclerosis], neurological disorders and ADD [attention deficit disorder],” she said.
She also said one of the reasons it’s illegal is because people would abuse it. But she argued that people constantly abuse things.
One of the negative stories about marijuana she read was about a child in Florida who got high and killed his parents. But after looking deeper into the story, she discovered the child was schizophrenic and found it appalling that this information had not been mentioned.
“Marijuana has had a bad rep for years, and a lot of the info people have and that most people believe about marijuana is false,” she said. “So our goal is to educate people and make them aware about the money that could be earned in Texas by the agriculture of cannabis.”
Sanchez said South is hopefully just the first step for adding a NORML club on a TCC campus, and they will not advocate breaking the law.
“This is going to be a South club, but we’d like to have an organization on every campus, and I think it’s important to say that we don’t promote any illegal activity.”
