Meet Steve Maldonado — a business and communications major, current Vice President of the Associated Students (AS) Board of Directors, and most importantly, one of the three candidates for president in the 2016 AS Election. Maldonado was initially slated as an independent candidate, but that changed this past Monday when he officially announced the creation of the last slate for...

As the current vice president, former treasurer and ICC representative of Black Collegians Club (BCC), Terrance Ware Jr., 19, has a bit of a track record of being a leader. “I’ve been a captain for every [sports] team that I’ve ever played for,” Ware said. “I like leadership. I like to be in a position where I can make sure...

Laura Zwicker, 31, is running for AS Student Trustee this election. This would be her first time in an elected AS position. However, she’s no stranger to leadership. She is the current president of the Astronomy club and former president of both the Natural History Club and Chemistry Club. “My involvement in student leadership has been kind of a progression...

Alfredo Gama is a 19-year-old Mexican native aiming to be a Political Economics major with hopes of working in public service, who came to the U. S. at the age of 7 as an undocumented immigrant. He's the founder and president of the SMC Students for Bernie Club, he's on the board of the Homeboys and Homegirls Club, and he's...

After the three heads of the Inter-Club Council (ICC) were forced to resign during the Winter semester due to not meeting unit requirements, a large hole was left not only on the AS Board of Directors, but the ICC itself. The three vacant positions were filled by a vote of the ICC at their March 10 meeting, installing Kate Liang...

I don’t follow @RealDonaldTrump on Twitter because he is an awful, xenophobic racist and I feel no need to add to the seven million followers he already has. I also read pretty much every single thing Trump ever tweets because no one in history has ever written better tweets, and no one in the future ever will. Trump has absolutely...

Over his long musical career, Frederick "Keith" Fiddmont, a saxophonist of 45 years, woodwind specialist, and Director of Jazz Studies at Santa Monica College, has performed with legendary musicians such as BB King, Gladys Knight, the Temptations, James Brown, and Stevie Wonder. A St. Louis native, Fiddmont has had a burning passion for jazz music as long as he can...

It’s 11:15 a.m. in Art complex room 214, and the March 22 Forum for the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society has just begun. After a short introduction, arguably the most important student on SMC’s Associated Students Board of Directors takes center stage in front of the gathered crowd of over 100 honor students and begins his speech. He begins nervously...

The critic Walter Benjamin once wrote, “There are perhaps paths that lead us again and again to people who have one and the same function for us.” He included among these functions the roles of pupil and master. For myself, Santa Monica College philosophy professor James Stramel, who passed away from leukemia on Thursday morning, achieved a kind of dual...

Before Feb. 27, SMC alumnus Tom Bibiyan, 34, was primarily known for his involvement in the Green Party. “I’m running for city council in the 26th district of Los Angeles,” Bibiyan said. “I will be on the ballot. This has kind of been a speed bump in all that.” The "speed bump" he referred to? Being stabbed by Klu Klux...