Deanna Jarquin’s term as Associated Students president is coming to a close.
She represented the Chico State student body of over 17,000 students for the last year and is responsible for instigating a number of changes on campus.
Looking back
In her time as president, Jarquin is most proud of instituting a diversity survey so that future presidents can have a better sense of the needs of the students they represent.
“I think it will truly have an impact to have student information, really tangible information for whoever comes in next to know what needs to be done,” Jarquin said.
Jarquin is also proud of her work at the Safer Chico Summit last November. City and university officials gathered with students to address safety concerns on campus and the surrounding area. Some of the summit initiatives included replacing a few yield signs with stop signs downtown and creating more late-night and weekend resources for students.
Jarquin also raised student awareness of the challenges of food insecurity and spearheaded a canned food drive to combat this trend.
Some of Jarquin’s progress, however, was slowed by the transition in university administration.
“I’m really passionate about undocumented students, and I really wanted to push for more tangible resources for DREAM students,” Jarquin said.
Jarquin’s plans for a resource center for undocumented students were stalled when President Zingg announced his retirement and could not ensure continued investment in the project.
“I think I was at times appropriately challenged because our administration was changing, and they didn’t want to make big changes that then President Hutchinson would be responsible for,” Jarquin said.
She also advocated for more sexual assault and sexual misconduct education programs but faced the same problem.
Nonetheless, while Jarquin often faced difficulties in her duties, she enjoyed her work.
“I would be in this situation where I would be like ‘do I really want to get into this fight?’” she said. “But I would think about all these really amazing students that I’ve met, and I would be like ‘you’re what makes me do this.’ So I learned I’m a lot stronger than I probably think I am.”
Looking forward
Looking to the future, Jarquin is optimistic that the new A.S. president, Michael Pratt, will address these issues and continue making progress in diversity with Gayle Hutchinson at the helm of the university.
“I think Gayle coming from CSU Channel Islands, which does have a more low-income population that they’re serving, more diverse, I think she’s going to bring that type of a lens to Chico and really seek to serve students who are underrepresented,” Jarquin said.
Jarquin will be graduating in May with a double major in psychology and multicultural and gender studies. She is still on the hunt for a job.
Michael Pratt will begin his term next fall.
Molly Sullivan can be reached at [email protected] or @SullivanMollyM on Twitter.
