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Should ASCMC Increase Funding for Trips?

April 29, 2010

Sara Birkenthal
Should ASCMC Increase Funding for Trips?

In my mind, there is only one link missing from a perfectly balanced Claremont McKenna social experience: ASCMC-sponsored trips.  If you spend any time at all on the other campuses, it’s hard not to notice the advertisements for their respective student government sponsored trips.  Scripps Associated Students and the Scripps New Student Program, for example, have subsidized and provided funding for trips to Santa Monica and the play Avenue Q. The Associated Students of Pomona College has been known to sponsor trips to the symphony.


Unfortunately, these trips are not open to CMC students.  This is where our student government needs to step in and put forth some funding and organizational effort to plan off-campus excursions for the student body.  There is no denying that CMC has plenty of social events and activities. However, campus life inevitably becomes dull from time to time.  If ASCMC wishes to truly represent the will of the student body, it should offer subsidized trips to desirable locations.  Such locations could easily be determined by a poll, distributed via email.  Once the desired locations were determined, the endeavor could start out small, one trip per month at the beginning and expand from there.


Student government-organized trips are especially vital considering the fact that freshmen are not permitted to have cars on campus.  If transportation is not provided and the fees associated with various trips are not subsidized, many students will miss out on some of the best destinations Southern California has to offer.  If students wish to truly make the most of CMC’s incredible location, a greater effort needs to be made to plan such trips. What it really comes down to is student happiness.  ASCMC-sponsored trips would be fun and accessible for everyone and would add a whole new dimension to CMC’s social climate.

As a first step in the planning and execution of subsidized trips, I have polled a selection of CMC students on where they want to see ASCMC organize trips.  The results are as follows.


Question: If ASCMC were to organize a trip at a subsidized cost, providing transportation, to the following place would you attend?


YES

NO

Only if it didn’t interfere with the 24-hour party!

Santa Monica

83.3%

8.3%

8.3%

Ontario Mills Outlets

33.3%

50%

16.7%

Balboa Island (Newport)

75%

0%

25%

Symphony concert

50%

41.7%

8.3%

The Museum of Contemporary Art

58.3%

16.7%

25%

A play in L.A.

66.7%

16.7%

16.7%

Indoor rock climbing

50%

33.3%

16.7%

Ice skating

50%

33.3%

16.7%

Hollywood

41.7%

25%

33.3%


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