Associated Students Proposes Resolution for On Campus Convenience Store

First year AS Class Senator Lenin O'Mahony spotlights Associated Students' new resolutions for the college, including the possibility of a Saint Mary's convenience store on campus. 

By Lenin O'Mahony 
News Reporter 

Over the past years Saint Mary’s College of California has grown and flourished as we continue to provide the highest quality education to our students on our beautiful campus in Moraga, California. As we grow, the faculty, students, and administration continue to cooperate and discuss how we can improve the campus and facilities for our students. 

An essential part of those discussions is the Associated Students of Saint Mary’s, which is made up of the student representatives for each class. These students are elected by their peers, and take on many responsibilities so that the student body of Saint Mary’s is properly represented and heard by the administration. AS Senators have many jobs to fill once they are elected, including having office hours for their peers, helping plan class events, and attending meetings for different committees. 

As well as having those assignments, AS senators also have the ability to write up and pass resolutions. Currently there is one resolution being worked on by myself, and Senator Grace Farris. This resolution will propose that Saint Mary's administrators provide for the school a new on campus convenience store. 

Currently the Saint Mary's bookstore provides some of the services students would usually have from a convenience store, including food products, snacks, drinks, and other supplies. However, these goods are located in a small area to the side of the bookstore, which also sells school merch, clothing, flags, books, and more. Saint Mary’s is a high quality institution, with the ability and resources to provide a fully stocked convenience store, beyond what is currently available at the bookstore. Because of this, Senator Farris and I are hoping this resolution and student petition will help encourage the school administration to consider implementing a new convenience store. 

AS students hope that this new convenience store will bring many new advantages onto the Saint Mary’s campus. For example, by having a separate store for food items, we can hopefully have access to cheaper items, as well as more variation and options. This is really important for on campus students because many of us do not have access to cars, and if we need a certain item or good we may have no choice other than to purchase from the bookstores high prices. A new convenience store will hopefully provide those cheaper prices which will help budgeting students easily purchase items they need. As well as those likely cheaper items, the greater variation in item choices will also be greatly appreciated by students. The new store will potentially provide more on campus student jobs, which are very necessary for students who are budgeting and working. The tuition at Saint Mary’s continues to increase as the years go on, making it more and more difficult for many students to afford attending this school. By providing more ways for students to work, Saint Mary’s is providing students with a way to help themselves through college. 

An on campus full convenience store is a plausible progression to our campuses developments and improvements. Many universities and colleges have such stores for students to use, and by bringing one to Saint Marys we will keep our schools standard of high quality campus facilities and academics. This resolution is one of many that AS Senators are constantly working on, all of which focus on helping improve the life and experiences of students, current and future.