First of all, I want to thank you for your help in letting the students know that this position exists. However, I need to point out a few things that were incorrect in the article.

The first thing that I want to point out is that the last line of the second paragraph is incorrect. It states that I am ready to plant my advocacy between the students and the faculty. This is incorrect.

My position handles the protection of student rights, which includes advocating between students and faculty, but is far from limited to that. I actually handle grievances and complaints from students about the faculty, administration, staff, organizations, security, other students and so on and these grievances deal with many issues from grades to sexual harassment to security issues to discrimination and more.

I am also here for students who are unsure of where to go or how to get aid. I walk them as far as I can through the process of tracking down what is available to them and then take them to whomever or to wherever they need to go to get it.

I think that it is important for the students that the description of this position not be limited to a simple middleman when dealing with faculty. I do appreciate the attention given to my collection of student ideas, but this is also only part of my job duties.

Next, in the fourth paragraph, the Student Advocate position is described as being relatively new. This is not the case. The position has been around since 1987. This year happens to be the 20th anniversary of the position. It was created by Jeff Omalanz-Hood. I admit that in the past, the position has not been highly publicized, but it has been around.

In addition, I was quoted as saying, “Utilize us [Student Body Association]” in the last paragraph. This was not what I said. The SBA is the entire collection of students. I actually said to utilize the Student Government, because we are here to serve the students.

The last thing that I would like to point out is that my contact information was not included in the article. It’s great that the students know what the position is, but they also need to know how to use it.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Jerimiah Rice
SBA Student Body Advocate
Shoreline Community College

16101 Greenwood Avenue North
Shoreline, WA 98133-5696
stu_gov_adv@shoreline.edu
(206) 546-4542
Rm. 2935