COSTA MESA : New Student Trustees Tell Goals for OCC

The new student trustees of Orange Coast College have two immediate items on their agenda: setting up a book co-op and adding spaces to the college’s parking lots.

Trustee Chris Gruwell, 22, of Newport Beach said a co-op would enable students to get their required reading done without paying bookstore prices for their materials.

“I want to try to make school as inexpensive as possible,” Gruwell said. “The book fees are actually more expensive than tuition fees. If students could buy and sell among themselves, we could save a lot of money.”

For newly elected Trustee Scott McCarthy, 18, of Huntington Beach, jam-packed parking lots are a major concern.

“There’s not a real lot of parking, especially on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays,” McCarthy said. “The college has some existing land near the new Technology Center. It’s just a matter of cutting through the red tape and using it.”

Fifteen students ran for the five open trustee positions. Other trustees elected were Wendy Montano, 18, of Garden Grove, Sarah Nolan, 18, of Fountain Valley and Scott Murphy, 20, of Huntington Beach.

Montano said her main goal is to inform students who the trustees are and the roles they play.

“A lot of students didn’t even know we were having an election,” she said. “It’s important that they know who we are and that we get their points of view across. We’re here to serve the students.”