The Associated Student Government at Fresno City College are in the process of developing many new and exciting programs to make the student experience here at FCC more enjoyable.

There has been discussions of replacing blackboard with a whole new program and creating a safe place for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.

Since one of the focus is to provide a better way of communication between the students and teachers there is talk of possibly changing blackboard in April to one of two programs: moodle or canvas.

Alongside the Distance Education Committee, Senator Ruby Ruiz will be attending a four day conference from Sunday-Wednesday regarding the possible change of blackboard.

She will be representing the California Community College District and will have a vote in behalf of any of the the two programs moodle, canvas, or to stay with blackboard.

Due to new technology if the new change is passed teachers will need to take training to adjust and learn the new way of communication.

However, according to Senator Ruiz teachers are concerned about the transition due to many of them not even being fully acquainted with Blackboard.

Research was done by ASG senator Ruiz and it was found that “they like blackboard right now because Fresno State also uses blackboard and it would be an easy transition for them to use blackboard at State other than learning a whole new website”

Regardless if a website is in fact chosen there will be a software update done to Blackboard
Something else to look forward to is a new program by the name of the Fresno City safe space program which allows lgbt students to have somewhere to go when being harassed or bullied.

The project is being coordinated by Jerry Thurston who has been a communication instructor here at Fresno City College since 2003.

“A safe zone project is a network of people on campus who have been trained to understand the lgbtq issues specifically” says Jerry Thurston

By definition of UCLA the mission for the program is “A safe zone is a campus wide network of faculty, staff, and students, who serve as first points of contact for memeber of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community who need a safe caring individual with whom to talk or who may require additional information”

The long term goal for the program is to make the whole campus a safe space with equal rights and treatment for all of our students.

If all goes well the Fresno City safe space program will be taken into action by the beginning of March.

This story was contributed in part by Alyssa Garza.