A Talk With the Next ASMHCC President

The new Mt. Hood student body president for 2025-26 has ambitious goals for next year’s student leadership team.

Jeffery Erickson told The Advocate during his campaign that his primary goals were to be responsive to the needs of students, build community by running social events for students, put work into cleaning up the campus grounds, and the challenging objective to make a difference for students on the cost of housing.

It’s clear from talking with him after the election that Erickson seems to have accepted the most essential responsibilities of the Associated Students of Mt. Hood Community College (ASMHCC) student body president.

He said that being a voice for students “comes down to listening to the students” and then succeeding in being “a bridge for the students to the [District] Board of Education.”

Erickson explained his concept on how he would increase community connection on the MHCC campus is by holding events that are “just social events.” He thinks that this would help because he sees a lot of the events run by Student Life and the ASMHCC as limiting the interaction between all students by being too focused on a single issue, or topic.

Instead, Erickson suggests holding events where students can “come together, put down the computers, put down the phones and just talk to people, try to meet new people,” he said.

The new president said he hopes to contribute to the beautification of the college grounds, and has expressed an intention to get directly involved with doing small tasks that would cumulatively improve the appearance of the campus – that he would “want to get [his] hands dirty and really just work on campus.”

He said many things can be done to improve the physical campus and “it just needs the attention that it deserves to be able to get done.”

Most of Erickson’s stated goals aren’t that much of a stretch in terms of complexity, but his most intriguing one certainly is. The Advocate previously reported that he wanted to try to address affordable housing, which he conceded would “take a lot of time and effort.”

The newly sworn leader said the ASMHCC team will work this summer to solidify its goals for the new school year, per usual, before any action takes shape.

Erickson said he hopes to encourage other students to use their voices to advocate for themselves as well. “I’m hoping to just help make more students recognize the power that their voice has,” he said.

The Advocate has also reached out for an interview with newly elected ASMHCC Vice President Elaria Salib but has not yet heard back.