Public relations junior Monica Mallon converses with her co-worker, expressing her frustration at the lack of student involvement in local politics.
Mallon has strong opinions about this. Although she works at the San Jose State Transportation Solutions office on campus, she also is the multimedia director of the Public Relations Students Society of America and in her free time, she shoots videos for her own Youtube channel.
On the outside she seems like any busy college student, but when taking a deeper look at Mallon’s life, it is clear that she’s one of the most influential women on campus.
From the time she was in Woodside Priory private high school, Mallon said she witnessed discrimination happening toward the teachers.
“Teachers were being discriminated for the things they said on their personal blogs and Facebooks and things that they did outside of the classroom, unaffiliated with the school,” she said.
Mallon was irked at the discrimination against her teacher’s private opinions.
“Teachers should have the same rights as anyone else,” said Mallon.
In response, Mallon got involved in a Catholic Teachers Union in San Francisco, which then led her to discover the American Federation of Labor, a broader association union.
“I do think that people should have the right to organize and if they need to go on a strike, if they need to protest to do that, then I think they should be allowed to do that,” said Mallon.
At 18, Mallon then decided to run to be the District 5 Supervisor of Santa Clara County and became the youngest person in California to ever run for public office.
Although she didn’t win, she said she hoped it would inspire her peers to believe they had a voice in their local government.
“I was lucky to get involved in [local politics] at a very young age,” said Mallon. “I [couldn’t] go to Sacramento and speak at a hearing most of the time, but I [could] go to a lot of these community meetings.”
Now at SJSU, she has been heavily involved in fighting for Transportation Solutions to make commuting conditions more convenient for her fellow students.
“I’m involved in the Valley Transportation Authority union,” said Mallon. “I was helping organize the rally last night with them.”
The midnight rally on March 6 started at the Eastridge Transit Center, where VTA union members and bus riders rode VTA’s 22 bus route in protest of the service being cut.
“[The VTA union has] been trying to help riders and trying to help SJSU students, even though students here don’t necessarily realize it,” said Mallon. “That’s why so many of them were out at midnight in the freezing cold when they could have been at home sleeping.”
According to Mallon’s co-worker, Associated Students commute coordinator Carlos Escobar, 23 percent of people in SJSU use one mode of transportation without an alternative when travelling to campus.
“I’m working about 10 times harder this time, because the situation is a little more dire,” said Mallon.
Mallon is referring to the new 2019 VTA plan that will eliminate major routes for students.
The plan was drafted last year, and had ad hoc committee meetings aimed to develop a better financial strategy for VTA.
“I really should have stayed involved and at least gone to every other board meeting,” said Mallon. “[Other unions/organizations] are there consistently and show up consistently and that’s how they get what they want.”
During the time the 2019 plan was being developed, Mallon was facing a battle of her own.
“I’m allergic to trees, pollens and grasses,” said Mallon. “I had a bad allergic reaction on my fingers last year.”
Mallon’s mother had put her on an insurance plan with Mallon’s old last name and old address.
Unsure about her insurance options, she feared the struggle of having to pay a $1200 fee.
“I couldn’t afford a new allergy test,” said Mallon. “So I was experiencing really bad allergies from February or March of 2018 to July 2018.”
Shortly after being dropped from her mother’s health insurance, Mallon was able to get a insurance plan to get her allergies treated.
“I started immunotherapy [allergy shots] in August 2018,” said Mallon. “The shots have really helped me.”
As involved as Mallon has been with the VTA union, she wishes more students would get involved.
“I have mixed feelings on social media activism,” said Mallon. “Obviously I like to spread information on social media about when meetings are happening.”
Pinned at the top of Mallon’s Twitter page is the next VTA meeting about the Diridon integrated station concept plan. Through her Twitter, she encourages her peers to be advocates too.
“I think with something like VTA, if you want to save a route, you should go to a board meeting,” said Mallon. “You should go to community meetings so you can actually talk to these people in person.”
But at the end of the day, Mallon knows the fruit of her efforts will probably take effect after she has graduated.
“I’m definitely advocating for things that will not affect me personally and will not affect a lot of my friends that are here right now,” said Mallon. “But I think, you really have to think about other people have done things for you.”
