SGA fails to use communication
Brandon Moeller
And the winner of the Student Government
Association's presidential election is ... not I, said the barfly. Despite
receiving hundreds upon hundreds of e-mails last week concerning my write-in
campaign for SGA president, and the tremendous amount of positive feedback
from the University community, I decided to drop my campaign because I
couldn't win anyway.
No, seriously ... the ballots no longer
allow for write-in candidates ... so I couldn't win even if I <I>did<P>
win. Why would our student government, which
claims to represent our interests, which
is lodged in a major University, which is in the fourth largest city in
America, within a democratic society, want to act
so undemocratic?
SGA wanted to streamline the voting process,
which is understandable when you have thousands of votes to process (2,611
was last year's tally). SGA
also wanted to allow for straight-ticket
voting, as available in other local and national elections. But this may
end up doing more harm than good for SGA if
entire administrations are replaced year
after year, a possibility if students are constantly fed up with incumbents.
This is what happened last year. The Student
Voice party won every position and senate seat its candidates ran for,
despite party leader President James
Robertson nearly being impeached a few
months prior. At the time, it was thought much change was coming; the Student
Voicers mingled with a few other
candidates they did not run against, and
unity was shown for one of the first times in recent UH student memory
in the SGA.
But change was a long time coming, as the
new administration took hold of a student government whose previous administration
was more concerned
about impeaching its president than working
for the students.
After everything was worked out, they worked
at a hearty speed and a lot of things were accomplished. However, some
necessary appointments to a few
important student committees were overlooked.
And the deadline to run for SGA was really never advertised this year.
In fact, a lot of the wrongfully
perceived failures of the current administration
are because the organization did not communicate properly or accurately.
Its Web site was hardly ever updated. Content
about what the group had done was not constantly showcased on the Web site.
The Student Voice received
an election miracle last year. SGA now
needs a public relations miracle.
Here are some of a few things that never
got out to UH students concerning the improvements the current administration
accomplished for them. Because I
didn't know then what I know now, I wrote
last week's counter-campaign column to fan the fire under current SGA members
so they would take the criticism
and work on their communication skills.
The administration extended the benefits
of a monopolistic contract between UH and the Microsoft Corporation to
allow students the opportunity to
purchase selected Microsoft software at
hugely discounted prices, as the faculty is able to do. This was thanks
to the hard work of Senator April
Spreeman-Harter.
It also recently passed a bill that requests
the University to set up an official "dead week," which would give all
students the chance to ingest all the
necessary material before final examinations.
It increased the amount of emergency book loans to $400 from $250 a semester.
Of course, I can't fit in all the things
the current administration has done. That's not to say that another administration
may not be a bad choice for UH. That,
of course, would depend on its platform,
and neither of the two parties advertised much about its platform. Perhaps
what is needed is an independent
president, who'll keep the two parties
in line.
Now, on the eve of election results, hopefully
the real winner will be the students -- as the victor will do what they
promised, work hard for our interests.
