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On his own?

Independent senator who clinched win with friendsi help sees promise in SGA

By Ray Hafner
Senior Staff Writer 

Last week did not look like a good time to be an independent.

The Student Voice Party ran a candidate in all but one of 31 races. Only five candidates were running as independents, and the most prominent of them, presidential hopeful Nick Somarakis, said he thought Student Voice was going to clean up.

Lorrie Novosad/The Daily Cougar

That may come as a surprise to Adam Perdue, the engineering student who surprised many by winning his contest against Student Voiceis Rojelio Mendoza.

"I thought I was going to win by a bigger margin," said Perdue, who won the Engineering Senator No. 1 seat by just nine votes. The strategy was simple, he said.

"I just told all my friends to vote for me and for them to tell all their friends to vote for me," he said. "Iive been here for four years. A lot of people know me."

Broad shouldered, with long hair and a big bushy beard, Perdue is the kind of guy who stands out. He plans to use that to his advantage by putting his unique face on fliers to alert engineering students who their student senator is.

"Iim going to have a lot of free time (next year)," he said Monday. "Iive got a lot of ideas Iim going to be looking into," he said.

Those ideas, of course, include the usual parking problems and poor attendance at campus events.

"Itis not apathy. Iim sure if they had the time theyid come," the 21-year-old said. Perdue believes UH should continue to build on-campus housing to achieve the "critical mass" necessary to get student participation up.

"I think the dorm people ­ whatis good for them is always good for the University," he said. Perdue supports the creation of a residence hall seat in the Senate to give on-campus students a greater voice.

Perdue believes the Greek housing being built is a step in that direction, but would like to see another residence hall built in place of the pool between the Quadrangle and Moody Towers. UH also needs to keep the campus alive on the weekend, he said.

"On the weekends this place sucks because everything shuts down," he said.

Perdue is a double major, studying civil engineering and economics. He decided to run in the College of Engineering instead of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, where economics is taught, simply because he knew more people there. Already in his fourth year, he hopes to graduate in Fall 2004.

One issue for engineering students is "the pit," a downstairs study area for students that Perdue said needs more tables and chairs. 

Perdue thinks the idea of the pit, which allows engineering students to study in a room full of engineering students, could be transferred to other colleges. 

Perdue believes he wonit have any trouble getting his voice out in the Senate, because even though Student Voice members will dominate, thereis no opposition and therefore no reason to tow the party line.

"It will be like weire a bunch of independents," he said.
 

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