News

SGA invited to rally lawmakers

By Ray Hafner
Senior Staff Writer

A University official invited members of the Student Government Association to participate in an organized effort to rally lawmakers to change the way Tier 1 funds are distributed, during their meeting Wednesday night.

"The legislators love to see the students," said Tyene Houston, vice president for constituent relations in the Houston Alumni Organization. Houston challenged the students to join Cougar Advocates for Texas and to fill up at least one of the charter buses that will be heading to Austin for UH Day, Feb. 18.

CATS students will be trained on how to speak to lawmakers and promote the "One Goal, One Fund" initiative. Because of the way funds were set up during the last legislative session, the University of Texas and Texas A&M University will receive $396 per student, compared with the $138 that UH and other universities would receive per student, Houston said. 

During this session, UH supporters will attempt to speak to every legislator plus Gov. Rick Perry in an effort to equalize the funds, she said. With Texas facing a $9.9 billion dollar deficit, the CATS wonit be asking for any new funds, just redistribution in the future, she said.

UH supporters interested in the Austin trip can get more information at www.houstonalumni.com.

Two vacant Senate seats were replaced with President Dawona Milleris nomination of Charisa Washington to fill business seat No. 2 and Mohamad Halawi to fill at-large No. 2.

"They came in with ideas and goals on parts of the university they want to change," Miller said in support of the nominees.

Washington, a sophomore corporate communication major, said her interests would be in the community service committee and working with Cougars That Care, the community service arm of SGA.

Halawi, a sophomore biochemistry major, said he hopes to improve research projects in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and to open up new fields of research.

A bill to require the library to shelve textbooks for all core curriculum courses was itself shelved and sent back to committee. The bill would increase study tools available to students and to encourage more first- and second-year students to use the library, its authors say. A grammatical error in the language must be corrected before it can pass, the Senate decided.

A bill to update flowcharts in the College of Engineering passed without opposition. Sen. Tekara Warsh sponsored the bill. She authored the bill because she said many of the flowcharts and requisites students count on and use to pick their classes are out of date.

Two election commissioners were sworn in and presented tentative dates for the SGA elections.

Assistant election commissioner Eduardo Garza said that if the Senate approved the dates, Feb. 18 would be the last day for filling an application to be on the ballot. March 12 and 13 would be the voting days, from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
 

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