UHCL’s first SGA Senate reflects on year of advocacy for student body
The Student Government Association (SGA) at the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) introduced its first Senate in October 2018. Prior to this, SGA officials consisted of a four-member executive council. The first term with a senate will determine how effective it is to have representation within all colleges and set the bar for the Senate in future years.
SGA’s stated purpose is to give UHCL students a voice in what happens on campus. The addition of a student senate was created to resolve more issues on campus.
“Beforehand, it was just the four executive council members of SGA, but with the Senate, multiple students can work and collaborate to solve different problems/address student concerns at the same time,” said Izuh Ikpeama, SGA president and biology major.
To understand students’ views, the SGA senators are responsible for listening to their peers specifically in their colleges and organizations. In the past year, the Senate held events to encourage students to anonymously submit their thoughts and concerns about academia and campus life. Some concerns included elevator renovations, leak fixes, and shuttle bus scheduling, which the Senate divided into sections to develop a plan of action.
Miles Shellshear, SGA senator and communication major, said the SGA Senate’s first active term has seen accomplishments range from minor, necessary items, to greater issues.
“Some things are small, such as inquiring about building renovations, or replacing the ‘S’ on the previously broken ‘HAWKS’ sign at the entrance,” Shellshear said. “Bigger items we’ve accomplished would include action on making previous semesters’ course evaluations available for students to access as a sort of localized Rate My Professor alternative, this will be implemented fall 2019.”
More changes made because of SGA include, “adding more recycling bins around campus and fixing numerous potholes and bathrooms,” Ikpeama said.
These are only a few examples of the variety of issues the SGA senators have been bringing attention to. The senators are also responsible for reaching out to UHCL administration, staff and faculty to inquire about changes around campus and address problems. SGA presents students concerns to administration and argues their point to execute change.
“We’ve gotten a lot of student requests handled and brought up concerns to the UHCL administration so that they can be addressed as soon as possible,” Ikpeama said.
SGA is focused on improving the academic environment for students by representing their thoughts. The addition of a Senate has created more student advocates and distributed responsibilities among senators and executive councilmen.
“Since this is the first Senate on campus at UHCL, we’re all learning as we go along,” Ikpeama said. “The Senate has definitely helped SGA get a lot more done behind the scenes.”
The SGA Senate was set-up to hold 25 seats, three undergraduates and two graduates from each college, and three undergraduates and two graduates from the Council of Organizations to represent the student body. The students elected hold responsibilities such as speaking on behalf of students to voice ideas and concerns to the executive council, to allocate university funds to student organizations, and work with the administration to improve campus with students wants and needs in mind.
However, the ideal number of 25 senators was not reached for the 2018-2019 term. With a lack of applications during the first election, there are currently 14 senators, resulting in a deficiency of representation for multiple colleges and student organizations. SGA is working toward getting more students interested in running for Senate in the upcoming election.
The upcoming election is scheduled for March 19-26, to select the 2019-2020 SGA leaders including an executive council and Senate. The application process and election are held on GetInvolved, UHCL’s new web-based application for student organizations and events which began spring 2019.
“Completing the senate application via GetInvolved was not something I anticipated due to how new the platform is at UHCL,” Shellshear said. “I am concerned about the rate of participation in the election being representative of the student body as a whole.”
There is a lack of senators who applied for the 2019-2020 term, therefore SGA will need additional senators after the election. Students interested can apply for an open seat after the election by emailing or contacting SGA through GetInvolved. SGA hopes that after the first term with a senate student’s will be more aware of what they do and be inclined to participate in student government.
