The Student Government Association will discuss election system bylaw reform at 7:30 p.m. today in the Rockwell Pavilion.
Other bills proposed would remove Chick-fil-A from the new University Center, would disassociate UH from Higher One and would change the font on the UH diplomas.
One of the major changes to the election reform would be the removal of online voting, said Stephen Cronin, speaker of the Senate for SGA.
“The main difference is a move toward definite polling locations, completely eliminating online voting,” Cronin said. “It would be similar to the way that the athletic department did it and how they did voting with the new stadium.”
SGA President Cedric Bandoh said the bill came as a response to the issues SGA faced in the past two election cycles.
“When I was elected, I said there was no way we were going to move forward and be effective without addressing internal issues. The first thing we did was reform the bylaws, overhaul and produce a better structure,” Bandoh said.
“The second thing was create the election task force who worked day and night researching election systems at different university campuses to come up with the proposed system on (today’s) agenda.”
The move toward online voting was supposed to increase voter turnout, Bandoh said. However, according to the polling numbers, it has not made a noticeable difference.
“Voter turnout is not determined by method of voting,” Bandoh said. “It is tied to marketing. There has been less marketing in the past couple of years; there wasn’t enough money, so we increased funds and focused efforts to encourage students to go out and vote.”
A second bill proposed will attempt to remove Chick-fil-A from the selection of restaurants located in the new UC.
“The main idea is that the two authors are primarily against its owner’s donations to groups and individuals that aren’t necessary doing good things towards LGBT community,” Cronin said. “In (today’s) meeting, there will be a more refined version.”
Other issues included in the resolution are that the inclusion of a second on-campus Chick-fil-A would be redundant, the food is not healthy and its closure on Sunday will inconvenience students.
“I support the senators initiative,” Bandoh said. “There are a lot of different issues involved in that bill. The debate will give better understanding where senators want to go with the initiative.”
Another bill proposed would be the dissociation of UH with Higher One, the sponsor for the Cougar Refund Card, UH’s official refund disbursement card.
“(Higher One was) ordered to return $11 million to about 60,000 students in August for unfair and deceptive practices,” the resolution said. “The University of Houston Student Government Association on behalf of the students of the University of Houston submits an official vote of NO CONFIDENCE (sic) in Higher One and The Bancorp Bank. Furthermore, the University of Houston Student Government Association urges the University look to provide financial aid refund services through current administrative modules or contract services with another provider.”
Bandoh wishes to separate UH from any banking corporation, Cronin said.
“The idea is, this is Cedric’s point of view: to get rid of any money put on card,” Cronin said. “He wants the administration to figure it out. He said he would like a check to be presented to students, no bank coming in.”
The last thing on the agenda for today would be a move to change the font on UH’s diploma.
“The ‘H’ that appears to lowercase to nearly every person that views the diploma negatively impacts the value of that diploma, that student’s achievements, and the University of Houston itself,” the resolution said.
After this one, the next SGA Senate meeting will be Jan. 16 in the Rockwell Pavilion.
These are all really great things and I hope SGA can get them done — especially getting rid of HigherOne!
Do NOT get rid o chick-fil-a. I’m jut letting you know now, the majority of students will be livid if you made our favorite resturaunt go. Seriously it’s a bad idea. Why don’t you let all of the students vote on wether or not we would like to keep it. Make it extremely public and advertise it the way we do for home football games. And if you want to look at something that will help students, lower the prices at the little convienent store in the new uc satellite a well as the book store. Have you looked at them?! They are REDICULOUS.
Long story short, DO NOT dispose of chick-fil-a and fix the prices at the uc convienent store. It’s bad enough we are all broke because we have to dish out ten grand to pay for tuition, to make everything rediculously priced in the satellite and the bookstore is just insulting.
But the higherone idea is a fantastic idea. It’s too complicated and I feel as though I’m being swindled out of even more money.
Ok, I’ll swim out to the deep end of the pool. First, I don’t care one way or the other about LGBT issues. (I’m entitled to my opinion of not having an opinion, I don’t care) Second, I really don’t understand why people go nuts for Chik-fil-A (or Whataburger), it’s not like it’s even in the same league as a “Double-Double” from In-N-Out :).
My antennae start to rise when certain groups try to use AUTHORITY (i.e SGA, city councils, etc) to shut down other groups just because of their beliefs. Especially when no laws/regulations are being broken, and the only reason is disagreement in what they believe/support, not in the service they are providing. What happened to tolerance of differing opinions? Does it only apply to one side of the issue? It’s not like Chik-fil-A is handing out pamphlets at the door. I could be wrong, but aren’t there other organizations (religious an social) who set up on campus with pro or opposing beliefs on the LGBT issue? Many of these groups believe and support (behind the scene) a lot of things I might not, but I’m not going to prevent them from doing so.
And the argument about not being healthy, or open during certain hours, would be valid only if applied to the other vendor’s (which it obviously isn’t).
Just my opinion, which, currently, I hope I’m still allowed to have.
I have to say… I kind of agree with Max on the issue of authority. I have not bought anything from Chik-fil-A in 3 years due to their opposition to LGBT rights, however I don’t think they should be chased off of campus. I would be more proud of my fellow students if they made it so Chik-fil-A decides to leave on their own due to lost business. Vote with your wallets!
The SGA Senators that support the abolition of Chick-fil-A have had their votes bought and paid for by Frenchy’s Chicken lobbyists.