Opinion

After 50 years of SGA, their next big step should be perception

The Student Government Associate meet every other Wednesday in its new senate chamber in the University Center north on the second floor, rather than the rented space in the Rockwell Pavilion as it did in previous years. The new office and chamber offer SGA members an opportunity to be more visually present to students.  |  File photo/The Daily Cougar

The Student Government Associate meet every other Wednesday in its new senate chamber in the University Center north on the second floor, rather than the rented space in the Rockwell Pavilion as it did in previous years. The new office and chamber offer SGA members an opportunity to be more visually present to students. | File photo/The Daily Cougar

Public perception and reputation go hand-in-hand. For student organizations, both are equally important for their longevity. As officers and members graduate, a new generation moves in to take their place. If an organization doesn’t remain consistent or continue to grow, it risks becoming inactive. A problem that arises, especially at UH, is student awareness.

With a campus as large and diverse as ours, it’s easy to get lost among the rest. It’s not that any single organization is necessarily better than another, but with so many options for students, it can be difficult to stand out from the rest.

Prior to coming to his first senate meeting, biochemistry junior Chris Huynh had only heard of Student Government Association from the cheating scandal that happened during the election process a few years ago. “These guys are sophisticated. SGA does things in an organized manner,” Huynh said. “They really do want to address student issues and I like that about them.”

Technology sophomore Gary Flemings had a similar experience with SGA. “Before, I didn’t really have a solid perception of SGA. All I had heard of was the scandal. They work hard to come to policies that improve student life.”

After a discussion with mathematics junior Meghan Meriano, the most common perception might actually be no perception at all. It’s hard to have a perception of something you are completely unaware of. It seems that the majority of students are unaware of SGA.

I don’t blame them. I asked around, and a common answer I’ve received is that people only see SGA around election season, which is coming up in February. It makes sense; that’s when members physically go out to campaign for their platform.

“I think they really help out around campus. You get a certain amount of representatives for your college and they make the decisions you would want to make,” Meriano said.

When I asked what other students perceive of SGA, the answers weren’t necessarily positive or negative.

“I don’t think a lot of people know about SGA. It’s one of those things that’s underground until they’re having elections and all of a sudden people are asking for votes,” Meriano said. “I’ve never heard any negative things from people who did know what SGA is.”

SGA has a reputation for coming off as exclusive, and there’s definitely room to make a bigger impact. “Not a lot of people know about them until election season,” said hotel and restaurant management junior Shining Wang. “But I think they’ve had more of a presence in the past year because they had a lot of students involved with the planning of the New UC.

“I see SGA having a lot of meetings with student officials, but I never see them at events sponsored by Council of Ethnic Organizations or Student Programming Board. … Maybe if they had more socials or more of a presence at these events, more people would notice them.”

“SGA’s presence is not felt. I’ve been to a lot of student organization meetings. I was there at the New UC kick-off,” said public relations senior Kimberly Cooper. “SGA did not seem to mingle with anyone.”

With the popularity of social media continuously on the rise, there are plenty of tools that organizations can utilize to connect with their audience. The University is on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, to name a few. Even then, it might not be enough.

Student interaction is the most important asset to every student organization. It’s how you recruit new members, get people involved and showcase what separates you from every other student organization. All organizations have their niche. Discover it and use it to your advantage.

Opinion columnist Gemrick Curtom is a public relations junior and may be reached at [email protected]

2 Comments

  • Gemrick, you make some really good points. I think SGA has to do a better job of being more visible. Most students have no idea how much work we do. A lot of that has to do with the fact that we rarely put our name on our work. Maybe we should reevaluate that.

    Often SGA members perform work under the auspices of a committee, i.e. SFAC or the Transportation and Parking Advisory Committee. But really, those are often SGA Senators appointed to those committees. Students see a positive impact from the work SGA members do, but rarely are they aware it was done by SGA.

    Some recent major initiatives include:

    -The Redline App.
    -The Bowl Trip to Birmingham, in which students were offered a roundtrip bus trip, game ticket, pre-game party, and even hotel for just $50!
    -The Tailgate taking place today for the Louisville game with free pizza, $3 beer, and a DJ was the result of a new Athletics Advisory Committee led by SGA to increase student engagement at Athletics events.
    -A $120 million stadium has largely been an SGA effort and will open in August.
    -Of course the new UC and many other important efforts students simply don’t realize that SGA led or played a major role in.

    I feel that SGA is not guilty of failing to serve UH students- we do that pretty darn well. We simply fail to take credit for all the work we actually do, especially when it is done outside the SGA Senate Chamber.

    Charles Haston
    Graduate Senator at-large
    Chair, Student Life Committee, SGA
    Chair, Student Fees Advisory Committee

    • Charles,

      Thank you for bringing up all of the great highlights of what SGA has accomplished so far. The article was not so much a critique saying SGA has failed the student body, but merely a critique on how unaware students are about who exactly is behind these movements that have positively impacted our university.

      SGA certainly serves the student body well. The point is that they don’t see enough of SGA. On the other hand, some of these students are the same students that don’t come to SGA functions, participate in voting or learning who their representatives are.

      It’s a two-way lane and as it was pointed out, the relationship between SGA and the student body has improved and continues to improve.

      Gemrick Curtom

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