A resolution introduced by the Student Government Association supporting a proposal mandating first time in college freshmen to live on campus will be voted on today, Sept. 3 in an SGA meeting held in the Senate chambers.
The resolution comes after Texas Senator John Whitmire publicly opposed the plan. The resolution states that SGA will fully support the UH administration and Board of Regents in their endeavors to become a fully Tier One campus while improving retention and graduation rates.
“I don’t work 60 to 80 hours a week to be mediocre, or to be marginalized by other universities in the state or to have an elected representative say that they can speak for us without ever speaking to the students. That doesn’t work for me,” said SGA President Charles Haston.
In a text message conversation with Whitmire, Chancellor Renu Khator said the plan was “dead.” In order to mend relations between UH and Whitmire, Haston reached out to Whitmire on Aug. 21 in a Facebook message inviting him to the first student senate meeting. During the conversation that Haston exclusively released to The Cougar, Whitmire accepted the invitation and then reneged.
“I really look forward to it,” Whitmire said in the conversation with Haston. “I would gladly share the comments that are overwhelmingly opposed from a diverse group of citizens that are strong supporters of UH.”
The proposal had waivers for students who were married, lived less than 20 miles from campus or had a reason that deemed it counterproductive for them to live on campus. Whitmire publically opposed the proposal, citing financial implications and UH’s commuter reputation, while Haston acknowledged that exemptions were set in place so that any student who could not live on campus, for any reason, did not have to.
“The last thing we want to do is go head-to-head with one of our state senators, but we do support these initiatives,” Haston said. “We’re not that school that was here 40 years ago.”
In the conversation with Haston, Whitmire said that he feels SGA is not an accurate representation of UH’s student body and its needs, saying that he was not sure how “realistic (UH’s) small number of student body leaders are.”
“He’s never set foot in (these senate chambers), and if he had he would look around here and see that we look exactly like the student body,” Haston said. “We are the most diverse student body in the country.”
CLASS Assistant Clinical Professor and Chair of the Undergraduate Committee of the Faculty Senate Martha Dunkelberger spoke at the special session reiterating the faculty position on the proposal.
“The understanding that I have is that while (the initiative) is no longer being discussed publicly, (the initiative) is not dead,” Dunkelberger said. “It is in discussion, along the lines of ‘we need to be patient,’ and see how things are going to move along so we can get back into a working relationship with the senator.”
