Student Government Association College of Education Sens. Quione Cooke and James Gwosdz said they are ready to begin work with the 46th SGA administration.
Cooke and Gwosdz said they plan to represent not only their college at SGA meetings but the University as well.
Cooke and Gwosdz agree parking and campus security are issues that deserve immediate attention during their terms, but their priorities within the College of Education diverge.
Gwosdz said advising improvements and beautification of Garrison Gymnasium top his to-do list, whereas Cooke said student life and housing will get his immediate attention.
One of the big problems within the College of Education is advising, Gwosdz said. Students make advising appointments online, which are cancelled sometimes because of a lack of available counselors. Students usually have to wait months to meet with advisors, Gwosdz said.
Gwosdz also wants to help implement a student advisor program.
‘The system is not good at all,’ Gwosdz said. ‘They have been there, they have made the mistakes, so (now) they can help us out,’ he said.
Gwosdz said he also wants to see Garrison Gymnasium ‘cleaned up.’
‘When you walk into the department you are like ‘Wow, is this really a college facility?’ We are one of the best in the nation. The projects that are going on are state-of-the-art projects. They deal with NASA and all kinds of research. I just want to see that the outside reflects that is going on inside,’ Gwosdz said.
Cooke, who will begin his second term with SGA, said he wants to focus on lowering cost of campus housing and be involved with efforts to provide more housing for students.
Cooke said he also wants to continue promotion of UH town halls to learn about student issues as well as to promote SGA.
He said the town halls can be conducted in several ways including group committee discussions, meetings between senators who have the particular problem, or by surveys.
Town halls are open to students and are a means of broadening members of the UH community’s perspectives through addressing campus issues and getting student input.
Cooke said he hopes the new administration will remain on the path and improve what the previous administration has established by keeping the students involved and making student government about the students.
‘I am going to put the word out there that we are here,’ Cooke said. ‘We are here to help each other.’
He said SGA’s communication with the student population isn’t as good as it could be and that SGA needs to increase its presence on campus. Improving visibility on campus could also be this administrations strongest motivator for improvement.
‘(Lack of communication) is partly our fault,’ Cooke said. ‘We are not out there promoting ourselves. We need to let students know we are here to help you, just let us know what we can do for you.’
College of Education Sen. Angela Ho could not be reached for comment.
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