Student Government Association College of Technology senators said campus parking problems, students’ scholarship awareness and departmental communication with their deans are items high on their agendas.
College of Technology Sens. Katie Kornahrens and David Harden agree campus parking needs immediate attention before it gets worse.
‘I went to the Parking and Transportation meeting last week and learned that they had sold about 36,000 parking passes, but only had around 16,000 lots available,’ Harden said.
She said this is a problem the University needs to resolve.
Improving the parking situation will help the school, because students will not have to come to class hours early to find a parking spot. Students will have more time to devote to studying and doing academic work, Harden said.
He said the administration’s suggestions of carpooling or using metro is not a feasible solution for students.
Harden said he would like to see more parking lots available for students.
Kornahrens wants to see the University build more parking garages.
‘A great idea would be to upgrade some lots, if not eventually all, into garages,’ she said. ‘They don’t have to be fancy like the Welcome Center. Multi-level facilities would help tremendously.’
Kornahrens said she wants to work on informing students of the scholarships opportunities available to them.
‘There is a real lack of scholarship awareness. I know there are thousands of scholarships available to us and we are not taking advantage of them,’ she said. ‘It is free money and students need to know about it.’
She said she wants SGA to work with local businesses to set up a scholarship program available only to UH students.
Kornahrens also wants to reach out to technology students by using student organizations and going up and talking to people.
‘There are a lot of student organizations within the school of technology,’ she said. ‘I plan to meet with the leaders of these and let them know that David and I are here to be their louder voices. They are who elected us and we are here for them.’
Harden said he decided to run for senator after former SGA senators helped him when negotiating with advisors who were not honoring his degree plan.
He said he wants to improve communication between student advisors, the deans and the departments in the college.
‘I realized (from my situation) that the advisors, the department and the dean seem to not have any communication with the each other,’ he said. ‘One department would say one thing and one department would say another, they would continue to give us the run-around.
‘I really want to change that, and get them to have a working relationship with the dean, and that the people under him understand that they need to know what is going on from department to department.’
Harden said he also wants to procure new lab equipment and computers for the College of Technology.
‘I really want to get new equipment for the school. It seems that you go to the lab and you can’t stay at that the same station because not all of the equipment works,’ he said. ‘You have to move to another station and waste time that I could spend doing something else.’
‘Also the computer lab, it seems every time I go in there, about four or five computers don’t work. This is something that they need to work on. It’s the technology school-we need technology that works.’
Harden said he is planning to meet College of Technology Dean William Fitzgibbon next week to alert him of his plans and of issues he wants resolved.
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