The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences is the largest college on the UH campus, with more than 12,000 students enrolled. As a result, it is represented in the Student Government Association with seven senate seats, the most in the legislature.
Journalism junior Mila Clarke, elected to Seat No. 1, is the sole returning senator for CLASS in this administration. She has served as Speaker Pro-Tempore of the Senate, chair of the Internal Affairs committee and started off her SGA experience as Clerk of the Senate.
“I ran for SGA, because I wanted to really do things for the University to make it a better place for students,” Clarke said. “I’ve always had a sense of pride about being here, and I wanted to feel even better about the University by actually being involved in it. SGA is one of the best ways of doing that.”
Elected to Seat No. 5, public relations and political science student Lucia Ayala-Guerra has previous experience in student politics as a national leader in the College Democrats of America, the membership director of Texas College Democrats, and she has previously served in SGA as a public relations intern.
“I don’t go into something unless I feel really passionate about it,” Ayala-Guerra said. “(I ran for SGA) because I see things that are not happening, and I want to do something about it.”
History senior Mike Nguyen claimed CLASS’ Seat No. 7 after defeating three other opponents. A transfer student from UH Downtown, Nguyen previously served as a senator of UHD’s SGA.
“There is definitely more people here, so you have more senators (and) you have to represent more people,” Nguyen said. “UHD has only four colleges and four sets of senators, but I’m ready for it. It’s exciting to meet all these new people.”
Meeting the students is at the top of each of the senators’ agendas. According to Ayala-Guerra, the attendance to both the SGA meetings and college town halls are very poor.
“I’m hoping to use my PR connections in the senate to get better communications with organizations and try to get the town halls well-marketed, so that students know when the meetings are and know where to go,” she said.
Clarke hopes to build on the success of previous administrations and tackle more issues affecting students.
“SGA has a responsibility to be proactive on the students’ behalf and make sure we know what students want,” she said. “If students have issues of any sort, it’s our job to make them know we’re here to help.”
Nguyen said she hopes this new administration gets more students to become involved.
“I want to make sure that (students) get heard on campus on any issue,” he said. “Just come to us, email us or go to our Web site. We’re there for them.”
One of the main issues affecting CLASS, according to Clarke and Nguyen, is the lack of a college council.
“CLASS is so diverse. We have the most majors spread across the most fields,” Clarke said. “It’s great to see all of those majors represented, but it’s sometimes hard to reach so many students with such diverse interests.”
Every major under CLASS would be represented on the council, which will serve as a forum for the various departments to come together to help get issues resolved.
“SGA would be like the federal government, while the college council will be more like the state government,” Nguyen said.
Campus safety is also an issue that Nguyen and Ayala feel strongly about.
Ayala, who is a commuter and stays on campus late, thinks of it as a personal agenda, but one that most students also have concerns with. She hopes to work with Metro to get a better schedule for late commuters.
Nguyen agrees and thinks it’s a matter of respecting the students who stay on campus well past regular hours.
“University operations do not end at 8 p.m.,” he said. “There are some operations that last through 11 p.m., and I think we deserve better lighting and better security.”
Tuition is always a concern for SGA and students. Clarke said he is aware that it is an issue, and it will continue to be at the forefront of any SGA agenda.
“The discussion is different every year,” she said. “So it’s SGA’s job to plan out the best way to combat a tuition increase for that year and formally present it to the administration.”
Clarke, the veteran representative, plans on helping her fellow senators out with any questions or concerns they may have in order to tackle the issues affecting CLASS as a whole. The senators plan to work with one another to help get their respective agendas through the senate.
“There are great ideas and agendas, and we’re going to do great things for the students this year,” Clarke said. “I expect nothing but the best from our administration.”