Student Government

Senate sees bills, appointments, signs

As the appointments continue in the Student Government Association, the campus may see a name change for the University Center and new directional signage.

Architecture professor Patrick Peters pitched mock-up University signs to the Student Government Association Senate on Wednesday.  |  Mary Dahdouh/The Daily Cougar

Architecture professor Patrick Peters pitched mock-up university signs to the Student Government Association Senate on Wednesday. | Mary Dahdouh/The Daily Cougar

The senate also saw new legislation by SGA President Cedric Bandoh, as well as a report on new signs that will be put around campus starting in late spring.

Bandoh, a supply chain junior, is aiming to change the name of the University Center to the University of Houston Student Center through a bill that passed in the meeting.

According to the bill, the name change heavily derives from the student support in the renovation of the University Center, as well as the UC being an area for student life on the campus.

“I think this is a welcomed change, we had so much involvement in the creation,” said Business Senator Sunil Motwani, a finance junior. “By the time we leave here, we’ll have this fresh group of freshmen and they’ll get the hang of it.

“At the end of the day though, we contributed a lot of money to this new project.”

The senate chose to suspend the rules to vote on the new legislation on the same night as the first reading, and the bill passed with a majority vote: 13 in favor, nine opposed and one abstention.

Three students took new seats in the senate Wednesday, two of which are returning to SGA after a brief hiatus.

Tanzeem Chowdhury, an engineering junior, was appointed to his previous undergraduate at-large senator seat. Chowdhury ran for this position in the last election, but was beat by Sebastian Agudelo, a finance and accounting sophomore. However, Agudelo surrendered his position when he took on the role as the speaker in the previous meeting.

Additonally, accounting graduate Matthew Zimmer was appointed to director of finance, and Angela Kao left her role as the attorney general and was appointed to chief of staff.

The new signage will aid pedestrians in finding their way around campus through a new design and color-coding by district. Additionally, the signs will be segmented so as the campus grows, portions of the sign can be replaced rather than the whole sign.

This multistage process will start in late spring and continue on into the summer. After a period of feedback, they will roll out the first wave of signs, which will be implemented five at a time during six months.

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