The 61st administration’s President Diego Arriaga (left) and Vice President Austin Craig (right) on April 1, 2024. | Raphael Fernandez/The Cougar
Editor’s note: While the reporting contained in this article is objective, each grade represents the opinion of The Cougar’s SGA section.
As the 61st Student Government Association administration led by President Diego Arriaga and Vice President Austin Craig comes to an end, it’s time to look back on their campaign promises and the progress they made to accomplish them.
Arriaga and Craig promised to prioritize three things: cheaper parking, a safer campus and increased support for students.
However, there were several challenges to these promises, including impeachment recommendations, controversial firings, a mandate from the Division of Student Affairs and the SGA’s competency as an organization.
Since Nov. 6, 2024, SGA has been on a mandate that has prevented them from running as an organization. This has caused several setbacks and prevented them from passing any laws or resolutions. To add on, elections for the 62nd administration are postponed until further notice.
SGA’s efficiency: D-
During the administration, the SGA’s effectiveness as an organization dwindled and came to a near-complete stop.
The beginning itself started with chaos when one of the very first sessions of the 61st administration’s meeting was disrupted when Arriaga alerted senators of an active campus threat, which turned out to be false.
The following weeks then witnessed several controversies ranging from the possible censorship of a senator, a walk-out to invalidate voting, Senate leaders being found guilty of overreach of power to the resignation of former Speaker of the Senate Sebastian Ballesteros and the improper handling of the Student Fee and Advisory Committee candidates.
On Nov. 6, 2024, the SGA was delivered a mandate by the Division of Student Affairs to write and pass a new constitution and set of bylaws.
“In its current state, the SGA is unable to effectively serve the student body, and immediate action from them is necessary,” said Associate Vice Chancellor and Associate Vice President of Media Relations Shawn Lindsey in a former interview.
This mandate does not allow the SGA to address any other affairs until the mandate has been addressed. This includes hosting SGA’s 2025 elections, filling vacant SGA positions and passing any other legislation.
Since the mandate was first delivered in early Nov., only the bylaws have passed, meeting the bare minimum threshold of 20 votes.
The SGA has overseen UH’s fall 2024 and spring 2025 semesters for 20 weeks, but the administration has only been fully operational for 11 of them.
This is a whopping blow to Arriaga’s administration and its ability to effect change at UH.
Another challenge the organization faced in its effectiveness as an organization was the Internal Affairs Committee’s recommendation for the impeachment of Arriaga and Craig.
“The committee wants to recommend that with the lack of effective leadership and the possible disorganization, the Senate considers the impeachment of the current president and vice president,” said former Sen. and former IAC chair Anahi Ortega.
This recommendation came in response to the controversial firing practices by Arriaga and Craig, where one member of the executive branch was terminated while another was given the option to resign.
This resulted in the resignation of former Director of External Affairs Khushvir Chahal, leaving the Executive Branch with three out of seven positions vacant.
Additionally, the SGA almost lost its Speaker of the Senate Tav Cockrell, who threatened resignation.
The Senate attempted to nominate Arriaga and Craig for impeachment at a meeting scheduled for Jan. 17.
However, it was canceled due to the current ongoing mandate from the DSA. 15 Senators of the SGA had signed the recommendation.
Arriaga’s administration lost three of its executive branch members, almost lost its Speaker of the Senate and drew impeachment nominations supported by 15 senators that were unable to be passed because of a several weeks old mandate the organization has not fulfilled.
Cheaper parking: F
For All Cougars ran on a platform that heavily advertised parking improvements, the main focus of which was cheaper parking.
“We’re going to make a commuter-friendly campus when you vote For All Cougars,” said the official Instagram post of the party on Feb. 14, 2024.
Their campaign included interviews with students highlighting the cost of parking and trouble finding parking spots.
“The good thing that came out of the Transportation and Parking Advisory Committee, was that the increase for this next fiscal year should not be relatively much at all in terms of cost for students,” said Chief of Staff Daniela Gonzales. “Parking sadly has to increase, as it does every year.”
Prices will still increase for UH students. For the 2026 and 2027 fiscal years, Tier three parking zones B and C are projected to still have a 9% increase, and tier four parking zones A, D, E, F, G and H are projected to have a 3% increase in prices.
Despite campaigning on a platform that heavily advertised cheaper parking, there has been no significant impact on parking prices.
Parking prices will increase in the coming fiscal years and are due to be at an all-time high because of future upgrades and renovations.
“We came in here gung-ho on decreasing parking, but found out it’s a lot more complicated than it looks,” Arriaga said. “We’ve accomplished a lot that we set out to do. There’s a lot on the parking side of things I’d like to see happen.”
With the efforts of TPAC, a new option for UH students commuting between the main campus and the Sugar Land extension was introduced.
A new Fort Bend County line was made available after unanimous approval from the Fort Bend County Commissioners Court, and the service costs $4 for a one-way ride.
The organization also worked on relaunching the sexual assault initiative, which they completed successfully with a $63,235 donation from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
The funds would go to sexual assault awareness events, self-defense items and Counseling and Psychological Services.
Although it has yet to be active, it would relieve SA victims from the financial burden of a report and provide more support.
The University had several high-profile incidents over the course of the 61st Administration, including an armed robbery in Moody Towers, two scooter thefts and a recent sexual assault.
The 61st administration’s President Diego Arriaga (right) and Vice President Austin Craig (left) in March, 2024. | Raphael Fernandez/The Cougar
UH’s annual security report for 2025 will be published on Oct. 1, and will measure SGA’s impact on creating a safer campus more in depth.
Legislation: D-
Around this time last year, the 60th administration had passed 13 bills and was heavily criticized for lacking in legislative efforts.
13 bills were seen as a disappointing amount for the legislation with minimal impact on campus life.
At this time, the 61st administration has only passed three.
The current administration only passed two Student Government Bills and one University Bill, according to the official website.
SGBs effect change within the Student Government. The first bill outlined the SGA’s Fiscal Year budget for 2025, and the second expanded the SGA’s Sheila Jackson Lee Emerging Leaders program.
The singular UB passed by the SGA established a committee providing oversight of a Memorandum of Understanding, a non-binding agreement between SGA and UH athletics.
This MOU was established in 2015, at the request of the 51st SGA administration.
Arriaga’s party, For All Cougars, has barely impacted student life or created campus change through direct legislation.
Not only have they passed an abysmal amount of bills, they have been unable to pass any legislation besides attempting to repeatedly pass a new constitution and set of bylaws since Nov. 6, 2024.
In an organization as monumental and important to UH’s student life and campus, delivering only three bills is a mark of total ineffectiveness.
However, that being said, the 61st administration has passed several impactful resolutions.
Arriaga’s administration passed 19 resolutions that express an opinion of the Student Government as a whole. Notable resolutions include SGA’s “Divest from Death.”
This resolution requested the Board of Regents to hear and vote on a proposal to divest the University from companies that provided material or finances to Israel.
The BOR did not advance on this bill, however, pro-Palestine students felt heard and represented by the SGA.
Arriaga’s administration also passed a resolution advocating for increased funding for the Keeland Design Lab, which suffered from budget cuts resulting from the COVID-19 Pandemic.
According to the resolution, the facility is crucial for students’ hands-on learning, fostering real-world skills and problem-solving abilities.
By advocating for increased funding, they helped keep one of UH’s few remaining maker spaces well-funded and accessible.
During their first summer session, they also passed a resolution condemning UHPD Chief of Police Ceaser Moore following the arrest of two students on campus, because of an encampment organized by Students for Justice in Palestine HTX.
Campus involvement: D-
While the organization failed to fulfill a majority of its promises, it did make some notable efforts toward student involvement.
The organization did a commendable job in spreading awareness of the importance of voting registration and early voting.
They managed to get Beto O’Rourke on campus, organized the screening of the Presidential debate, organized the “Know your Ballot” event and provided rides to the polling booths on election days.
They organized the annual End the Stigma event to promote mental health awareness and back-to-school and parking citation drives.
Needless to say, the election days were the most involvement seen by the organization with the student life.
Apart from this, the organization was caught up among themselves, leaving no time to organize other activities and not to mention, the numerous vacant positions all year long.
The president and the vice president even failed to show up at the city council meeting in July 2024, where several UH students were advocating for the canceled METRO project.
Overall Grade: D-
The 61st administration has not only failed to fully realize its campaign promises but has been incapable of even fully operating as an organization since the beginning.
It has been a term marked with controversial firings, impeachment recommendations and a mandate from DSA.
To add, the administration has not been able to resolve the mandate for the past nine weeks, despite meeting repeatedly to read over and vote on it.
In The Cougar’s previous report card, we were able to say the beginning of the SGA’s elections marked the end of the previous administration’s term.
With the 61st administration, we do not even know if the SGA will host elections before next semester.
It is fair to say that the SGA had moments of success. However, given the administration’s significant power, a few positive outcomes should not be the standard expectation.
With all of this considered, it is The Cougar’s SGA section’s decision to grade the 61st administration at a D-, just a grade above failing.
