| SC leaders continue to focus on informing students of available resources, issues |
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| Written by Bryan Bastible, The Shorthorn senior staff | ||||
| Thursday, 03 December 2009 08:29 PM | ||||
PlatformsStudent Congress President Kent Long’s platform when he ran in the springTransparency “I want you to be aware of the current and upcoming issues, changes, and resources available to you. I will work tirelessly to make sure that every student on our campus has the opportunity to learn about what is happening at UT Arlington.” Legislative Relations “The External Relations Council maintains and establishes new relationships at both the municipal and state levels. My vision is to institutionalize this committee and place it under the umbrella of Student Congress. Members of this council would be elected student leaders, representing the needs of their constituents.” Textbook Affordability “I firmly believe that our administration should pursue more cost-effective textbook options. E-textbooks are just one of many more cost-effective alternatives to the traditional text that I believe in.” Student Congress Vice President Melanie Johnson’s platform when she ran in the spring “As YOUR Student Congress Vice President, I plan on informing the student body on exactly what Student Congress can do for them. Things such as writing resolutions and how easy it is to get things changed here on campus. Students are not as informed as they should be on the help that Student Congress can give them and I blame myself but plan on stepping forward to better the situation. I would also like to see our External Relations Council represent our student body in Austin as a voice of what WE want and also in D.C. I would like us to be seen as such a strong force that instead of us telling our representatives what we want they COME ask US.” They elected SC President Kent Long and Vice President Melanie Johnson. With the last SC meeting of the semester on Tuesday, it signifies the two are almost to the half-way point in their terms and have elections for their positions around the corner. One of the things they had in common among their platforms was to spread the word out about SC. Pre-nursing freshman Allison Essenmacher said Student Congress increased its visibility this semester. “They probably have been more visible than in the past, but I don’t think they’ve reached their goal in being as prominent as they want,” she said. “But I know they’re working on it.” Finance freshman Chipo Size said SC was not very successful in completing their goal of informing students and SC should look at other organizations for guidance. She said, for example, she knew vaguely about SC ahead of time before events, and SC should look to EXCEL for advice on how to let people know about its organization. She said students always seem to know when EXCEL events are coming up because they do a good job marketing. Long campaigned on three major planks: transparency, legislative relations and textbook affordability. He wanted to inform more students about SC and its processes, improve student relations with governments outside the university and pursue cheaper textbook options. He said he worked on transparency this semester by implementing projects such as the open forum and opinion boards for students to leave their thoughts on resolutions and issues. “I saw projects through and was a resource for the senators,” he said. When it came to governmental relations, he said he helped the newly elected External Relations director transition into her new position. He said some of his next-semester goals are to continue keeping students up to speed about SC. He said he wants to achieve that by continuing the opinion boards. Johnson also campaigned on letting more students know about SC and what it does, but when campaigning she also wanted more External Relations Council involvement. At the Leadership Retreat, she passed out her business cards and communicated with other student leaders who, in turn, could talk to their own organizations about how they could work with SC, she said. As SC vice president, a goal is to make sure resolution research done by committees is turned in on time, and she said she felt like she’s stayed on top of it. “By doing that, I think we researched enough resolutions to vote effectively on them in a timely manner,” she said. She said a goal for her for next semester is to get senators’ names out more to their constituents. Related storiesGSS president says the senate adopted fewer resolutions but with greater impactNovember 4, 2009 Views: 1532 | E-mail
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