By Gloria Petit
Andres Holliday, Student Government Association president, hopes to pass seven bills on SGA senate legislation before Dec. 7.
The “7 on 7” campaign lists seven bills including equipping the future recreational center, adding nutrition labels to cafeteria food, and raising money for scholarships.
“We want to be able to give back to students, especially through scholarships,” Holliday said.
SGA’s other priorities include adding partnerships with local businesses, elimination of Robert’s Rules of Order, establishing a food service advisory committee and creating an SGA quarterly newsletter.
Allison Garcia, SGA chief of staff, and student senator Jon-Eric Avila helped Holliday plan the campaign, presented during SGA’s Oct. 21 meeting. The SGA legislative branch plans to review the campaign during its meeting Dec. 7.
SGA President Andres Holliday’s Position on the Proposed Bills
Excerpts from Oct. 22 SGA meeting
Establishing a Student Fitness Council
“The city has already put out an extensive program called the ‘Mayor’s Fitness Council,’ which is to help our city get back on track. We, luckily, have connections with them and they are willing to work with us to establish something that is yet to be seen on any campus within the state of Texas.”… “We’re planning on creating this fitness council and working with other universities to expand it.”
Partnerships with Local Law Firms, Doctors and Hospitals
“We do know that the pre-law association is actually currently working on trying to get an internship program, but what I want to do is go to a different level.”… “It’s not necessarily internships that would be easy, because then that means it becomes a class and you have to go so many hours.” …“I was thinking, why don’t we integrate the work place into the classroom.”… “If I’m a law student, I should be able to have one or two classes in a trial.” …“If I’m a biology major trying to be a doctor, I should be able to shadow a doctor.” …“We could establish things for the students that have yet to be seen.” …“One of the things would be done is to have more L-SAT practices. “We would work with St. Mary’s Law School and A&M’s Law School, we would be able to work with the university hospital, and Baptist Hospital.”
S6 Rules of Order
“Right now, SGA functions off the Roberts Rules of Order.”… “If you know the Roberts Rules of Order, you have an advantage over the people who don’t know how to use it.”… “What the S6 rules would be, it would be our student government’s personal forum of Robert’s Rules of Orders.” …“What we think would be better for our form of government.” …“It would be made off of our decisions, our interests, and our values.” …“It would be established to simplify and make things easier so that we can’t take advantage of new members or students who don’t know.” …“It would make a level playing field for everybody in meetings.”
Food Service Advisory Committee
“I’ve heard nothing, but negative comments about our food service.”…“What I’ve heard from students is that it’s too expensive and not valuable enough, and there’s no reason we should be treated like this without our opinion being taken in.”… “The committee would create a level playing field, where it would put students at the table, faculty and staff at the table, with the people who run the kitchen.” …“If the prices are too expensive, we need to lower the prices.” …“The point of this committee is to focus on ensuring that we can make the kitchen know what we want as students, so people will continue to buy the food.”
SGA Quarterly newsletter
“We want to be able to create a quarterly newsletter.” …“Every three months, we would submit information that introduces the SGA officers and explains the issues we are working on.” …“It’s an information letter that says this is what student government is working on.” …“It would be our main pipeline of information to the students.”
Point System
“If senate members are working hard, then we want to be sure that we recognize those members at the end of the year.”
Service Grant
“On this, we increase our volunteer work.”… “We need to be able to establish our relationship with the university and the city. I want to establish a program where we reach out those who want to give us grant money and make that grant money, and we have more funding for ourselves as well as students.”
