If you are on any social media platform and are a UH student, chances are your timelines and feeds are filled with posts about the UH Student Government Association elections coming up. There are four parties in contention: Spirit RED, REDvolution, House of Innovation, and VoteforMeme.
It is extremely important for every UH student to know and understand the platforms that each of the parties are running on. These are students that want to represent the student body in the best way and make our time here the best in every way possible. Therefore, I will break down each of the party's political platforms so that everyone can make a well-educated vote in the coming election.
Spirit RED-
Winni Zhang, the Presidential candidate, and Adrian Hernandez, the Vice-Presidential candidate, are focusing on three areas of student life. They aim to improve parking, health services and they want to lower textbook prices. Zhang and Hernandez have great ideas that the student body has nothing against (especially lowering textbook prices), however, they do not outline how they plan on achieving their initiatives.
Improving the CAPS program and parking would be great for the University. But with no outlined plans on any social media platform causes issues with voters because we want those promises to be fulfilled. So be on the lookout for any information Spirit RED gives on how they plan to achieve their goals because once they do that, they have the potential to be the best UH political party.
https://www.facebook.com/UHSpiritRED/
REDvolution-
Led by Shawn Bhatia with VP candidate Seth Crawford, REDvolution's platform consists of focusing on the affordability, accessibility, and diversity of the student body. Only fragments of their overall platform have been released as they went for a staggering of information tactic rather than an absolute release of information.
REDvolution advocates for the freezing or reduction of mandatory student fees. They also want to lower textbook prices and push for library copies of all required textbooks. Additionally, they want to make the academic advising an easier process for all 43,000 students at UH. Once the party releases their information about the diversity of the student body, we can make a more informed decision about REDvolution.
https://www.facebook.com/REDvolution2017/
House of Innovation-
The presidential candidate, Jordyn Chaffold and vice-presidential candidate Farah Islam are leading the unofficial polls as of Tuesday. House of Innovation is resting on a diverse background with their candidates as they have not served on any SGA board in the past; they are offering an outsiders opinion which is important in this election.
Islam has an immense amount of knowledge about fee-funded organizations because she was the vice chair of the Student Fees Advisory Committee. While this gives them a leg up against the other candidates the one area House of Innovation is lacking in is with their platform.
What we do know is that they want to improve student relations with SGA and try to draw more students into the organization and have them become more knowledgeable about it. They also want to build stronger relations between students and their respective colleges.
https://www.facebook.com/powerhouseofinnovation/
VoteforMeme-
Presidential candidate, Robert Comer, and vice-presidential candidate, True Furrh, are running on a platform consisting of memes that relate to the student body. Comer has extensive knowledge and experience with SGA as he is the current Chief of Staff. Running on a platform consisting of fresh memes is a risk that seems to be working for the pair.
They introduced an initiative with 16 items on it, many of them jokes, but several of the realistic ideas are phenomenal. Playing more Houston rap at football games, incorporating student design into the new housing that will replace the Quads, and free Metro fares for all UH students are all extremely feasible. With this grassroots meme movement, these two could win the elections if they keep producing only the best UH memes.
https://www.facebook.com/VoteForMemeUH/
