Candidates should focus on attainable changes, not promise the impossible
COMMENTARY
David Reese

As Student Government Association elections approach Tuesday, a look at the successes and failures of the existing administration may help voters decide what questions and concerns to pose to this year’s candidates.

A very difficult and near impossible task that any candidate faces is the idea of communication on campus. Past events like forums have been unsuccessful because they do not excite constituents.

This year, SGA tried to create some new programs trying to bridge the gap between faculty, staff and students.

The first meeting between the Faculty Senate, Staff Assembly and SGA took place last spring. The historic meeting has now become a TCU tradition with the groups recently meeting for the second time. The time allowed students to be sure the faculty and staff were listening to their ideas on the future of the university.

Last year during election season, the TCU Daily Skiff posed questions to the candidates about numerous subjects, such as how the candidates would make SGA and its officers more visible to the student body.

It seemed from day one that the Chelsea Hudson administration did not dwell on issues that were beyond the SGA’s control. When I look back at the past year, I can see a more positive and active campus thanks in part to the Student-run programs like the SGA will not always yield perfect results, but we can spark changes with our participation.

men and women of SGA — and especially Hudson.

I think Hudson’s crew has been able to establish ideas that were attainable. Anyone who has gone to House of Student Representatives or Programming Council meetings knows that the power of the organization does not cover high priced contracts and construction — including food and parking.

Instead, the administration — especially PC and Brad Thompson — tried to put new twists on old, dry programming including Vanilla Ice during Howdy Week and Frogstock, which brought many campus organizations to Frog Fountain for students to get a glimpse of the opportunities available on campus.

This semester, PC restructured its constitution to increase student involvement. Community Council brought at least 50 students to each meeting.

The House passed a resolution supporting the movement of the student basketball section courtside. The university and athletic officials eventually enacted this idea.

The Academic Affairs committee, which is chaired by Katie Gordon, has been quite active including numerous surveys on the core revision and honor code as well as making presentations to the Faculty Senate.

But there also were failures.

Most recently, the incident about the purchase of horned frogs for the zoo came out of nowhere. SGA did not put enough research into the idea before announcing it publicly. Someone should have known that it was illegal to purchase a horned frog.

Also, the number of members in the House has been at an all-time low with just more than 30 representatives. Although I do not necessarily believe the lower number of people means less work gets done, I do believe 30 to 40 students is not a fair representation of a campus larger than 8,000.

Hudson was smart during her campaign. She gave more specific proposals rather than abstract ideas such as improving parking and food. She promised during her campaign to extend the hours of The Main, Frogbytes and Pond Street Grill. SGA’s influence in those decisions were minimal at Pond Street Grill. Neither The Main nor Frogbytes have changed their times.

She also promised to switch some loading zones back to parking spaces, but there are still many loading zones on campus.

There is no doubt there will always be successes and failures in organizations, because the people who run the organizations are not perfect.

But just a reminder to all the candidates: Don’t promise what you cannot deliver. You cannot change the entire world for TCU students — but you can change small pieces.

News editor David Reese is a senior journalism news-editorial and speech communication major from Oceanside, Calif.