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Issue 78, Volume 77
SPECIAL REPORT: SGA ELECTION 2012
Candidate interview: Cedric Bandoh Joshua Mann and Taylor McGilvray
THE DAILY COUGAR Seven students entered the race to be elected Student Government Association president, including supply chain management sophomore Cedric Bandoh who is the current SGA chief of staff. What follows is a partial transcription of an interview The Daily Cougar’s news editors Joshua Mann and Taylor McGilvray conducted with Bandoh. The Daily Cougar: What are three things you think voters should know about you? Cedric Bandoh: First, just my love for the University. (Being in SGA) is a job that you have to be committed to and dedicated to this university to do. Next is that I believe with the current leadership under Dr. Khator we’re going to the right places. ... It’s great to have
a president that’s very dedicated to the school, but students need to be involved; to make sure that the decisions that are made and the new things that come to the University are things that we want and can benefit from at the end of the day. Third, I’m dedicated to making sure we live up to our Tier 1 model. It’s great to say that we’re Tier 1 — and we are, in multiple areas — but we still have some areas that have to be brought up to speed in that respect. TDC: What do you think has been the most important thing the SGA has done since the summer? CB: We’ve done a lot of important things as far as pieces of legislation and different ideas and programs and things that we’ve worked on, but I think the biggest thing has been increasing the visibility of SGA. That was one big thing when we came to office. President Harding and Vice
President Primjee are very big on increasing the communication to the student body, to let them know that we’re here. I believe we’ve done that this year. TDC: What do you plan on doing differently from the last administration, if you’re elected? CB: The first thing is what we just touched on: visibility. One thing that I would do is just increase the amount of social media that we use. Students are getting more and more of their news and information from Facebook and Twitter and all the social media outlets. I think SGA could be doing more of that. TDC: How would you make sure you’re accurately representing the students? CB: I think on a lot of the things we do, we could take a lot more opinion polls. We’re working with administration leaders and people who may be higher up, and we think we’ve come to the right solution. But sometimes we see that’s not the
case. Something happens, and the news gets out there, and the student body’s not happy. We thought they wanted this, but they really didn’t. In SGA, we’re working on a lot of big, major things, and once they go through, they go through. It’s pretty hard sometimes to go back around and redo them or readdress them. We need to do it, and we need to get it right the first time around. It all goes back to out mission of empowering students and giving them an opportunity to be a part of the decision making process. I mean, that’s what we’re here for. TDC: How do you plan on dealing with real problems like parking or safety — stuff like that — as SGA president? CB: I think the first thing, as far as addressing the parking issue, is just that to let students know there is already a parking plan in place. When I talk about the parking plan we also have the parking garage that is coming up right now, and that will add about 2000 more spaces on campus, so that will help. After that, there is going to be a parking garage that will be built in front of Moody Towers and next to the Welcome Center garage in that parking lot that’s currently there, which will add about another 2000 more spaces. BANDOH continues on page 3
HONORS COLLEGE
Faculty members read creative works Poetry and prose take center stage at Honors College faculty reading Jennifer Pearson and Max Gardner
THE DAILY COUGAR
Antonya Nelson reads from her soon-to-be published short novel, “Funny Once” to students in the Honors College Commons. | Emily Chambers/The Daily Cougar
More than 90 people attended the first Honors College poetry and prose reading for the Spring 2012 semester, which was held in the Commons Wednesday. The event featured creative writing faculty members Antonya Nelson and Robert Boswell, who are married and share the Cullen chair in creative writing at UH. Nelson’s work has been featured in several literary
magazines including Harper’s Magazine and The New Yorker. She read her soon-to-be published short story “Funny Once.” She gave three pieces of advice to students interested in writing: read, take criticism and take advantage of classes. Boswell, Guggenheim Fellowship winner and author of eleven books, read a chapter from his upcoming novel “Tumbledown”. He described it as “a serious novel with a lot of humor in it.” “If you’re looking at the ruins of a place, that’s tumbledown,” Boswell said. “The point of view goes back and forth between counselors and their clients, and they have an intertwined storyline. It’s a big book — about 600 pages.”
Both stories dealt with serious issues, but the comedy made them more bearable. It was like a break, so you didn’t have to be drowned by it all.” Travus McBane, on the excerpts read during the event Travus McBane, a computer science junior who stumbled upon the event, was impressed by the readings. “The points of view of the main characters were relatable. READING continues on page 3