Knight News sat down with SGA President Cait Zona, Vice President Jarell Jones, and Chief of Staff Christopher Clemente to discuss progress on campaign platforms (listed on their campaign website) and goals for the remainder of their term.
Inclusivity Between UCF Campuses:
Zona: “So far, we’ve made a trip to the College of Medicine and to Rosen. We wanted to look and make sure that all the needs of students are being met at both places. For the spring, we’re planning an SGA Day at Rosen, because right now, all three branches separately have their SGA Days, but we want to make sure that we’re going out and showing the Rosen students their resources.”
Jones: “Also, we’ve donated some of our promotional items that we give out here during Knights on the Mall to the Rosen campus and also to someone that works with Graduate Student Outreach. They had a couple of fairs at the various regional campuses that aren’t Rosen, and we donated promotional items to them as well.”
Charging Stations On-Campus:
Zona: “Right now, it’s gone through the Board of Trustees and I was a huge advocate for it. It’s still pending the overall vote, but the committee voted to have a $14 million renovation to the Student Union. I urged all of the Board of Trustee members and a bunch of administration to walk through the Union, especially on Wednesdays and on Market Days. Unfortunately we see students eating on the ground. I tripped over a cord that was plugged in because people are trying to sit wherever. So, with this $14 million renovation, I think we’ll see a lot of new accents to the Student Union that will really benefit the students. That does have to go through final Board of Trustees approval, but I’m definitely standing up for students. President Hitt even noted that, and just said that we really need this for the future students.”
Diversity Initiatives:
Jones: “Today (Monday, 10/19) was Spirit Day, because this is National LGBTQ+, Suicide, and Bullying Prevention Month. We had an event where we collaborated with (diverse student body organizations). There’s wooden signs where you can write a positive message just in general, and we’re handing out ribbons as well. So that’s one of the first things we’ve done in the history of SGA, is partner with an event of that nature, and we hope to continue that with any department on campus that wants to collaborate with us in some way.”
Zona: “We shouldn’t have specific events that are just ‘diverse events’. Every program should be diverse just in nature, so we’re trying to make sure we reach out to the populations we don’t usually see. So anyone that we notice might not be coming out to SGA events, or any events hosted by the Office of Student Involvement. We’re trying to target those students to see if there’s something we can do to include them better.”
Phone Application that “Connects Students With Various Parts of Campus”:
Zona: “The phone application is up and running; it’s called KnightLife.”
Expanding the KnightLynx Service:
Clemente: “In terms of stops, the service has been extended. That’s going to be for the fall semester, and then come spring time, we’re going to be re-working that system with Lynx, and that’s going to come to fruition in changing the routes themselves. As of right now though: same routes, more stops.”
Bringing Voting to Webcourses:
Zona: “We did try to work with the Center for Distributed Learning to bring voting to Webcourses. They said it couldn’t be done for Senate (elections) because it was a really short time-frame, but we have been meeting with them to at least get an announcement on Webcourses, if nothing else. But hopefully, we’re going to look for the next Presidential Elections.”
Safety in Garages:
On Sept. 2, UCFPD sent an alert reporting the theft of all four tires on two different Honda Civics in the G and Libra garages.
The cars were discovered on cinder blocks.
Crime statistics released earlier this year by UCF report 25 motor vehicle thefts occurred between 2013 and 2014. These incidents, along with a series of recent burglaries and hit-and-runs committed in UCF parking garages, have only added to public outcry for cameras to be installed in all garages.
Last spring, a petition calling for security cameras to be installed in every parking garage and lot started by student Ryan McKinney gained nearly 1,500 supporters on Change.org.
Zona: “Garage B has video cameras that are coming, so we’re really excited about that.”
How realistic is that, considering the cost of putting cameras in every single parking garage?
Zona: “That’s not an Activity and Service Fee fund, so it’s not like students are paying for it. There’s no fee increase for this next year. Students won’t be seeing their tuition or any of that increase. Parking and Transportation has been working on this system for a while, to get Garage B cameras. They said some of the newer parking garages have hidden cameras that students don’t usually know about. That’s just a work in progress, but we wanted to make sure there wouldn’t be an increase for those things. We just use our resources better.”
One solution presented by UCFPD involved installing license plate-readers in every garage, Zona said.
How effective would license plate readers be in preventing theft if all a thief would have to do is walk in to the garages instead of driving to bypass the plate readers?
Zona: “A lot of the crimes that are committed was people had their tires stolen, things like that. So walking out with those items–I don’t know how realistic that would be. A lot of times it is people that are stealing bigger items, things like that. The license plate readers didn’t come from our end, it came from the police department. We’re just supportive of any measurements that could help safety.”
RSO Resource Center
Zona: “It’s called the Hub. A lot of meetings in there, a few a day. They have court down there, they have consultants. They’re trying to get more people involved, and we’ve heard really positive feedback.”
Jones: “Within the meetings, I try to bring in people who can help the RSOs with whatever they need. I always try to have someone from within the Student Union and someone from OSI. In the last one, we had a great turn-out. We got a lot of suggestions, concerns, and ideas from students.”
Lighting Behind the Marquee
The area in and around The Marquee student-housing complex (formerly known as Sterling Central) has experienced several incidents of armed robberies, carjackings, and drive-by shootings over the years.
In an effort to lower the crime rate in the area behind The Marquee, which is home to several Greek houses and is known to students as the “Greek Ghetto”, several students and residents have asked for street lights to be installed.
Zona: “We were just in discussions with that since last April with the police department and different people. They’ve been trying to do this for years now. Finally, it was a unanimous decision (to install lighting) by Orange County Commission. We won’t actually see that until November 2016, but that was of utmost importance.”
Knightro’s Suits
Zona and Jones have both pushed for a new program called Knightro’s Suits, which would provide suits for students who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford professional attire for job interviews.
Zona: “The Student Union oversees Knight’s Pantry in Ferrell Commons, and since that is activity and service fee-funded, we think it’ll definitely be a plausible thing. We just now need to reach out to the different businesses and everything. We’ve had faculty members come forth and saying they’ll donate so far.”
Jones: “One thing we’ve talked about is doing maybe a faculty fundraiser, so I don’t think that’s something that has been done before, because they’re more likely to have suits and older clothing than a college student. So that’s what we want to do, figure out how to reach out to them so they’ll donate.
Zona: “There’s some clothes in Knight’s Pantry right now, but students are able to take that with them. So in our system, what we wanted to do was rent, because we wanted to make sure it’s professional attire they really feel valued in. We think the best way to do that was a rental system, so we’re just trying to get all those details worked out.”
AEDs in Every Building
After UCF student Michael Namey tragically collapsed and passed away during a class in the Health and Public Affairs building earlier this year, a petition calling for UCF to place more AEDs around campus was started on Change.org by another student. The petition has gained 950 supporters so far. According to the American Heart Association, AEDs cost between $1,500-$2000 apiece.
Zona: “The best friend of (Michael Namey), he actually had emailed me. I said ‘let’s set up a time’, we spoke after the State of the University address. I’ve one-on-one been able to speak to President Hitt about that. What they are working to do is put an AED in every building–not necessarily in every floor. Student’s should know where they are, is what I said. They should be in every building, in every police car. So we’re definitely working on that.”
Jones: “We’re trying to work towards just pushing a safety campaign, just overall. Just so students can have knowledge of all this stuff, and also just more than that. Maybe have a sit-down from the police station or from administration, just so students can ask the questions they’ve been wondering.”
