Guillory shares goals for SGA presidency
Christian Guillory was elected president of Lamar University’s Student Government Association in March. In preparation for his administration, Guillory has attended several leadership conferences with his vice president, Luis Ramirez, gaining insights as to organizing committees and activities.
“We put together an elections committee that will help with polling,” he said. “Probably once a month, we're going to help register students to vote.”
The Student Engagement Committee will host events on campus such as Congress and Coffee and Lemonade with Leaders, which are meet and greet sessions held twice a semester in the Setzer Student Center for students to get to know the SGA leaders. Refreshments will be served.
Guillory said SGA will also have initiatives to help plug in introverted students on campus.
“We're going to go around and ask them to fill out an interest form if they would like to be involved in stuff and see what clubs we think would best fit them,” he said.
The Social Media Committee will be the face of SGA, using Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, organizing events such as scavenger hunts every now and then, Guillory said.
One of the SGA’s goals for this year, Guillory said, is get electrical scooters on campus.
“We talk about it all the time, it's something that we think the student body would love,” he said. “Dr. (Jaime) Taylor and all the staff are on board. We just have to put in our work to get some research done to see what problems other universities have had that have already brought scooters onto their campuses. We want to make sure that we look at all the pros and the cons.”
“If, like, Texas State University has already had the problems of students driving off campus, then we'll limit the distance that the scooters can drive, because you can manually program where they go a certain distance and shut them off. (Taylor) wants us to figure out the problems and the details, to do our research and then we'll look into contract building with different companies.”
SGA has studied how other universities have implemented scooters on campus. and are planning to use similar versions such as Bird and Uber.
“It'll give students something to do at night,” Guillory said said. “Dr. Taylor also has his own scooter. So, if everyone had the opportunity to drive a scooter, riding around campus, he would partake in racing students. It’d be fun.
“I don't think it'd be free; it would cost some money. But it's, like, 30-cents a minute. So, if students are late to class, this is something that they can use to get to class really quick. If I'm late to a test, I would pay $3 to scoot my way to my test.”
Guillory said Lamar may also offer promo codes on special days.
“We can use them for football games to make our way over there,” he said.
Guillory said SGA is proposing making syllabi available for students before they sign up for classes, so they can see what the classes are like and if they are interested. Another proposal is making early registration available.
“From what I've heard, (the school has) done away with early registration because the special population of students that were allowed to register early, there was too many of them,” he said. “It was like 60% or 40% of the mark. So, we're looking into bringing it back into what it would take for like upper graduates, honors students, etc.”
SGA officers meet with their advisors once a month to discuss what they’re working on and get feedback.
“Every meeting we work on our resolutions, (which are) what we're trying to get done here at Lamar University,” Guillory said. “To get the scooters on campus, we have to write this long resolution on why we think it's beneficial — what are the pros and cons, what we think students can get out of it — and those are reviewed by the people it would impact. We also get to meet with (Dr. Taylor) once a month and communicate larger scale ideas. Then he gives us his feedback and he tells us how he can see it working at Lamar University.”
Both Guillory and Ramirez have hours they have to fulfil as president and vice President. They plan to use them to go around campus and talk to students.
“We're looking forward to meeting as many freshmen as we can, getting them plugged in with student government — if not any other club — and just seeing them flourish,” Guillory said. “We feel that if we get students as involved as we can, that students will stay. College is as good as you make it.
“You're going to have the same college experience at Lamar University as you would at Texas A&M University if you just sit in your dorm all day. You're just not going to enjoy life anywhere if you're not active. So, our plan is to get students as active as we can. That's what I'm most excited about, building that student life.”
The first SGA Joint Session meeting will be Sept. 7 in the Setzer Student Center at 6 p.m., and meetings will be held every Wednesday at the same time and location. Meetings are open to the public.
Follow SGA on Instagram @lamarsga and Twitter @LamarSGA and on their Facebook page.
