The Student Union Assembly (SUA) is the central student government on campus for undergraduates. The SUA is responsible for representing undergraduate students on campus and regionally. The chair is expected to help the SUA become more accessible to students and address affordability, accessibility and quality in the UC. City on a Hill Press sat down with Austin Hall and DT Amajoyi, who are both running for chair. Voting opened on May 16 and will conclude on May 22.
CHP: As chair of Student Union Assembly, what would be your mission?
Hall: My mission would be to make sure SUA is actively involved in students’ lives and representing the student voice. Only 50 percent of the students know what SUA is. My goal is to increase the number of students who know what SUA is and who are involved with SUA.
Amajoyi: My vision for the SUA is making sure it’s a represented body where people feel comfortable voicing their opinions. Students want to be able to know they have a voice among administration and that their concerns are taken into consideration.
CHP: Budget is a huge issue at UCSC and the UC as a whole. What are your plans to address students’ concerns?
Amajoyi: Budgetary issues are going to be the first thing on students’ minds. I’m not going to promise that within my one year as chair I’m going to reduce all student loans, but there are definitely tangible things that we can do, like reaching out to the financial aid officers so students can be informed borrowers.
Hall: The budget is a huge concern. Being involved in lobbying at the state and national level, there are many policies that make higher education more accessible. There’s a lot of student power waiting to be tapped through effective outreach — through SUA. We have concerns about the quality of our education and need to make sure that majors aren’t being cut.
CHP: What are your qualifications for this position and what brought you to the SUA?
Hall: I’m qualified for chair because I’ve been involved in the SUA since freshman year. UCSC is phenomenally more resourced than the high school I went to, yet we are seeing those resources slowly being taken away and that’s one of the things I’ve been really involved in to fight for. It’s for that reason that I got involved in SUA my first quarter.
Amajoyi: I’m qualified for this position because I’m a student — all of us have experienced what it means to be a student, to be someone who is striving toward higher education. It’s very easy to be defeated with all that’s going on — we’re just frustrated. Despite this, we have a lot of student power. There’s a lot of change that can be done and I think we have to be the generation to do this and it’s very much possible.
Additional questions available on our
website, http://www.cityonahillpress.com.
To vote in the SUA election, visit:
elections.sa.ucsc.edu/index.cfm
For more information on SUA, visit: studentunionassembly.org/
