Hi everyone, I’m John Wooding, a junior political science major, and I am running for Student Government Association president.

Over the next few days, you might hear a lot about the SGA elections, or about one ticket, both tickets or neither ticket, but either way, I hope what I write will hit home with you in one way or another. More importantly, I hope that if you see me or my awesome running mate Souther Recio walking around campus, you don’t hesitate to stop and chat with us.

Thinking about running in the election made me think about what we can work towards to improve our experience here at St. Edward’s University.

We can’t choose to allow the size or scope of issues here on campus hamper our efforts to address them in a meaningful way. Are there problems that may be too complex to tackle as a whole? Yes.

On the same note, though, when we break down these problems and at least attempt to alleviate them, we can make progress towards solving them.

In my little-over-a-year time as a senator in SGA, I have taken on countless projects, initiatives and problems here on campus.

One of the biggest concerns that I hear from my friends and peers here on campus is that students don’t have input towards the decisions that impact us.

Taking a step in the right direction, I worked to pass a bill that creates a list of the university committees where we can have input and shape the future of our campus.

Most of us have used Capital Metro to get around Austin, whether commuting to and from school, or when we’re just being responsible and taking the bus to go downtown.

As students, we should be able to get from point A to point B without having to pay each time we get on the bus, just like students at the University of Texas and Austin Community College.

Currently, I am working with the president of Students for Sustainability, the director of auxiliary services, and people across campus to work towards students simply using their IDs to ride the bus for free.

When Souther and I decided to run, we chose to take on the big issues and form a campaign around them.

Right off the bat, if elected, we will work to create a committee of students, faculty, and hopefully folks from the administration to review changes in tuition, as well as break it down into terms we can all understand. We plan on addressing the high cost of parking by fighting for reasonable parking ticket fees and lowering the cost of purchasing a parking permit, even if by a small amount.

Finally, Souther and I know that to build trust with the student body, we need to be honest with what we want and what we can do. For that reason, we will continue to fight for leadership on all levels that is accountable to you.