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Friday, March 29, 2024

I can’t say I knew a lot of things when I started my first term as senator for Infinity Hall. Not only does our Senate lack any sort of transitioning between past positions, but I also happened to be the first ever senator for Infinity Hall — so it’s not like anyone could tell me what my predecessors were up to.

Infinity Hall opened in August 2015, and it took a bit for the gears to get turning in terms of representation. The majority party at the time claimed that the senators for District A, the zip code east of campus, which includes Infinity, would be able to take care of the residents, but the residents felt strongly the opposite. Residents showed up to public debate, not too unlike the multiple protests we saw this past year. The Senate Judiciary Committee still didn't include a seat for Infinity Hall in their reapportionment of Senate seats. Then, the Student Body president at the time vetoed their reapportionment to force the creation of the seat.

Many months later, I won my seat with a decent 75 percent of the vote in Fall 2016. From then, I set off on what, in hindsight, seems like a wild goose chase in terms of potential improvements for my hall. Real talk: It’s incredibly difficult to get things done. That’s why, for the most part, you don’t often see your senators doing much in relation to who they are supposed to represent. SG simply doesn’t have much power over the different colleges, residence halls or local zip codes. People come into the role thinking they have lots of power, but that’s not really the case, it’s actually advocacy disguised as a position of power, which is why senators often don’t have lasting impacts in their areas.

There’s been no shortage of failures on my part. Despite working with my roommate to gather a petition with over half of my hall’s residents for support, we’re still lacking a fully-furnished kitchen at the moment (it’s still on the table for the UF Housing and Residence Education department, so there is still hope).

I once thought it’d be really neat for us to get those water fountains with water bottle refill stations, before the property manager pointed out to me that every floor has a water dispenser in its kitchen area which technically can do the same thing.

I also tried (and failed) to get a bike rental station for Infinity Hall; the cost of installing a station with five bikes was estimated at $11,000 (I’m broke).

However, in my email to the City of Gainesville asking about the bike station, I also mentioned a little bit about the lighting condition around Infinity. I attached photos of the areas of concern and they told me they would take up the case — that was in March 2017. After a call with a senior planner from the city in April 2017, the gears turned a bit further. Funding had been set aside as of July. Gainesville Regional Utilities was a little behind but planning on getting the job done in a couple weeks, as of August 2017.

Oh, and then Hurricane Irma hit so… Yeah...

Understandably, GRU was a bit busy after Irma. It would only be after I moved out of Infinity Hall and won my election in Murphree that the streetlights actually went up in November. If you’re ever going by Infinity Hall via Southwest First Avenue or Southwest 10th Street, take a look at the streetlights and you’ll realize that a couple of them are a completely different shade from the others in the area since they are new (and use LEDs).

So who gets the credit? Scott Wright, senior planner within the City of Gainesville’s Public Works Department does. So does GRU. Thank you both.

As for me, I guess I sort of helped? I just took photos of dark areas and was annoying with follow up emails for many months, but I’ll happily accept any thank-you checks made out to me.

Questions, comments or concerns? Email me at zchou@ufl.edu.

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Zachariah Chou is a UF political science sophomore and Murphree Area Senator. His column focuses on Student Government.

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