Here are some reasons you should care about Student Government at UF

Perhaps you’re just a plebeian, going in and out of the Reitz Union and Southwest Recreation Center, showing up to various general body meetings of clubs and riding the bus. Maybe you’re a power user of Student Government services, taking advantage of our school’s free New York Times subscriptions and subsidized late-night Uber services (Google “UF Safe Rides” if you don’t know what I’m talking about, and thank me later).

SG and the services it provides are ubiquitous and useful. It’s also kind of wild, too; where else in the world do 20-somethings manage a $20 million budget?

As students, inside and out of SG, we have a lot of power. Think about the big conversations we’ve had this year about access to mental health counselors and free menstrual hygiene products.

Progress ultimately came about after students spoke in support of the initiatives during Student Senate meetings.

Progress can be complicated, however. As a two-term senator, I’ve had my fair share of getting lost in the confusing bureaucracy of not only our SG, but also the greater UF administration. As a result of the complicated process of getting things done, sometimes there is misinformation and misdirected rage where there doesn’t have to be.

We need more transparency and more engagement with the Student Body as SG officials, and it is along that line of thought that I came up with the idea of this column. I see this column as something dynamic, responsive and changing every week, depending on what is happening in SG. Sometimes this column will serve as an update for what’s going on, while other times it’ll be the story behind an accomplishment or perhaps a Q&A.

I can’t tell you why you should care about SG, but at least I can tell you why I care.

I also thought it’d be fitting to introduce myself in my first column.

My name is Zachariah Chou, and I’ve had a passion for public service for as long as I’ve known. That one annoying story that got repeated in all my college application essays talked about preschool-aged me professing my desire to become a missionary to my parents, only to have them respond by questioning why I don’t instead try to be a politician? My skills would likely be put to better use toward the greater good, they contended.

That led to a relatively early involvement in SG in middle school, which I continued throughout high school as well. When I knew I was coming to UF, I knew I just had to be a part of SG. I went online to The Alligator website and started reading about all the drama. I can’t say I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.

I started my time here in UF during Summer B of 2016 and immediately started attending Senate meetings. At those meetings, I got to see just a small portion of the work that SG does — and even from that I realized the enormous potential that exists within our SG to make a difference to every student on campus.

Glossing over all the lovely partisan political drama, I got elected in the Fall as the first senator for Infinity Hall and was elected this past Fall as the senator for the Murphree Area. I love and stress over my role quite a lot, and while it’s given me more white hairs than I’d like to say, it is helping people and making positive change that keeps me going.

What keeps you going? I daresay there is certainly some way SG intersects with what you care about. Maybe it’s a reason for you to care more about SG. We’ll see.

Questions, comments or concerns? You can email me at: zchou@ufl.edu.

Zachariah Chou is a UF political science sophomore and serves as the senator of the Murphree Area. His column focuses on Student Government.

Editor’s note: Chou formerly worked as a paid photographer for the Alligator.