Anthropology senior Lance Kennedy held office with UT Student Government as policy director under former president Andrew Solomon but is now part of another organization claiming to represent the student body.
Kennedy and more than 20 other dedicated students are part of Texas Revolution, a political action committee that believes Student Government doesn’t represent the needs of the student body.
The group, which started in February, discussed its issues with Student Government at a meeting held in the McCombs School of Business atrium Thursday.
Kennedy, also chairman for the Texas Federation of College Republicans, said many members of Student Government join only to enhance their resumes and not to focus on the issues students care about.
Student Government President Keshav Rajagopalan said he admits the biggest problem SG faces is how to reach such a large and diverse group of students. Rajagopalan said he doesn’t doubt that Student Government has the students’ best interests in mind and that apathy is not an issue among SG representatives.
“People aren’t just doing something to put this on their resume. It’s a lot of work,” he said. “The participation is just unbelievable. If I open my office door right now, there are 15 people out there working.”
Ludwig Barragan, a member of Texas Revolution, said the biggest problem with Student Government is that it attacks large, unattainable issues but not realistic goals that matter to students.
“They go to the Texas Legislature to discuss tuition all the time, but my tuition bill is still more than it was last year,” Barragan said. “They need to look out to the needs of the community.”
Barragan said issues with student safety around the Riverside area, high textbook prices and problems with Dine-in Dollars were all attainable issues that could be fixed if Student Government focused its efforts on them.
Barragan said one of the major issues with Student Government is a lack of competition and apathetic student voters. Only 4,000 students, about 8 percent of the student body, voted in the last student election, for various student body members, most of whom were running unopposed.
Barragan and Kennedy said they both support Rajagopalan and Student Government and repeatedly said Texas Revolution was not an “anti-Student Government” organization. Rajagopalan said he appreciates the views of Texas Revolution and would like to see them be more active.
“I think they have a lot of really good ideas,” Rajagopalan said. “I invite them to join us in Student Government and help us out.”
Texas Revolution is discussing a plan of action for next semester, including promoting a candidate for Student Government.
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