USGA president Anjali Wagle (Photo courtesy of Anjali Wagle).
Many UAB students have some sort of complaint about the school. Whether it be about the food, the cost of tuition/textbooks, or the more recent concerns about UAB’s lack of communication, there are many things that can always be improved upon.
UAB’s Undergraduate Student Government Association, more commonly known as USGA, is a student led committee devoted to supporting fellow student’s interests and opinions.
USGA’s three branches all play an important role and have their separate duties and responsibilities. At the forefront of the Executive Branch is President Anjali Wagle. Wagle considers one of her primary duties to be a representative of the students’ needs and wants and to bring them to the attention of the administration.
This past Fall, the USGA helped address and resolve problems with the meal plans.
“The administration publicized it as being more flexible for students, but when I looked at the actual plan it drastically limited the variety of food students could get.” Wagle said.
One of the most common objections to this meal plan was students’ inability to use the meal plan anywhere but the Commons. The USGA met with the administration over the summer and fall semester.
“Students have class, jobs, and extracurriculars, which means that their schedule cannot and should not be contained and restricted so much,” Wagle said. The USGA’s efforts were rewarded after holding a Town Hall meeting where the students could voice their personal opinions on the matter. A couple of the improvements involve more to-go options and a new flex dollar-only meal plan.
While the USGA has solved some problems around campus, there are still many issues to tackle and projects to be done.
“One of the biggest needs that we’ve seen in UAB is the lack of student representation in major university decisions,” Wagle said. An obvious example of this is the recent controversy involving the removal of the UAB football program. This could possibly have had a different outcome had the students been informed beforehand.
An interesting ongoing project of USGA’s is gender neutral bathrooms. Gender neutral bathrooms’ purpose is to allow anyone, no matter what gender they identify with, to use the bathroom and feel safe and comfortable while doing so.This will hopefully be a positive step towards gender equality at UAB.
These are only a few of the wonderful things USGA has done and are doing. If you have any complaints or ideas, the USGA website has a student forum where your voice can be heard.
The USGA can be reached at their website: http://www.uab.edu/usga/projects.
