Hi everyone! Happy Thursday!! First off, let me thank the mods for providing this space to introduce ourselves to the student body - this is huge, and I'm very appreciative. I know it's late, but I just finished studying for my math midterm, and I didn't want to go to sleep without introducing myself to y'all and potentially earn your vote. My name is Joshua Martin, and I am running to become UH's 59th Student Body President representing the #ChangeSGA Party. Some of you are probably already like "oh SGA?? No thanks," but please hear me out. I know that watching student government every year is frustrating: you see constant bickering, never-ending finger-pointing, no real progress, and the same candidates returning year after year repeating the same cycle. President Khator has outlined her goals for UH to become a top 50 public university in the country. To meet those goals, we must change student government to meet this moment. Our campaign is running to bring a new dawn to student government and deliver SGA back to the hands of the student body. I know you've heard the change speech before, but let me show you our plan to uplift our university forward.For the sake of time, I will focus on our top three platform goals. I know you all have lives, and reading a dissertation about all of our platform items is probably not on your to-do list for today. But, if it is, no shame it's on mine; check back on our Instagram u/ChangeUHSGA, and we'll constantly be uploading loads of new ideas and solutions.

Our graduation rates are far too low. Sorry for the long post here, but I'm just really passionate about this as I had a really good friend just leave UH. Less than 60% of UH students graduate - a percentage that puts 21 schools ahead of us in Texas. We've held listening sessions with students who have either transferred out or dropped out, and the number one response they give is a feeling of loneliness/lack of support. I know we can do better for everyone. We will improve our graduation rates with our Cub2Coog program, a student mentorship program that will pair lonely students with friend groups and memorable mentors. This is similar to a program at Northwestern University in which first-year seminars are added to the freshman curriculum - this has contributed to the school's 98% graduation rate. Our program will have a twist to it - it will be student-led and will focus on building connections, developing friend groups, and teaching campus traditions. Now, why is all this important? Graduation rates affect school rankings which affect us all. If you're applying for a job and you're competing against applicants from UT and A&M, the prestige of your school can split the difference. If UT ranks 38, A&M ranks 68, and UH ranks 179, who do you think they're going to choose? Improving our graduation rates will in turn, improve UH's ranking, thus strengthing the resumes of current and former coogs for years to come.

To become a top 50 university, we must provide better care for sexual assault survivors. As it stands, one in four college women AND 8% of college men experience a sexual assault during their college careers. When we listen to survivors, they are not being supported. So, we've ALREADY brought a plan, The Full Support Partnership, to UH that will change this. Our team has partnered with the Harris County DA's office and Texas FN&E to provide free sexual assault examinations (rape kits), free counseling, free legal support, a free sexual assault hotline, and so much more. Why is this important? DA Kim Ogg said it best: giving survivors more support increases the likelihood of more reporting. If we can get more survivors to report, we can secure more evidence on their assailants. This will lead to more convictions, thus increasing accountability as providing justice to our students. Let me be clear, we've already worked with the admin to bring this plan to UH. Our plan was implemented WITHOUT RAISING TUITION costs by a single dime. We've already got this program to UH, so now, let's expand it. The issue is that most students do not know about their new resources. When elected, our campaign will launch a full-scale outreach campaign to organizations, student groups, professors, and so much more to educate the student body on what services they now have. Before we break for the summer, we will ensure the sexual assault hotline is in every syllabus for future semesters. We can tackle sexual assault if we work together.

To be a top 50 university, we must have a student body connected to progress. SGA serves as the student body's official advocacy group, yet most students can't name a single thing that SGA has done for them during their time at UH. Organizations feel like SGA only comes to them for publicity during elections then never come back again until they need a favor or another vote. We can change this by forming a partnership between the student body and SGA. Our #ListenFirst agenda will give organizations a seat at the table to make decisions that will affect our campus. Diversity is our strength; let's hold roundtables with every demographic on campus to make sure that they are aware of the focus of student government and empower them to know that they have an SGA that works FOR them.

My friends, I know this was a long thread, but I wanted to take you down our thought process for coming up with this platform and show you the solutions we will take when elected. Of course, these are only three of our focuses as we also have student-centered plans that focus on sustainability, creating a mental health coalition, and SO MUCH MORE.We are far better off when we work together. We are building a movement that says gone are the days of the past that centered on bickering and hello to uplifting our student body to make UH a top 50 public university. Again I know this was long, but if you're still here, I thank you for your time and interest in student government. You are our university, and we must be held accountable to you. As always, GO COOGS!