Photo by Pablo Milanese/The Cougar

With Student Government Association elections coming up, The Cougar Editorial got together and decided to write about what qualities make a good president. With three candidates in the running — John Fields, Edwin Mascorro and Shane Smith — there’s going to be a lot of different points of contentions. Here are the absolute qualities an SGA president needs to have.

Approachability

Obviously, the SGA president has to be friendly. They are, after all, representing all 40,000 students in their position. But, they also have to be approachable enough that one of those 40,000 students can go up to them and say “Hey, I have a problem. Can you help me?”

Understand limits of power

You’re going to hear a lot of rhetoric from the candidates saying they can fix certain issues, including passionate topics like parking. Many candidates in the past have promised to fix certain issues, but the reality is that all they can do is vouch for the students on their behalf. They need to understand what they can do so they can more effectively make positive changes for students.

School awareness

It’s really bad when the representative of your entire student body doesn’t know what’s happening on their campus. They need to have a keen awareness of problems that need to be fixed so they can actually tackle issues that students care about. There are a lot of issues that need tackling at this University, and the candidates need to have a good idea of what they need to address.

Open to criticism

The ideal candidate needs to be open to criticism coming at them from all angles. Being front and center is a huge part of the president’s job, so they need to be ready for whatever comes at them, including potential problems that may arise throughout their term. They need to be poised with the way the handle criticism, regardless of whether they agree with it.

Lead by example

As SGA president, students at UH are going to look up to you, and the candidates have to be completely ready for that. Don’t let them down by putting your own self interests before those of the University.  Leading by example, whether in a class or while doing student government duties, will reflect on the president, their administration and the students that they represent.

— The Cougar Editorial Board

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“Qualities of a good student body president” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar