Photo by: Angelina Contreras
Diego Arriaga, sophomore biochemistry major turned Student Government Administration President is ready to take on the University of Houston’s 61st student government term. Arriaga discussed his journey to becoming SGA president and hinted at his plans for this coming school year.
After his freshman year, Arriaga joined UH’s Orientation Team, itching to be more involved in the community, his next big step was running for student government president.
“My first semester, I came in and immediately I wanted to get involved on campus because when I was in high school, a student athlete, I could never really be involved with any other sort of extracurriculars other than my sport took up my whole life, but I wanted to be more involved,” Arriaga said.
After O-Team Arriaga joined SGA’s Emerging Leaders program, with former SGA Vice President under the 59th Administration, Derek Lane, as his mentor. He was immediately inspired by the impact SGA has on the student body and how much it helps them. At the end of the day as a pre-med student, Diego stated his biggest goal has always been to simply help others.
“I love it here. And I want to give back everything that it gave to me in terms of whether it be increasing school spirit, engaging with the student body, even making someone’s day brighter,” Arriaga said. “Everything that drives me is just helping other people.”
Arriaga explained with his O-Team experience and newfound leadership skills why he was inspired to run for SGA senator during his freshman year.
“I actually ran last year, as a freshman, to be a senator, and I lost,” Arriaga said. “But I still had that aspiration to still be a part of SGA. And then I decided, let me create my own party and run for president. And, you know, here I am.”
In terms of what the SGA has in store for this upcoming year, Diego explained he has a lot of big plans.
Arriaga further elaborated on how he originally had a few transitional meetings with the last SGA president Benjamin Rizk, going over plans that were successful, unsuccessful and plans that could be revamped for this year.
From ideas that his campaign ran on, to taking inspiration from separate parties, Arriaga was eager to implement the most that he could into this year’s agenda to benefit his fellow Coogs and to make this transition to a new office as smooth as possible.
Arriaga stated currently, with April being sexual assault awareness month, SGA is working on organizing events to help with the cause. Additionally, one of SGA’s biggest goals this year is to improve parking and campus safety for students. Arriaga has already had a few meetings with Chief Moore despite only being in office for a month.
“When it comes to parking, I’m a commuter. So, you know, I drive that 45 minutes to an hour and a half daily. That’s something that will always be an issue with the student body. Parking prices, or things not running as smoothly as they should be,” Arriaga said. “And that’s something that we want to work on with parking and see what we can accomplish.”
Arriaga is usually on campus at seven in the morning when it is pitch black and leaves later, so he is concerned about the lack of lighting and safety. Since he is able to relate to fellow students he is able to bring that personal connection into solving these issues, emphasizing hearing students concerns and working on solutions.
As for the future, later in the year SGA plans on creating initiatives to mobilize student voters with this being a presidential election year, highlighting the importance of voting amongst our generation. Arriaga is eager to share advice for the rest of the student body.
“Be patient is the biggest thing. Nothing good comes easy and nothing easy is good. On top of that, learn to take risks a little bit,” Arriaga said. “I took this risk in running for student body president. I didn’t know if it was going to go through. I spent three weeks of my life on the ground campaigning, stressing out about classes and, on top of that, worrying if I was going to win.”
Arriaga stresses the importance of communication between the student government and the student body reminding everyone that the SGA office in Student Center North has an open-door policy. Anyone is welcome to pop in and have a chat if needed, or email SGA with any issues.
“I like to be transparent. I’m a big person in communication. I like to hear what people think, even if it’s against me. I’d rather you come to me and ask me about that issue that we may have or an issue you hear and ask me, can it be fixed?” Arriaga said. “I like to hear the ideas that they have and their different opinions because that not only makes me a better person but also makes my job easier in the fact that I know what the student body wants and I know what they want me to do. Because I serve at the pleasure of the student body. They trusted me and my vision for UH. Now I’m putting my trust in them to come to me.”
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