Right now, on the Main UH Campus, there is no shared facility for Students to learn practical skills that they can apply their academic knowledge to. Most UH students do not have access to woodworking tools, CNC machines, Drill Presses, 3D Printers, Soldering Irons, and the ability to work together and trade skills, ideas, and concepts.

Student Organizations have to bear the burden of providing basic equipment, even things as simple as screwdrivers, soldering irons, hand saws and multimeters, for engineering students to even accomplish their basic coursework to pass their classes, much less be creative. And attempts to create such a space, like the Engineering Student Innovation and Design Experience Studio (ESIDE), the UH Library Makerspace, and the COT's Machine Shop, have been disbanded, moved off campus, or hindered by the belief that students do not need to learn practical skills and express creativity in order to complete their coursework.

That not only makes it harder for engineering and STEM majors to pass their classes, but makes it harder for everyone from Liberal Arts to Business to be creative, build ideas, and change UH for the better. 

Every other major University in Texas not just believes but provides an avenue for students to build things creatively for all students. From UT Austin's Inventionworks, to Rice's ODEK Studio, to even Houston Community College's West Houston Makerspace, and even UH Sugarland has this space for not just their Engineering Technology Program, but for all of campus to use to have events, trade ideas, and innovate.

The new Interim dean has shown that he believes that creativity is not needed in academic coursework. And it's up to us to show him otherwise. Signing this petition is a direct call that we can and must do better. That UH students and campus as a whole are being held back because we aren't given the space to be creative. And that if we want to be a Tier 1 University, this has to start now. 

(ADDED 11/10/23) Our Concerns are thus -

• We want to know why our student concerns, especially those about our needs, priorities, new space, and curriculum questions, aren't being answered directly or in-person.
• We want to know why there isn't a space right now for engineers on campus to build and work on their projects, and why previous attempts, like ESIDE, Makerspace@UH Libraries, and even as far back as the Engineering Annex/EERC, have failed to be a permanent and open space for students.
• We want to know why our engineering college lags behind other colleges in terms of providing marketable and career focused skills, like 3D printing, controls software, 3D Modeling, and fabrication/machining techniques.

(ADDED 11/10/23) Our Demands are clear -

• We want a direct, in person forum about how our engineering program can help create opportunities and options for students to be creative, and where we can get our questions answered.
• We need tighter integration of hard, marketable skills in our coursework that are not just required to enter the workforce, but also contribute to our academic knowledge and individual capability.
• We need a space accessible to all students, not only CAPSTONE or research programs, but future entrepreneurs, student organizations, project managers, and competition teams, where they can build, learn, design, and test freely with access to the tools and space they require.