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            Auburn University - University Relations
                         (334) 844-9999
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4/25/95                             Katie Skala

WETUMPKA NATIVE IS SECOND BLACK ELECTED AUBURN SGA PRESIDENT

      AUBURN -- Winston Tucker of Wetumpka, the new president of the 
Auburn University Student Government Association,  is hoping for total 
involvement by fellow students during his one-year administration.
      "Student government is definitely a group activity," he says.  "I 
really don't believe there is a such thing as a chain of command when it 
comes to determining what's best for a group of students, and I think 
that the more people involved in student government the better."
      A junior majoring in building science, Tucker had already been 
active in the SGA during his Auburn career, serving as director of 
student opinion and as a senator for the School of Architecture.  
      Tucker -- only the second black student elected SGA president at 
AU -- credits his April 6 election victory to the work of "hundreds" of 
supporters, including a campus social fraternity.  Harold Melton, elected 
in 1987, was Auburn's first black SGA president.
      "I owe a lot to all the people who worked on my campaign by 
handing out fliers, putting up billboards -- running a full-blown 
campaign," Tucker said. "They really got behind me and saw it through to 
the end.  It didnÕt matter to them that I wasnÕt a member of their 
particular group."
      Tucker collected nearly 63 percent of the vote from the majority 
white male student body, defeating a female and an Hispanic candidate.
      "I think the fact that all three candidates were minorities says 
a lot for the university, mainly that Auburn is a culturally diverse 
university and that race is not a factor when it comes to student 
leadership,"  he said.
      Though he does not believe that race was an issue in the SGA 
campaign, Tucker says that he hopes his election will help attract more 
minority students to AU.
      "Auburn University has made great strides in the last couple of 
years. We've recently had the first black Miss Auburn, an Hispanic Miss 
Homecoming and the first black female cheerleader," he said. "And in a 
time when most universities are concerned with political correctness and 
PR moves, I think Auburn is doing it through the genuine feelings of the 
students."
      Tucker said he also hopes the retention rate of minority students 
at AU will improve because many good students drop out too early.
      "This is something that IÕve been yelling and screaming about at 
the top of my lungs for some time," he said.  "It's wonderful that we can 
increase minority enrollment at the university -- which we have been 
doing for some time -- but we also need to focus on retention, keeping 
some potentially excellent students on our campus."
      Tucker has several other goals for his administration, including 
reworking teacher evaluations to make them more effective, introducing a 
student to the Food Services Committee and encouraging the use of 
introductory classes for each field of study at Auburn.
      "This is something that I'm particularly interested in 
introducing to the University Senate," he said. "I think it's important 
to let students know what they're getting into when they choose a major 
-- what theyÕll be doing in their course work and the job opportunities 
that will be available to them when they graduate.  It's always best to 
know these things in the beginning, when there's still time to make a 
change if necessary.
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april95:tucker
CONTACT: Tucker, (334) 844-4240