After roughly five months as First Ward council member, recent University graduate Daniel Gordon’s goals are on their way to being realized.

Seven months ago, then senior Gordon campaigned for city council with the aim of giving students a voice and improving their relations with residents.

With initiatives like Falcon Care and the push to ban texting while driving, Gordon’s involvement has caught the eye of his peers.

John Zanfardino, President and Second Ward council member, said he was really impressed with how Gordon handled raising the texting ban issue.

Gordon was able to raise a highly debated and controversial issue before council with comfort and courage, Zanfardino said.

“For him to be on council such a short time and raise an issue of that difficulty is impressive,” he said.

Once Gordon brought up the issue, Zanfardino said emails started coming in opposed to the idea from different departments, but he was able to respond with thoughtful and professional arguments and keep pursuing the legislation.

There’s enough compelling research to legitimize the ban and 37 states have one as well as 30 cities in Ohio, Gordon said.

However, before Gordon could initiate a discussion before council, both the Ohio House of Representatives and Senate passed similar ban proposals that need to be agreed upon, putting the city ban in limbo before a decision is made, Gordon said.

Even though the legislation has been put on hold for now, Gordon has a side project aimed at strengthening ties between the students and residents.

Falcon Care, also one of Gordon’s initiatives, is a community service program that allows students and residents to help out a person in need with chores or tasks around the house, Gordon said.

“This will help counteract the stereotype some residents have that all students seem to do is party and go out drinking every weekend,” he said.

“Once this program starts really running … a lot of residents are going to see a different side of students — the side that’s conscientious and wants to help out and show that they are invested in the community,” Gordon said.

Gordon said Falcon Care will operate through a website that’s currently under construction.

Volunteers and people in need can make accounts and exchange information to set up a time to do the requested task, he said.

Gordon said he hopes to get Falcon Care started by this fall and has already contacted student organizations to gauge their interest.

Even though Gordon has taken on these initiatives, some students might feel that now that he has graduated, he might lose his connection to the students.

However, Gordon said he will be coming back in the fall as a graduate student pursuing a master’s of public administration.

“I think the most important thing to have is the knowledge of what student life is like on a regular basis and have that connection with campus,” Gordon said.

To keep that connection, Gordon is currently part of a relationship building taskforce set up by University President Mary Ellen Mazey and Mayor Richard Edwards to improve the community at large, he said.

One idea Gordon said he thought to implement was to have regular town hall meetings where residents and students can come and talk to city council, Undergraduate Student Government and Graduate Student Senate all at once.

Along with that idea, Gordon said he also wants to improve relations with USG and has been to almost every meeting this past semester.

Gordon said he’s been trying to work closely with the new USG President, Alex Solis.

USG is also looking to improve relations with the city, Solis said.

Solis said USG is looking into revisiting its 911 legislation involving underage drinking and alcohol poisoning. The legislation calls for the immunity of a person who calls 911 if an underage gets alcohol poisoning.

In order to bring any legislation, USG will have to work with their liaison and Gordon.

In general, communication seems to break down, and in order to build a better relationship USG needs to communicate more with the mayor, city council and Gordon, Solis said.

Solis said it is easy to communicate with Gordon various topics and that it also helps that he is a student.

Gordon’s ideas and initiatives are great because they will reflect positively on the ideals of the community and University, he said.

“I just want to be able to see that the University community is being represented fairly and make the city run as smooth as possible,” Gordon said.