Editor’s Note: Senate Reports are written by Student Government senators unaffiliated with The Retrograde and seek to inform Comets about Student Government’s activities.
Student Government held its third senate body meeting Sept. 23, focusing on upcoming committee-led projects and The Mercury’s strike. Four resolutions passed unanimously in support of the strike, the newly-established student publication The Retrograde and for restructuring UTD’s Student Media bylaws.
Over 30 visitors came to the meeting in support of The Mercury’s strike and urged senators to vote in favor of the four proposed resolutions, all of which passed. S.R. 2024-02 formed an ad-hoc committee to “review and rewrite the Student Media bylaws … in accordance with the best student journalism and media practices.” Inconsistencies within the bylaws concerned many senators and student media members because they were used to oust the former Mercury Editor-In-Chief, Gregorio Olivares Gutierrez. The committee’s creation was sponsored by Rafael Martín, vice president and chief of staff at UTD.
S.R. 2024-03 formed another ad-hoc committee tasked with digitizing The Mercury’s paper archives, which span from its inaugural 1980 publication to the current day. The archives, containing information about campus history and student opinions not preserved anywhere else at UTD, currently cannot be accessed by students or faculty at large. With The Mercury’s members striking and ceasing publication, the newspaper itself cannot digitize the archives. The ad-hoc committee plans to digitize them instead and make the archives available to the public online.
S.R. 2024-04 recognized SG’s support for The Mercury’s strike demands. It resolved the senate sign onto The Mercury’s strike statement and officially affirmed each demand, including for Olivares Gutierrez’s immediate reinstatement as Editor-in-Chief of The Mercury; for the Student Media Operating Board to amend its procedures to allow for remediation; and for The Mercury’s Editor-in-Chief to be a democratically elected position.
S.R. 2024-05 recognizes The Retrograde as the official campus newspaper. It prohibits The Mercury from being recognized as the official newspaper until “the strike demands of the former Mercury staff have been accepted in full.”
Copies of S.R. 2024-04 were sent to the Vice President of Student Affairs, UTD’s Staff Council, UTD’s Academic Senate, the Student Media Operating Board and The Retrograde. S.R. 2024-05 was sent to UTD’s president, his cabinet and the Vice President of Student Affairs.
Other agenda items covered during the meeting included committee updates and a presentation from the new Basic Needs Resource Center, which shared information about services like Temoc’s Closet — an on-campus closet containing free clothing, hygiene and menstrual products — and basic needs support groups. The center is located at SSB 4.300 and is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. through 5 p.m.
The Diversity, Equity and Belonging Committee announced it will be hosting two events for National Coming Out Day in collaboration with campus organizations including PRIDE, XAI, OStem and Wesley. The first event will be held at the Plinth Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the second event will be in the Galaxy Rooms Oct. 16 from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. DEB is also initiating the Shelf Stars competition this month, where the Academic Senate and Student Government will compete to donate the most cooking oil, salt and pepper to the Comet Cupboard. Students can participate by donating to either competing group. The Legislative Affairs committee plans to host Meet Your Candidates Oct. 30 to platform candidates running for state congress.
The senate also swore in six newly-elected freshman senators. Three senate seats reserved for transfer students were up for election, but because of a lack of candidates, none of them were filled. These seats will now be filled through appointment. Transfer students can apply for appointment through the UTD website.