Student Government held its second meeting of the semester Feb. 3, focusing on upcoming events and a push for cost transparency during course registration.
The meeting began with swearing in five new senators appointed to fill the seats left vacant at the end of fall semester. In total, SG approved six allocations and one resolution.
SG’s only resolution, “In Support of Implementing Low-Cost Markers on the University Course Schedule Planner,” encourages UTD administration to add markers into the course registration system so that students can have an estimate of how much their classes’ required materials will cost. SG recommended the university begin with a marker for classes whose material cost is less than $50 and pointed to UT Tyler as a good example to base the new system on. Senators discussed potentially adding more markers in the future and even a filtering system to only see classes above or below specific costs.
S.A. 2026-22 set aside $937.76 for the Richardson Town Hall, which will be held at the SSA Auditorium Feb. 18 from 6 to 8 p.m. Over half the allocation, $500, is dedicated to security for the event. An additional $300 will be spent to provide live captioning for the event. This is the first time UTD is hosting a mayoral town hall.
S.A.2026-16 is an allocation that set aside $317.29 for the Health Insurance Awareness Event for international students held Feb. 10 in collaboration with the UTD Health Center. S.A. 2026-18 is an allocation that sets aside $107.80 for a subscription to Overleaf, an online markup language used to draft technical reports, for one year under the student plan. Vice President David Baker said the subscription would be used to finish finalizing this academic year’s UTD budget breakdown and to give next year’s Student Government the tools to continue this project into the future.
S.A. 2026-21 set aside $405.43 to purchase supplies for SG’s tabling events through the end of the semester. Two allocations were passed to provide supplies and snacks for SG’s Feb. 11 Love the Earth event. S.A. 2026-19 set aside $130.21 to purchase a $7 spinning prize wheel and 120 individual pies, although SG ended up only purchasing 96 pies. S.A 2026-20 set aside $39.57 to purchase butcher paper and stamps for the event.
“More pies were not bought due to their lack of availability at Walmart,” SG president Giana Abraham said. “I believe that number did us well this year and that we can adjust next year considering the surprising turn out of the entire event.”
All allocations and the resolution were passed by a supermajority of the senators. The meeting was concluded after 45 minutes.
SG meetings are open to the public. The next senate meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 17 in the Student Union Galaxy Rooms.