Patriot Weekly

  ( Photo : ''Court Gavel - Judge's Gavel - Courtroom'' by wp paarz via Flickr ) If there is any lesson students should learn from this spring’s athletics fee referendum it is that their student government cannot protect them against special interest interference and is too weak as an institution to provide adequate student representation To see this, consider the referendum’s biased ballot language, how it compelled students to favor the fee increase. “Nearly 300 student-athletes participate in intercollegiate athletics at UT Tyler on 18 teams. The UT Tyler Patriots compete in the NCAA Division II Lone Star Conference with the lowest student athletic fee in the conference….Do you support the increase of the UT Tyler athletic fee to fund athletics, increase the value of your UT Tyler degree, and provide students with more engagement and support opportunities?" Its language should have been impartial. It illustrates unprecedented ballot access by one ca...

( Photo : ''Court Gavel - Judge's Gavel - Courtroom'' by wp paarz via Flickr ) Student government’s failure this year was to take no formal positions on important student matters. This means that except for the athletics fee referendum, it passed no formal resolutions, no official statements of student opinion about university policy. Nothing about parking, about construction or about the loss of campus green (natural) spaces. What sort of representation then does SGA provide? Little to none, with regard to student issues. Instead, I have seen student government (in this state) become more of a focus group for administration than a mouthpiece for the student body. It offers the group’s feedback and becomes a source to which administrators can go to be able to say to senior officials that they got student input for their projects. Student government’s representation is so weak that it may be that the administration becomes the primary interest group the ass...

  (Source: DS Bigham via Flickr) Here is a copy of my May 21 email to The Student Fee Advisory Committee in which I called for the committee to make Patriot Talon's coverage of essential student issues a condition of its funding.  .... James Hescock <hescockjames01@gmail.com> Tue, May 21, 2024 at 12:53 PM To: Robert Bennett, Chloe Dix, Ronald Carnes III, Soren Peters, Vicky Bond, Adam McGuire, Cynthia Sherman, Ric McGill Leonard Brow Cc: Allison Schwartz <***@patriots.uttyler.edu>, Katherine Romero <***@patriots.uttyler.edu>, Dane Adams ***@patriots.uttyler.edu, Ona Tolliver, Katrina Smith Bcc: Soren Peters < ***@patriots.uttyler.edu > , Ronald Carnes III <***@patriots.uttyler.edu> Dear Student Fee Advisory Committee Members:   Greetings. I am a UT-Tyler alumnus and publisher of an independent weekly newsletter for students called Patriot Weekly . I am not affiliated with the University.   I am writing to share with you the e...

  ("Money - Savings" by 401(K) - 2012 via Flickr)   The UT-Tyler student body saw many events this year that pertained to students' collective interest. One instance was the athletics fee referendum, which proposed a $90 increase to students’ athletics fee. Prior to this, the administration also lobbied student government to win placement of the fee proposal on  the spring ballot. However, the student fee-funded student newspaper, Patriot Talon , provided students with no news coverage of these events. The athletics fee referendum aside, student government also held an election for student body president this spring, a significant position to the student body's political representation at the university. Again, Patriot Talon provided students with no coverage. Of the important issues to UT-Tyler students this year, whether fee increases or student body president elections or even parking woes, Talon Student Media was M.I.A.. Therefore, The Student Fee Advi...