Below is a copy of my letter to The University of Texas Board of Regents which I provided as comments to today's Board meeting. In my letter, I ask the Board to take three actions:
1) Hold administrators accountable for disclosing conflicts of interests when discussing student interests
2) Tie the student newspaper’s fee appropriation to coverage of essential student issues, and
3) Start measuring intercollegiate athletics program’s impact on new student applications and enrollment.
I explain more in my letter below.
Take a look.
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Office of the Board of Regents
The University of Texas System
210 West 7th Street
Austin, TX 78701
August 21, 2024
Re: UT-Tyler’s Annual Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2025
Dear Board of Regents:
Greetings. I publish an independent newsletter for UT-Tyler students called Patriot Weekly. I am not affiliated with the University.
This spring, UT-Tyler administrators proposed, and student government supported, an increase to the mandatory intercollegiate athletics fee, a fee which all students pay. While the fee ultimately passed (albeit by a narrow margin), I believe this experience illustrated shortcomings in structure, process and ethics at UT-Tyler which I write to ask you to correct.
In the big picture, I believe any failure of the student constituency to act in its own interest is its own fault. However, inhibiting the constituency’s ability to stand up and speak for itself within internal university governance are structural problems that make it difficult for a transient student population to overcome. Simultaneously, I also believe that the Board relies upon student feedback to inform its strategy for how to fulfill the university’s mission.
Therefore, I write to ask the governing board to support a structure that makes for healthy student representation at UT-Tyler and take the following three actions:
1) Hold administrators accountable for disclosing conflicts of interests when discussing student interests
2) Tie the student newspaper’s fee appropriation to coverage of essential student issues, and
3) Start measuring intercollegiate athletics program’s impact on new student applications and enrollment.
I believe if the Board makes these necessary changes the situation will improve and the Board will remain in touch with a broader student population often underrepresented in campus decision-making.
Therefore, I present the following three situations and solutions for your consideration.
1) Please hold administrators accountable for conflict of interest disclosures.
Administrators’ failure to disclose conflicts of interest when they advised the student body this spring about the supposed merits of an athletics fee proposal left some students unable to openly oppose the proposition for fear of being disrespectful towards administrators. This incapacitated students’ ability to speak freely about an issue of collective concern.
Students’ free discussion depended upon administrators’ voluntary disclosure of conflicts of interest and namely, that these trusted administrators, who were traditionally honored as good-faith advisors to the student body, now related to the student body in a different capacity; specifically, now as agents of their employer, no longer as neutral party advisors for students’ best interests.
Students should have known about the change in the nature of relationship in the context of this discussion between administrators and students. However, all did not necessarily know this due to administrators’ failure to voluntarily disclose this new development.
I ask that you remind campus leaders of the necessity of disclosing conflicts of interest when discussing internal governance issues with students to make observers aware of competing constituencies and interests. Students do not necessarily know that there are competing interests within the campus community. The responsibility to disclose this lies with administrators who do know this.
Regarding the athletics referendum, I ask that you hold administrators accountable for disclosing conflicts of interest by returning the athletics fee referendum to the student body for another student-wide vote. This time, it should have administrators’ full disclosure.
Please hold administrators responsible for conflicts of interest disclosures to ensure full and proper student participation in campus decision-making.
2) Please tie the student newspaper’s appropriation to coverage of essential student news.
Every student body needs a voice that will inform it on issues important to its self-determination. This actor should be the student newspaper. However, Patriot Talon (UT-Tyler’s fee-funded student newspaper) was missing in action last year as it failed to report on both the student body president election and the referendum to raise the athletics fee.
UT-Tyler's student media organization Talon Student Media receives over $90,000 of Student Services Fee money in the University’s proposed FY25 annual operational budget before the Board today. I write to request that the Board help reinforce healthy self-governing structure within the student community by requiring Talon Student Media receive its appropriation on the condition that it report on essential student issues in the coming 2024-2025 academic year. This includes student government’s regular activity, but most importantly, all student elections.
If the organization rejects this responsibility, then please know that it will have access to up to $500 per semester of student funding through The Student Government Appropriations Committee (SGAC) as a registered student organization, just as any other industry-focused registered student group.
However, if the association wishes to retain student funding, then please require the appropriation come with the responsibility to cover essential student issues.
Please reinforce the importance of students having a voice that informs it of news about essential matters for it self-government and require Talon Student Media to cover these issues as a condition of its appropriation.
3) Please start measuring the intercollegiate athletics program’s impact on university brand awareness and new student applications.
During the spring athletics fee referendum, UT-Tyler’s athletics director told student government Feb. 6 that an athletics program drives both new student applications and new student enrollment through a phenomenon he described as “The Flutie Effect.” However, upon receipt of two public information act request responses which I received from the University, I discovered that the University does not currently measure this phenomenon. (Reference # R000216-030824 and Reference # R000207-022824) In other words, the institution does not measure how applicants discover UT-Tyler (brand awareness) and why these choose to enroll (conversion rate).
UT-Tyler currently spends nearly $7 million for its intercollegiate athletics program if one includes scholarships. Given the scarcity of resources for education, it is essential that these expenditures have empirical justification.
In full disclosure, I can no longer support a strategy that includes intercollegiate athletics to propel a university to success after my research into the strategy’s claimed merits and of UT-Tyler’s program. I have said so openly in my publication.
While I understand the Board may not be willing to agree with such a position today, I ask it begin measuring this strategy’s claimed impact on brand awareness and new student enrollment. Such expenses deserve empirical justification.
Conclusion
Since the Board relies upon student feedback to inform its decision-making for institutional success and since structural problems exist at the local level which make it too difficult for a transient student community to overcome without support, I ask for the Board to take the following three actions to support healthy structure at UT-Tyler: 1) hold administrators accountable for conflict of interest disclosures, 2) tie student newspaper funding to coverage of essential student news and 3) start measuring intercollegiate athletics’ impact on brand awareness and new student enrollment.
Should the Board take these steps, I believe it will restore a healthy representative structure for the student constituency at UT-Tyler and secure important student feedback for its decision-making.
Thank you for considering my requests.
Sincerely,
James Hescock
Publisher, Patriot Weekly
Feature Image: (Photo by James Hescock)
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