Patriot Weekly

( Photo : ''Court Gavel - Judge's Gavel - Courtroom'' by wp paarz via Flickr ) In my review of the athletics referendum, I have discovered the following insights: 1] that the senior administrative staff crowded out students’ full participation in the fee debate due to their failure to declare why it would be okay for students to oppose them in this situation (to declare their conflicts of interest), 2] that the ballot language to propose the question to students about a fee increase was highly partial towards the athletics program and 3] that student government structure failed to provide the proper protections for students against administration’s interests since an administrator rather than a student is finally responsible for overseeing student elections. In other words, the administration tacitly dominated this fee referendum and left students in an untenable and indefensible position. In my view, there is no way one can expect students to effec...

  ( Photo : ''Court Gavel - Judge's Gavel - Courtroom'' by wp paarz via Flickr ) When I was a student in 2015, student government had a very different constitution. For instance, under the previous constitution, students had to first approve new amendments by a student-wide vote. Another difference was that the constitution also assigned final responsibility for student elections to the Parliamentarian, a student-elected representative and member of the student constituency. It was a good constitution in that it decentralized power and protected students from special interests. A serious protection against this was that it also placed final responsibility for student elections upon the Parliamentarian, a student constituency member.  However in 2021, student government adopted a new constitution which brought with it innovations for how the association should function. One of them was that the SGA advisor, rather than the Parliamentarian, would be responsible for s...

  ( Photo : ''Court Gavel - Judge's Gavel - Courtroom'' by wp paarz via Flickr ) UT-Tyler administrators failed to declare an important conflict of interest during the fee debate, namely, that they were no longer working for students' best interests first, but for their employer's. This failure to declare this relationship change effectively deprived students of their ability to speak freely and therefore fully participate in the debate because they were ultimately afraid to disrespect authorities. Without a clear understanding of students' relationship to administrators in the fee debate, students could not reasonably feel comfortable enough to speak freely, even critically, about the proposal. This deprived students of their ability to exercise their rights to self-determination.  Therefore, UT-Tyler should not benefit from students' wrongful disenfranchisement and it should reject the athletics fee referendum results. This is the argument I sent ...

("Money - Savings" by 401(K) - 2012 via Flickr) Since the recent athletics fee increase referendum passed on March 22, I have been trying to process the results.  For readers who do not know, this spring, the UT-Tyler athletics program proposed a roughly $90 per semester increase to mandatory Intercollegiate Athletics Fee. The proposal called for an incremental increase by $30 per semester over the next three years, until fee ultimately reached the $90 proposed increase in 2026. So in the end, the increase would raise students’ maximum semester payment from $270 to $330 by 2026. (It would also increase the semester minimum from $96 now to $132.) This was the proposal and students voted on it from March 20 to March 22. However, my issue lately is not with the increase itself, but rather with how the referendum supposedly passed.  According to The Student Engagement Office, students passed the referendum (meaning, they approved the fee increase) by 50.34% to 46.96%. The refere...

  (Logo. Source: Student Government Association at UT-Tyler.) UT-Tyler students approved a proposal to increase the mandatory Intercollegiate Athletics Fee last week 53.04% to 46.96%, with a voter turnout of 937 voters. The referendum saw the second largest turnout for a student election in nearly a decade, coming just shy of fall 2021’s student election   of 1,106, which was  over a previous athletics fee increase proposal. Neither Vice President for Athletics Howard Patterson nor Student Body President Chloe Dix responded to requests for comment by the time of this article’s publication. Dix’s association, student government, facilitated the election. According to the proposal, students’ maximum semester payment for the Intercollegiate Athletics Fee will now increase by $90 and install in roughly $30 increments over the next three years. Minimum semester payments will also go up, from $96 now to $132 in fall 2026. The athletics department ran in favor of a fee inc...

  ( Photo courtesy of Allison Schwartz )  Student voters elected Alison Schwartz to student body president in last week’s student government officer election. Students chose Schwartz over opponent Robert Carnes III 69.01 % to 28.38% with 881 turnout, the largest turnout for an SGA officer election since spring 2019. Schwartz also received the most votes for a student body president on SGA’s digital record, surpassing Landry Smith’s 555 votes in spring 2022. Schwartz told Patriot Weekly Tuesday, “I am very grateful for the opportunity to lead Student Government next year. I look forward to working closely with the new [University] president as well as many faculty members. I hope to focus on making some great changes in the coming year." Carnes declined to comment. Schwartz ran on a platform to facilitate a strong relationship between Greek Life and Athletics, to "create a strong connection between faculty and students" and to "facilitate more events for stu...

  (Source: "Dayton 06-20 19 38 - Dayton Police Department Police Car" by David Ellis, via Flickr) Recent crime reports for UT-Tyler's main campus according to UTTPD's Daily Crime Log. ·   Burglary of a Vehicle, 3/24/24 between 12:15 a.m. and 12:35 p.m., Victory Village Parking Lot, Closed ·   Burglary of a Vehicle, between 3/23/24 8 p.m. and 3/25/24 8:50 a.m., Victory Village Parking Lot, Closed ·   Burglary of a Vehicle, between 3/23/24 8 p.m. and 3/25/24 3:40 p.m., The Foundry Parking Lot, Closed ·   Sexual Assault, 3/23/24, The Foundry Apartments, Open ·   Burglary of a Vehicle, between 3/23/24 12:30 a.m. and 3/24/24 11:30 a.m., Victory Village Parking Lot, Closed ·   Criminal Mischief, 3/22/24, University Pines Apartments, Closed ·   Dating Violence, Harassment, between 3/20/24 and 3/21/24, Liberty Landing Apartments, Criminal Trespass Warning, Title IX Referral ·   Minor in Possession of Tobacco / Tobacco Products, 3/19/2...