With production assistance from Texas Student Television, student body president and vice president Thor Lund and Wills Brown released their first YouTube video address to UT’s student body Tuesday evening.
In the video they welcomed new and returning students to campus and updated them on initiatives Student Government spent the summer working on, including making the Perry Castañeda Library operate on a “24/5” basis, 24 hours a day, five days a week. Lund said the team is planning a monthly address to help keep SG as transparent as possible. He also said they will post to their Twitter account every time they meet with someone.
Dean of Students Soncia Reagins-Lilly said Lund and Wills had a busy summer and were on task.
Lund said he and Wills spent some of the summer meeting with student leaders to get feedback on their platform. They are now putting out a more interactive platform.
“They have a wide-array of ideas and incredible energy to assist our students and serve our students,” Reagins-Lilly said. “They have a very robust platform that they will display and market and share.”
Brown said SG also worked to provide more late night food options for students on campus. Prufrock’s Coffee Shop at PCL has added salads and wraps to their menu, and Jester City Market will be open until midnight.
“Before then, the only thing that was open after 11 p.m. was Wendy’s,” Brown said. “The beauty about the Jester City Market is it has healthy options. It has salads. It has the wraps. It also has snacks. It has anything you want.”
There are several other initiatives Lund and Brown accomplished this past summer that they did not mention in the video.
Lund said SG is starting a new program called Orange Outreach, which will allow different student organizations to work together on service projwects.
“Students do a lot of cool things by themselves,” Brown said. “But if we all link up and come together and have one huge campus wide service project, we could do something big.”
Brown said UT RecSports added more season sports. Previously, basketball leagues were only offered in the spring and football leagues were only offered in the fall. RecSports will offer both sports during both semesters this year.
Texas Sports and Student Government also worked together to create a student tailgate area east of the stadium by the LBJ fountain. It will be a place for students who are not already a part of a tailgating organization to go before the game.
Student Government has their welcome ceremony and first meeting of the semester Sept. 4 at 7 p.m. at the Spanish Oaks Terrace. Their first meeting in the Student Activity Center’s Legislative Assembly Room is set for Sept. 11 at 7 p.m.
