Student Government proposed support for establishing a center for nontraditional students at its meeting Tuesday. 

The resolution supports the creation of an on-campus center to help nontraditional students adjust to life at the University. The UT Senate of College Councils passed a resolution in 2014 that created Transfer-Year Interest Groups, and the center would act as a next step, said resolution author Matthew Kenny. 

Kenny, chemistry and public health sophomore, said the definition of a nontraditional student includes students with children, older students and transfer students. 

“That resolution was very fruitful,” SG financial director Kenny said. “It created a better transfer experience. (Nontraditional students such as) transfer students are often thrown into UT and basically told, ‘Figure it out.’”

Kenny said the resolution aims to create a larger space for nontraditional students in a central area of campus. Transfer students can currently gather at the the Transfer Experience Center, which is located at the Student Organization Center on University Avenue.

“We’re hoping in the future for the center to be a place used like the (William C. Powers, Jr.) Student Activity Center or The Texas Union,” Kenny said. “We hope to create a place where students can have that common background and a place to study that is their own that coincides with their identity as being a transfer student.”

Transfer student representative Colby Jaeger said a center like this would have benefitted her transition into the University. 

“I’m a transfer student, and I can personally attest that I don’t even know where the center we have now is,” government junior Jaeger said. “No one at my orientation was helpful, so having a center where people could give me information we didn’t get would help.” 

Student body president Camron Goodman said laying a foundation for this center is part of this administration’s seven platform points.

Finance senior Goodman said administrators have told him the University is currently reallocating spaces and renovating, so the center would be possible. He said they plan to model the center’s structure after the Multicultural Engagement Center in the WCP. 

“This is something administrators have told us specifically that they want to see student support behind,” Goodman said. “We’re pretty excited about the progress we’re making, and being a transfer student myself, it’s really good to see this concept come to fruition. It’s been very satisfying. We’re helping a community that’s often overlooked.”