Student body president Camron Goodman and vice president Amie Jean plan to emphasize their UTxYou platform while continuing the work of previous student body leaders this semester, according to a letter Goodman posted to social media last week.
The Jan. 21 letter covered Student Government leadership’s main goals for this semester, including projects from previous semesters such as the Continuity Committee and SGConnect. Each of these initiatives was created to connect the student body to SG leaders and expand representation for students, finance senior Goodman said in the letter.
The Continuity Committee was originally created to continue work on initiatives from past SG leaders. One of the committee’s goals is to provide free feminine products on campus, an initiative which began during the 2018-19 term but has been adopted by Goodman and finance senior Jean.
“A lot of frustrations students have with SG is they say that SG doesn’t do anything,” Goodman said. “Sometimes, a lot of the initiatives we set forth take longer than a year.”
Jean said the committee is trying to make SG legislation last semesters after the original drafters left office.
“Whether or not the people agree with us next year, they can find different people who are still interested in the subject to work on those (initiatives),” Jean said.
The SGConnect initiative is an online platform for students who have ideas for SG but are not interested in writing legislation. It started in 2018, but SG is currently working on revamping and improving it, Jean said.
In Goodman’s letter, he announced SG will be hosting another UTxYou event on Jan. 30 where students can interact with SG leaders and write what “UT-by-You” means to them.
“We have a campus full of administrators and faculty members that care, but they also have a lot of responsibilities on their own,” Goodman said. “We need to handle (things) ourselves as students.”
Lori Fanoe, a health and society junior, said she wants to attend the UTxYou event.
“UTxYou is definitely a good thing for bringing SG members together with students,” Fanoe said.
Goodman said everyone is encouraged to make their voice heard on campus.
“For so long, SG has been looked at as exclusive,” Goodman said. “We want to change that narrative and be more inclusive because that’s how we are able to truly advocate for every single student from all parts of campus.”
