Student governments from Southeastern Conference universities exchanged ideas and goals on July 18 and 19 at the annual SEC Exchange. 

UT SG hosted the event for the first time since joining the SEC last year. Student government president Hudson Thomas said the intention behind the event was to get feedback from other student governments on how to improve initiatives and their respective community impacts. The biggest conversations from the event were about collaboration, entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence, food insecurity and mental health, he said.

“Food insecurity and mental health is something that practically all of us felt we could substantially make progress on an SEC-wide front,” Plan II senior Thomas said. “As far as entrepreneurship and AI, that’s something else that me and many student body presidents talked about. How can we really work together to ensure that our student governments are maximizing students’ career opportunities post-grad?”

Avery Dunlap, president of the Student Government Association at the University of Oklahoma, said coming to Austin was a blast. Despite the century-long rivalry between UT and OU, she said there is a connection between both schools.

Each university’s student body president paired up with their rival to discuss their shared experiences and how they can work together, Dunlap said. Before the Red River Rivalry last year, OU and UT collaborated in the Red River Food Fight, during which both schools’ food pantries competed for the most donations. In her discussion with Thomas, Dunlap said they both thought of ways to promote and collaborate on food drives that support their respective food pantries.

“The reason we all ran for these positions is because we deeply value our experiences as students, and we work toward bettering that experience for others,” Dunlap said. “We all have that deep down, same passion for what we do.”

Susan Buckenmeyer, assistant dean of students, said the conference sessions were divided between the William C. Powers Student Activity Center and the Texas Union Building. Visiting students toured the Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium and the Frank Denius Family University of Texas Athletics Hall of Fame. They later visited Barton Springs at the end of the conference, she said.

Going into the school year, Thomas said the executive alliance would like to increase collaboration between SEC student governments.

“We only do have one year, so we want to maximize it and make sure each and every person feels a sense of accomplishment by the end,” Thomas said. “We are really fired up and ready to go.”