Correction: Business Administration Elizabeth Stewart's name and major were previously misreported. The text below also reflects this correction. The Mercury regrets this error.
Update: About a week after the Nov. 3 SG meeting, Lichtenheld said her committee decided to reschedule their Breast Cancer Awareness Day programming, slated for Nov. 19, to Jan. 13. The event's proximity to Thanksgiving and final exams led to concerns that student turnout would be low, she said.
Pink bras, online voting and a new campus building project, featuring a monolithic glass sail, took precedence during the Nov. 3 Student Government (SG) meeting.
Rick Dempsey, associate vice president for business affairs, briefed the senate on plans for the new campus bookstore and services facility. The bookstore, slated to break ground next semester, will be located along the recently developed circle drive, adjacent to the Activity Center.
The UT System Board of Regents will consider the bookstore proposal in mid-November, Dempsey said.
Dempsey said the building will also house the Copy Center, a visitor's center, a coffee shop, a multipurpose area and a space where students can congregate before and after events scheduled in the Activity Center. The multipurpose area will provide additional room for extracurricular activities which currently keep the Activity Center booked.
Elizabeth Stewart, business administration senior, said she was particularly impressed by the new multipurpose room because demand for space in the Activity Center is so high.
"Our (current) multipurpose room is booked every hour of every day until about midnight, so a new multipurpose room is extremely useful," Stewart said.
The proposal includes a 50-foot, sail-shaped glass structure, which will be illuminated at night to provide a UTD landmark for evening travelers along Campbell Road. The building will also feature a border across the top with UTD orange and green tiles positioned in a pixilated pattern, Dempsey said.
The project will cost about $9.2 million dollars and is planned for completion in April 2011, according to UTD President David Daniel.
Academic Affairs Committee Chair Emily Lichtenheld, international political economics sophomore, gave a Breast Cancer Awareness Day update. Lichtenheld rescheduled the event after complications with fund allocations caused a delay. The event was moved from its original Nov. 5 date to Nov. 19.
Senators discussed the event's apparel choice. For the past two years, SG has provided pink bras for students to wear on top of their clothing. Some senators expressed concern that the money budgeted towards the bras could be spent more effectively on t-shirts.
"We buy the bras, we hand out the bras to certain people that disseminate information about the event, about breast cancer, about spreading awareness and then at the end of the event we try to get those people to donate those bras back to a local women's shelter," said Residential Student Affairs Committee Chair Bryan Thompson, neuroscience sophomore. "But with t-shirts, these students can keep for as long as they fit the shirt. So, I would be much more in favor of spending our money to give back directly to students."
Physics junior Mac Hird argued that the tradition centers around the bras and is worth the extra cost.
A t-shirt with a bra incorporated into the design was suggested as a compromise. Ultimately, the decision to budget funds in favor of t-shirts or bras lies within the ad-hoc Breast Cancer Awareness Committee, Lichtenheld said.
Lichtenheld said petitions and surveys for an expanded language program on campus, a topic discussed in detail by Arts & Humanities Dean Dennis Kratz during the Oct. 19 Arts & Humanities Town Hall meeting, are still in progress. Students can expect to see petitions either before Thanksgiving or in early January.
SG Vice President Remsen Jennings, accounting and information management junior, proposed online voting for SG elections in 2010 and received no objections.
Remsen said this year's homecoming court votes, which were submitted online via the homecoming Web site, received twice as many votes than last year's homecoming paper ballot elections. No senators objected to Jennings proposal.
Technology Committee Chair Yash Gogte, electrical engineering senior, said he's received complaints from students about UTD's mass e-mail system. Currently, the e-mails do not include an unsubscribe link, a feature commonly integrated with mass e-mails. Gogte agreed that an unsubscribe link should be available and also suggested that the mass e-mail system be an opt-in program instead of opt-out, allowing students to choose whether they wish to receive the e-mails.
Other SG meeting business included the following:
- SG appointed two new senators: Ashley Wilson, constitutional law graduate student and Asmita Chavan, information technology and management graduate student.
- In the previous version of the SG bylaws, the SG president was identified as the sole community liaison, with no means to resolve scheduling conflicts. SG changed their bylaws to grant the SG president the ability to appoint a representative with approval from the senate.
- Proposed changes to the Standing Rules were tabled to allow senators to review the changes and for possible clarifications or a redraft of the document to take place.
- Up to $350 was allocated towards a whirlyball mixer between senators and the spirit and sports teams. The two hour event is scheduled for Nov. 18.
- Up to $200 was allocated towards graduate fliers.
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