On Tuesday, The University of Texas at Austin’s Student Government met for their weekly assembly meeting. The attendance for this meeting was rather low this week, particularly amongst the executive committee, and the meeting itself was much shorter than normal, but there were some important takeaways worth mentioning.
First, the Students Fighting Climate Change student organization spoke in the beginning during the open forum. They mainly spoke about how the university is not connected to Austin’s climate equity plan and argued that the Austin climate equity plan should act as a framework for future UT Austin climate initiatives in order to follow suit with the city’s plans. Lastly, they spoke about a climate action protest that will be taking place soon.
Next up at the general assembly came the legislation. The legislation that was voted on this week was the following; AB 05: Amending the Code of Rules and Procedures to Remove Assembly Declarations, JR 21-05: A Joint Resolution in Support of Creating Two Certificates in the Math Department, and JR 21-06: In Support of UT Producing Energy from Renewable Resources. AB 05 amended the constitution to take out assembly declarations, which passed unanimously, and JR 21-05 calls for the math department to make two certificates, and the creator of the bill said that the math department was very open to that initiative, but needed broader support to get it done. This resolution also passed unanimously. JR 21-06 called for UT to begin the groundwork to promote sustainability and transition to renewable energy sources, and updates by the resolution’s creator emphasized climate justice for BIPOC students and that the sustainability link will soon be available on the Student Government website. That resolution passed unanimously as well. You can check out last week’s student assembly summary for a more in-depth summary of each amendment/resolution.
Lastly, the assembly meeting was finished with updates from the executive committee. The Advocacy Director stated that they had found a third vendor for the menstrual equity project, while the Communications Director said that there had been lots of engagement recently on social media. The Chief of Staff finalized vendors for the menstrual equity project and promoted the October 13th blood drive with Blood Brigade, and the Vice President reemphasized that Boots for Carreon were sold out and that a Riverside Hub was discussed with President Hartzell. Lastly, rules and regulations announced that AB 10, the referendum that was due to be voted on this week, was deemed unconstitutional by the UT Supreme Court.
