Highlights From Sept. 19 Student Government Meeting


(Source: Student Government Association at UT-Tyler Facebook)

The Student Government Association (SGA) at UT-Tyler met Wednesday for its weekly meeting. Here are highlights from this meeting.

BIKE SHARE UPDATE

The bike sharing vendor VeoRide has logged over 1,400 rides to date since its launch on Aug. 27, according to Chris Thompsen who oversees the program.

He said the service has over 400 registered users and that VeroRide's regional director said UT-Tyler is "outperforming expectations" compared to other city locations.

Thompsen shared a heat map of bike routes from users' activity. Many travel to a nearby shopping center on Hwy 110 where SuperOne Foods store is. However, the exact store or location they visit in that shopping center is uncertain.

VeoRide is currently working with the City of Tyler to implement its service city-wide, Thompsen said, and will add over 20 new bikes to its UT-Tyler fleet in the near future.

Since its launch, VeoRide has received 25 complaints, whether about bike placement on-campus or otherwise.

SGA FALL ELECTIONS

Three hundred and thirty-nine students participated in SGA Fall Elections last week, with 109 students voting in-person at Midnight Breakfast. It is reportedly one of the highest voter turnouts for a fall elections, according to SGA Vice President Katie Hicken.

SGA swore-in new senators tonight.

SIDEWALK LOBBYING

Student Body President Savannah Seely created a new ad hoc committee for student government to lobby the City of Tyler for the construction of new sidewalks in nearby neighborhoods. (The Campus Conservative Blog broke this story here.)

Seely appointed Sen. Macy Ann Williams as committee chair.

FINE ARTS GETS BIKE RACK

SGA approved $2,200 of its $4,000 senator project budget for Sen. Williams' project to construct a new bike rack outside the Fine Arts Building.

NO FOLLOW-UP

Senators from the Soule's College of Business, the Student Body at Large senator and [the College of Nursing? I couldn't hear] were supposed to provide a follow-up report of the issues facing their constituents they reported last week.

They did not follow-up, they said.

Soules College of Business Blake Hendricks said by Twitter that last week's information did not warrant a follow-up.

Twitter: @jhescock

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