The Campus Conservative

(Student Athlete Justin Bartie in September 2018. Source: X account @BQS108. ) In Oct. 2017, student athlete Justin Bartie was walking home from campus when a southbound motorist struck him along Old Omen Road. The accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. After this incident, then-University of Texas at Tyler President Michael Tidwell issued a campus-wide statement writing , “We see a clear need for immediate improvements for pedestrian safety. We will start construction on these improvements to make UT Tyler a more pedestrian-friendly campus in the coming weeks.” At the time, Tidwell spoke of a new “master facilities plan” with the focus of making UT Tyler “a truly pedestrian-friendly campus.” Tidwell exited the University in 2020 and his successor, Dr. Kirk Calhoun of UT Health Science Center took over.  Since then, the pedestrian crosswalk on Old Omen Rd has been updated to an overhead light signal and moved further away from the University entrance to a new location fur...

  (Source: "Dayton 06-20 19 38 - Dayton Police Department Police Car" by David Ellis, via Flickr) Here are the recent crime reports for UT-Tyler's main campus according to UTTPD's Daily Crime Log. For more information, visit UTTPD's Daily Crime Log  webpage . Criminal Mischief - Police received a report of criminal mischief that occurred in The Liberty Landing Apartments parking lot on Oct. 27 at 1:34 a.m. This case is open.  Minor in Possession of Alcohol, Minor in Possession of Tobacco / Tobacco Products - Police encountered an incident of a minor in possession of alcohol and tobacco or tobacco products near Patriot Drive/Varsity Drive to Patriot Drive/University Drive(sic). Authorities issued a written warning an closed the case.  Harassment - Police responded to a report of harassment Liberty Landing Apartments on Oct. 26 at 4 p.m. The incident allegedly occurred on Oct. 25 at 6 p.m. Police issued a criminal trespass warning and closed the case. Possession...

    (Source: via Flickr) Here is a recap of The Student Government Association at UT-Tyler's Oct. 17 meeting.  Summary This week, student government heard from your humble correspondent (this author), Career Services and elected new senators to the senate. Also, it approved a survey for a snack machine for energy bars in the gym. That's about it! No student voice reports this week.  Open Forum:  This author spoke at student government's open forum segment to exhort it to take up its role of advocacy for student concerns. I told the assembly that opinion leadership is the best and most important form of leadership the body can take. You can read a full review of my speech here.  Speaker's Podium: Director of Career Success Leah Velarde, M.S., BCC Ms. Velarde gave an overview of The Career Success Office. She said the office has career success coaches who want to help students with their career success. Velarde said the team can help with resume reviews, how...

(Source: DS Bigham via Flickr) This week, I exhorted The Student Government Association (SGA) at UT-Tyler to embrace its responsibility to lead in the form of opinion leadership on matters of university policy. I spoke during its Open Forum portion of its meeting.  "Opinion leadership is the most important form of leadership that this assembly can have," I told the audience. "In other words when it comes to things like parking, or when it comes to things like the cafeteria menu...these areas exist for you as student government to step in and have a formal opinion on behalf of the student body to make recommendations to the university leadership...That is why you guys exist, and that is your opportunity to serve and to be effective as advocate for the student constituency," I said. Afterwards, I followed-up my five minute speech with an email to the group the following day. In it, I reminded them that by individual senators championing student causes to the assembly ...

  (Source: "Dayton 06-20 19 38 - Dayton Police Department Police Car" by David Ellis, via Flickr) Here are the recent crime reports for UT-Tyler's main campus according to UTTPD's Daily Crime Log. For more information, visit UTTPD's Daily Crime Log  webpage . Possession of Drug Paraphernalia - Police encountered an incident of possession of drug paraphernalia on Old Omen Road on Oct. 17 at 12:16 a.m. Police issued a written warning and closed the case. Previously reported crime in October: Minor in Possession of Alcohol, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia - Police responded to an incident of a minor in possession of alcohol and drug paraphernalia that occurred at Patriot Village Apartments on Oct. 12 at 11:02 p.m. This case is closed with a referral to Judicial Affairs.  Harassment - Police received a report of an incident of harassment that occurred at Liberty Landing Apartments at Liberty Landing Apartments on Oct. 12 at 6:42  p.m. This case is closed....

("Snow crash" by Adrian Sampson via Flickr ) A power outage followed by generator failure led to a campus-wide internet outage in September, Vice President of Information Technology Isai Ramirez told student government Tuesday.  "It wasn't anything that was done accidentally or anything. It was just an event that unfortunately was so great that even the generators that had been tested the prior weekend and worked did not work," he told the assembly.  Ramirez explained that UT-Tyler has been integrating internet networks between the main campus (UT-Tyler) and the north campus (UT Health Science Center) and that internet service for both campuses comes through a data center the University houses on the north campus.  When a power outtage struck the north campus on Sept. 21, Ramirez said the back-up generators on the north campus also failed and IT was unable to cool its data center. This led to the sustained internet outage. "I wanted to make sure we were cle...

  (Source: via Flickr) Here is a recap of The Student Government Association at UT-Tyler's Oct. 10 meeting.  Summary This week's recap includes an update about information technology on-campus and a lengthy discussion on the university's efforts to create new parking. Check it out in the recap below. Speaker’s Podium: Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Technology Officer Isai Ramirez.  Ramirez discussed four subjects with student government with respect to the University’s Information Technology (I.T.) department: password renewals, September’s internet outages, a future IT annual student survey and request for feedback to an IT-related committee.  Password renewal expiration policy. Ramirez said removing UT-Tyler’s passwords expiration was “probably a good idea.” He said expiring passwords and having to renew them probably did not increase the university’s security position. However, he exhorted students to still beware of phishing scams and to ut...

 (Residential students in student government raising their hands for a poll. Source: YouTube.) On Tuesday, student government took up a lengthy discussion about student parking. Throughout, members repeatedly voiced support for a new parking garage rather than new parking lots, citing a priority on reducing new parking lots' impact on the campus aesthetic, namely, its green space. Members also did so in the face of opposition to a parking garage solution, namely, that garages’ price tag may delay their arrival or be outright cost prohibitive.  In other words, members seemed in no big hurry to deal with a parking shortage currently crunching students. Rather, their higher priority lie in preserving their appreciation of campus green space instead.  As I posted on X last week , most student government members live on-campus. When I went to campus last week, I interviewed students for an upcoming blog post about their reactions to campus parking. I noticed most residential s...

  (Source: "Dayton 06-20 19 38 - Dayton Police Department Police Car" by David Ellis, via Flickr) Here are the recent crime reports for UT-Tyler's main campus according to UTTPD's Daily Crime Log. For more information, visit UTTPD's Daily Crime Log  webpage . Minor in Possession of Alcohol, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia - Police responded to an incident of a minor in possession of alcohol and drug paraphernalia that occurred at Patriot Village Apartments on Oct. 12 at 11:02 p.m. This case is closed with a referral to Judicial Affairs.  Harassment - Police received a report of an incident of harassment that occurred at Liberty Landing Apartments at Liberty Landing Apartments on Oct. 12 at 6:42  p.m. This case is closed.  Disturbance, Drug/Narcotics Offense - Police responded to an incident of disturbance, drug / narcotics offense in The Foundry Parking Lot on Oct. 12 at 11:55 a.m. Authorities issued a criminal trespass warning and closed the case.  Pre...

  The Foundry Apartments will rename to overcome poor brand image from prior ownership, according to an unconfirmed report from Executive Director of Housing Dr. Joe Berthiaume. "I can't go into any details yet, but there will be an announcement sometime probably between now and Christmas most likely: The Foundry will have a new name to help overcome that [negative] reputation [it gained under previous ownership]," he told student government Tuesday. The Foundry has not yet responded to a request for comment.  The Foundry Apartments, a privately-owned apartment complex across the street from The University of Texas at Tyler, previously garnered a negative reputation after multiple on-site shootings in 2020 and reports of poor conditions. However, new owners have made dedicated attempts to raise standards at The Foundry and overcome the complex's poor image, Berthiaume said. "When we first looked at The Foundry, our initial reaction was, 'No way. We'r...

(Patriot Village Student Apartments Entrance Sign. Source: James Hescock) The following is an excerpt from this week's Student Government Recap .  Senators asked many questions in a roughly 1-hour long Q&A session that was mostly about student housing. Housing authorities Dean of Student Andee Pettee, Executive Director of University Communities Dr. Joe Berthiaume and Assistant Director of Housing & Residence Life Samatha Thorton answered questions on Oct. 2 in student government's weekly meeting.  Here is a list of questions members asked. Readers can scroll down to find the answers below.  Questions: How long will the Foundry contract last? Did Foundry students have off-campus parking passes? Would that continue if you renew the contract? Athletics teams had issues reserving rooms for teams. How will university change this for the next year? How do students reserve spaces in UC? How long will Foundry contract last? Can College of Pharmacy graduate students ...

(Source: via Flickr) Here is a recap of The Student Government Association at UT-Tyler's Oct. 3 meeting.  Summary This week's recap includes an hour-long Q&A with university authorities about student housing, some updates about The Foundry's future, a summary of housing complaints from student representatives and announcements that applications are open for UT System Student Regent and Texas Higher Education Board Representative. Check it out in the following recap. Speaker’s Podium – Andrew Pettee, Dean of Students; Dr. Joe Berthiaume, Executive Director of University Communities; Samantha Thorton, Assistant Director of Housing & Residence Life. Dean Pettee’s Portion: Pettee began by saying he wanted to celebrate recent student-focused enhancements. Dr. Berthiaume led renovation of University Center spaces. Remodeled spaces with tech for meetings for student organizations to reserve. The rooms are 3104 and 3422. See coordinator Church Brown with questions. Dean of...