OPINION: Student Advocacy Requires More Than Giving Administration Suggestions

 

(Logo. Source: Student Government Association at UT-Tyler.)

This week, Student Body President Chloe Dix invited university administrators to speak to student government about the institution’s plans to construct two new campus parking lots. One of them some students feel will disrupt the campus’s naturalistic aesthetic. Of the two lots, there will be one next to Liberty Landing Apartments on Old Omen Road and the other will be next to Ritter Tower to recover an old parking lot that the university previously covered with grass in 2019.   

In its Oct. 10 meeting following the announcement, some senators expressed dissatisfaction with the University’s plans to destroy the green space by Ritter Tower. Student government then decided to request administrators return to justify their intent to replace the green space with a parking lot.

Yet, when administrators appeared this week, student government members said nothing about the green space. No one told officials they opposed its destruction. No one made the case for why the university should explore other options. 

Now the green space’s destruction will proceed without opposition and construction will being February 2024.

So I ask, what was the point of all that? Student government waited nearly four weeks to hear from these administrators. When members had the chance to object face-to-face, they said nothing.

Student members have said they think that they have until the construction breaks ground in February, but I suspect the deadline is sooner.

Overall, I would have liked to have seen members be more assertive in their responsibility to represent students. For now, they are not. Honestly, I do not yet fully understand why. 

It seems to me that student members still do not accept their role as student representatives. Members need to do more than give administrators feedback. They need to champion students’ cause. 

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X: @Jhescock12

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