The Campus Conservative

Next week, the students at The University of Texas at Tyler (UT-Tyler) will participate in a week-long election to decide the fate of two proposals to increase their student fees. One is an increase to the athletics fee from $16 per semester credit hour (SCH) to $20 dollars SCH with a $300 dollar max. The other is to the recreational facility fee, from $40 to $70 dollars per semester.  While athletic supporters present these fee increases to students as necessary hikes to meet the demands of UT-Tyler’s competition in NCAA Division II (a new division for the school within recent years), it appears the deeper reason the university needs a fee increase is because of failure within the administration.  According to UT-Tyler Athletics Director Howard Patterson, who spoke at a campus-wide town hall about the fees on Oct. 19, former UT-Tyler President Michael Tidwell decided to transition to DII without the full funding in place.  Patterson told a questioner at the town hall tha...

Hi guys! Here’s what you need to know about the upcoming fee vote next week.  The Student Government Association (SGA) at UT-Tyler will hold a special election starting on Nov. 1 over requests for fee hikes to two student fees, its website reports. The election will begin Monday, Nov. 1 at midnight (12 a.m.) and end Friday, Nov. 5 at noon (12 p.m.). All registered students will be able to participate in the election via their Patriot Email.  The Two Proposals The two fees with proposed increases are The Intercollegiate Athletics Fee and The Recreational Facility Fee.  The proposal for The Intercollegiate Athletics fee is to raise the maximum chargeable amount per student from $240 dollars per semester to $300 dollars per semester and the semester credit hour (SCH) rate from $16/SCH to $20/SCH. If approved, the fee increase will take effect in Spring 2022 at $18/SCH with a $270 dollar max and then in full in Fall 2022 at $20/SCH with $300 max.  The proposal for The ...

  Years ago, when I wanted to know how the university worked, I went looking through all of the budgets for the student fees UT-Tyler charges its students. I was curious of where the money was going and of whether it was going to where it was supposed to. I wondered if anybody else even looked at these things.  In my search, I discovered that the university funds a portion of its athletics program with money from another student fee, namely The Student Services Fee.   According to the university’s FY21 operating budget, UT-Tyler planned to spend $154,912 dollars of Student Services Fee money to fund “Athletics” ” as well as $69,575 for “Athletics Marketing”. Here is the layout of the Student Services Fee FY21 budget:   This surprised me because the athletics program already has a separate, mandatory fee called The Intercollegiate Athletics Fee. This fee charges students for athletics program expenses (at least, one would think so). So what is going on with the ...

When I was 27 years old, I decided to go back to college. I grew up in the Duval County school system in Jacksonville, Florida and was not that great of a student. However, I had some intelligence and learned some things since my high school days that made me think I could be better at schoolwork if I tried. So, I went back to school to earn a degree and win a job in a higher-paying field than the one I was in at the time. So I threw all my chips in, quit my job (!!) and went back to school.  However, when I began, I discovered a lot of things about myself that were keeping me from success. I didn’t enjoy college for a little bit. So with the start of a new semester, here are four lessons from my college career that helped me really enjoy my time in college.  First, know your focus for being in college.  When I returned to school, I knew my focus. I was there for grades. I wasn’t there for athletics, a social scene, fraternity, or anything else. I was laser-focused on wha...

  With the fall semester beginning soon, the question from the last semester remains: what’s going to happen with the athletics fee? Last semester, UT-Tyler Athletics Director Howard Patterson approached student government with a request to raise the mandatory fee from $240 dollars max per semester to $300 dollars max per semester. Student government did not put the fee on the spring ballot, but Patterson said he would return to request the increase in the future because the funding was important to the athletics program.  So will students have to consider a fee increase sometime this year? At this point, the future is unsure, but whatever happens, the position student government should take is clear, and it is this: student government should end all student funding for athletics. Here are three reasons why.  There's Little Benefit In Paying An Athletics Fee  The first reason why student government should abolish student funding for athletics is that the individual s...

  In this fourth and final installment of my series, “Why My Attention is on UT-Tyler”, I will give my final reason for why I still have my attention on the student community even after I have graduated. It is this: I want UT-Tyler students to become Conservatives. I understand that many students may not be ready to do this—and truth be told, I don’t want you to change.  What I really want is for students to be exposed to the insights that lead to a Conservative perspective. In the end, I would really like it and it would be great to me if, after considering the arguments and fundamental ideas, you decided on your own that you would call yourself a Conservative. What I mean is that I would love it if you decided to hold the same commitments to the values and beliefs that I hold as I do: to virtue, righteousness, security and most importantly, to God. These are all very important and I would love it if you joined me in treasuring these things so that together, we could both say...

Last semester, The Student Government Association (SGA) at UT-Tyler sent a formal letter to the executive director of the library and declared its support for the building returning to its pre-COVID-19 operating hours.  This letter came after some students complained to SGA that the university’s COVID-19 hours prevented study groups from having a suitable location to study late at night.  During SGA’s preliminary research into the possibility of longer library hours, the library director advised student government against the idea due to her concern that increased student interaction might raise the risk a COVID-19 outbreak. In the end, student government agreed with the students’ request for longer hours and subsequently sent a letter to the director in support of extended hours.  So why does this matter? It matters because SGA’s willingness to go against the advice of a sitting administrator reveals a greater propensity within this class of members to operate independen...