The Campus Conservative

("Money - Savings" by 401(K) - 2012 via Flickr) Recently, The Student Fee Advisory Committee (SFAC), which is that student-led fee oversight committee, published its recommendations to the UT-Tyler President for the 2023-2024 fiscal year.  The committee receives funding requests from various university departments each year and these departments typically oversee a category of activity which the Texas education code classifies as "student services".  According to Texas statute , student services are those activities which "directly involved or benefit students." Some examples the statute gives are activities such as a student newspaper, student government, a textbook rental program and other cultural or functional activities which are typical to collective student life on a university campus.  One gets the impression--and rightly so--that these student services are for activities that enrich the collective and classical student university experience and se...

(Source: "Dayton 06-2019 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 .  Harassment  - On Sept. 18, campus police responded to an incident of harassment that occurred at Ornelas Hall.  Reckless Driving - On Sept. 14, campus police responded to an incident of reckless driving on the bike/walking trail from Liberty Landing to Victory Village at 9:16 p.m. Authorities issued a criminal trespass warning.  Reckless Driving - On Sept. 13, campus police issued a referral to Judicial Affairs for an incident of reckless driving that occurred in the Liberty Landing Apartments parking lot at 10:34 p.m. Accident Motor Vehicle - Hit and Run - On Sept. 13, police received a report of a hit and run that occurred in the Patriot Village parking lot at 3:34 p.m. This investigation is open.  Minor...

("Money - Savings" by 401(K) - 2012 via Flickr) UT-Tyler will freeze its resident undergraduate tuition for the next two years, according to a university spokesperson on Aug. 28.  “In compliance with last week’s [Aug. 24-25] Board of Regents’ action, we will maintain total resident undergraduate academic costs (tuition, mandatory academic fees, all academic-related general fees and college course fees) at the current levels for the next two academic years,” the spokesperson said.  UT-Tyler received roughly $10 million more for operating funds per year in state appropriations this legislative session as a result of an agreement struck between legislators and status university chancellors. Earlier this year, UT-System Chancellor James Milikin, along with chancellors from five other Texas university systems, penned a letter requesting $1 billion in additional state funding to avoid raising tuition. The Republican-led legislature replied with $700 million.  In addition to thi...

(Source: via Flickr) Here is a recap of The Student Government Association (SGA) at UT-Tyler's Sept .5 meeting. President's Welcome And Roll Call Speaker's Podium: Dr. Colleen Swain, Associate Provost for Academic Success and Dean of Undergraduate Studies. Swain updated the assembly on the new UNIV 1000 classes, advising, retention efforts and upcoming events in Academic Success.  UNIV Classes Swain: Thanked student government for its word that these classes are important to do for incoming, first-year students. This fall, incoming first year students are in UNIV 1000 class. "I have campaigning for this for a long time, and I think the reason I was finally able to get this going is because I could say, 'Students want this. Student government association has said that this is a good thing to do.' So thank you," she said. Advising "Because of your work, good things are happening," she told the assembly. Said university has decided to hire more advi...

  (Chairman Kevin Eltife, Source: University of Texas at Tyler YouTube page.) As Chairman of UT-System Board of Regents, Kevin Eltife is leading expanded access to Texas higher education, especially overcoming financial cost barriers that impede prospective students’ access to education.  Under Eltife’s leadership, The UT-System Board of Regents established a $300 million endowment in March 2022, The Promise Plus program, that grants tuition assistance to families who make less than $80,000 dollars per year. Under Eltife’s leadership, UT-System Chancellor James Miliken, along with five other state institutions, penned a letter to Republican state leadership with a request for more general revenue support for their institutions to avoid a tuition hike on students.  As a result, UT-Tyler secured approximately $10 million dollars in additional state funds for operational expenses per year for the next two years. Due to this agreement with the legislature, UT-System will now ...

  (Source: "Dayton 06-2019 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 .  Stal king - On Sept. 5, campus police issued a Title IX referral for a report of stalking in the Victory Village Apartments at occurred between midnight and 12:15 a.m. Police received the report that day at 11:36 p.m. Harassment - On Sept. 1 at 1:18 p.m. campus police received a report about an incident of harassment that occurred off campus. Authorities received the report from an off-campus jurisdiction. The report was for information only.  Weapons Offense - On Aug. 31 at 7:06 a.m., police responded to a weapons offense at the Foundry Apartments. The incident led to a criminal arrest. These are the reported on-campus criminal activities for September so far. To see reports for August, see here . Sign-up...

(Source: via Flickr) Here is a recap of The Student Government Association (SGA) at UT-Tyler's Aug. 29 meeting. Student government met in different room for the first time in its semester. The room did not have a traveling microphone, so I couldn't hear comments as well through the video. SGA will be in a new room next week.  President's Welcome and Roll Call Speaker's Podium: Student Government Advisor Joshua Neaves Neaves encouraged student representatives to run to represent constituents and avoid personal issues. It's important to represent issues that are important to students, he said.  Also encouraged committee meetings, especially Student Government Appropriations Committee (SGAC), to start since student organizations are already meeting and want their appropriations money. Neaves then sought feedback from members on Welcoming Week. Feedback on Welcoming Week: One senator said Chick-Fil-A at the soccer game had positive feedback. The feedback was that more e...