Student Senate overturns two resolutions and introduces one establishing an American football team | news
Student senators discuss resolutions during a Senate session April 12, 2022 in the student government chambers.
Nearly 40 years ago, budget deficits led the university to cut its American football program, but a resolution was introduced aimed at seeing if students would like a return during Tuesday’s student senate session.
At a conference in 1985, former UTA President Wendell Nedderman announced the decision to end the program, citing budget deficits caused in part by low attendance and lack of revenue as earlier shorthorn Reporting.
Resolution 22-21, “Once and For All, Football,” wants a referendum to be held during the upcoming campus election to ask students whether the university should increase the intercollegiate athletics fee by $500 a year to include an NCAA division I set up a collegiate football program. according to decision.
Currently, the Intercollegiate Athletics Fee is $8.50 per credit hour and is capped at $115, according to the university’s website.
As of Fall 2022, UTA has an estimated 40,990 undergraduate enrollments, according to previous Shorthorn reports. This makes it one of the few universities of its size nationwide without an American football program, according to the resolution.
The student government released a poll asking students for their thoughts on bringing NCAA Division I football back to UTA and posted the results on Instagram. Of 625 responses, 92.8% answered yes and 7.2% no.
In the same survey, when asked if they would be willing to pay $400-$500 more per year for setup, 76.24% of 627 answered yes. Those who answered “no” were then given other ranges of money to choose from and asked how much more they were willing to pay. 57.31% of 171 students answered “none”.
Dylan Buck, student body vice president and author of the resolution, said passing this resolution would not mean it would be implemented. Instead, the resolution hopes to gauge interest by giving the student body a chance to vote on whether or not a college American football team is something they’re interested in.
Buck said that if an American football team is created, there must also be another team created for female athletes, such as women’s soccer or women’s swimming.
Although College of Engineering Senator Matthew Swingler supports the resolution, he said he was concerned about the cost of the program. He said the basketball team showed there were good athletic opportunities at the university, but putting money into a Division I team could drive students away.
This isn’t the first time the revival of the American football team has been talked about. During a 2018 UTA Human Resources Council President’s Forum, former UTA President Vistasp Karbhari spoke about the possibility of the program returning. He said it would cost more than $150 million, which would result in higher tuition and fees, which he previously said he didn’t want shorthorn Reporting.
Two resolutions were also killed during the meeting.
Resolution 22-13, “Replace The Bag Embrace,” required the university to install and/or repair hooks in restroom stalls. It was killed because maintenance operations and special projects director Jeff Johnson told the Special Affairs Committee that a fix was not needed because his maintenance workers could fix the problem.
Resolution 22-12, “Objection, Your Honor, Directorate,” requested the university to update its map directories to better reflect the buildings and improve readability. Similarly, Johnson told the committee that this is something they are currently working on. The reason the directories were not previously updated was due to COVID-19.
During an open forum earlier in the meeting, Swingler offered his take on the UTA chapter of last week’s Turning Point USA event with speaker Jeff Younger, a former candidate for the Texas House of Representatives known for his anti-transgender rhetoric is. Swingler called on whoever sanctioned the event to apologize and be held accountable.
The event led to a demonstration by the Progressive Student Association outside the university center, according to the previous announcement shorthorn Reporting.
“Responsibility needs to be taken and taken on immediately,” Swingler said.
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