Cometville moved again
Cometville will now take place on March 22 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the SU Mall, alongside the SOC’s Spring “Fun” Raiser event. Nothing about the actual Cometville event has changed. If student organizations want to participate in the “Fun” Raiser event to raise money or promote their club they’ll need to register for a spot before 5:30 p.m. on March 14.
Proactive Testing Program back up
The University’s COVID-19 proactive testing program is back up and running. The procedures to participate in proactive testing are the same as last semester: selected Comets will schedule a testing appointment through a scheduling link the University sends them and show up to said appointment.
SG Townhall
Student Government is organizing a “Future of the University Town Hall” meeting for students to ask questions and voice opinions about UTD’s future. Head of the Town Hall Organizing Committee Willie Chalmers said the event“will feature a panel of staff, faculty and student guests and will focus on how the University’s culture, campus life, and academics would evolve because of the changes to university operations during the COVID-19 pandemic”. The town hall is planned for the last week of April.
Phase 3 water shutoff and maintenance practices
Residential Student Affairs senator Anni Chen spoke with RHA at the end of February to get clarity on Phase 3’s ongoing water outages and mildew maintenance practices. Housing said the water shutoffs are due to a valve replacement project happening in Phases 1, 2 and 3 that’ll likely continue into the summer. Going forward, Housing plans on giving residents a 48-hour notice before shutting off their unit’s water so they can better prepare, as well as spreading out projects so residents won’t experience back-to-back outages. If students are experiencing intense water outage dilemmas, they can submit a work order for Housing to relocate them to a unit with proper amenities.
Regarding their handling of mildew in vents, RHA said their general procedure is to remove the damage with a bleach solution and then paint over the area to seal it.
‘Mount Trashmore’ demonstration
The Green Initiative Committee is participating in “Mount Trashmore”, an annual demonstration hosted by the Office of Sustainability to showcase the trash and recycling the University creates in a single day. The trash will be piled into a “mountain” on March 9 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Chess Plaza, where members from the Sustainability Committee will be present to answer students’ questions about reducing waste, campus recycling, composting and single-use plastics. SG’s GI Committee will also be there to garner student input on sustainability projects they’d like to see at UTD.