Foreign Affairs

Leader of the Academic Affairs Committee Jonathan Schueler is continuing to work with his committee on evaluating the need for more foreign language courses.

He is waiting on feedback from the School of Arts and Humanities with additional questions for the survey  that will measure the interest in adding more foreign language courses and to determine if the addition to the UTD curriculum is necessary. The survey should be approved and sent out before the end of the semester.

Murals

The Communications Committee will be adding four to six more murals around the Student Union. Art UTD, an art club on campus, will create them and talk with Dan Goodwin, director of the SU, about the composition of the paintings. The theme is still unknown, but the murals will be interconnected in some way. The Multicultural Center will submit a mock-up of a diversity-themed mural and, upon approval by Goodwin and Art UTD, SG will provide the funding.

Outdoor Piano

Nancy Fairbank, leader of the Student Affairs Committee, met with Dean of Arts and Humanities Dennis Kratz about the addition of a mobile, outdoor piano to campus. They decided the best location would be outside of the SU. The goal is to have a piano donated.  Fairbank and Dean Kratz are currently looking for a piano online and have not located one that is available. If anyone has a piano they’d like to donate, they can reach SG at sg@utdallas.edu.

UTD App

An additional feature will be added to the UTD app, currently being developed by SG and the Office of Information and Technology. Rahul Sonwalkar, leader of the Technology Committee, is working to create an emergency button. This app feature will allow students to send a security message to police and the emergency contacts they have listed, if they feel they are in danger or in need of assistance.  The button will be developed over summer, and the app is projected to be available at the start of the fall semester.

Local Legislation

Christian Filsouf and the Legislative Affairs Committee are still receiving communication from legislators pertaining to UTD on the federal and state levels, including the bathroom bill, the tuition freeze and the hiring freeze. Students can access the responses on the SG website. The name of the legislator will be paired with their response.

Safety on Campus

Concerning student safety on campus, Filsouf said he and the Legislative Committee try their best to respond to questions from students, but it can be difficult to address all questions with immediate responses. He encourages students to reach out to the UTD Police Department with questions about their own personal safety in the case that SG is not able to address them immediately.