Prior to climate check, President Oliver Chapin-Eiserloh began the meeting with a reminder that applications to be an SGA senator for the 2022-2023 school year are open and will close Friday Mar. 25 at 11:59 p.m. At the time of the meeting, only two individuals across all grade levels had filled out the form.

Climate Check

First-year senator Ani Siva opened a climate check by raising a concern about bathrooms in high traffic buildings on campus, like Coates Library, running out of toilet paper. President Chapin-Eiserloh recommended that Siva reach out to the Sustainability Coordinator Sharon Miller Curry, Senior Director of Facilities Coordinator Jim Baker or Associate Director of Facilities Services Ernesto Gonzalez.

First-year senator Ella Charbonnet gave an update on free menstrual products, stating that she had bought bins to hold the menstrual products and that the bins can be found in Student Involvement. Charbonnet also stated that new menstrual products need to be ordered.

Junior senator Donya Ahmadi asked when the summer 2022 course list would be released, and about the possibility of more summer courses being offered in the future. Adviser Jamie Thompson suggested that Ahmadi reach out to Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Duane Coltharp. Adviser Thompson also said that the institution is working on offering a wider array of classes over the summer semester, as they are aware that many students take summer courses at other institutions. The change may not go into effect this upcoming summer. President Chapin-Eiserloh stated that the start and end dates of the summer 2022 semester should already be posted.

Funding requests

Student Involvement requested funding for a Student Organization Celebration (April 22) to celebrate student leaders on campus as a part of Student Organization Recognition Week (April 18-22). Esparza specifically requested $2,889.84 in funding for a yet to be determined food truck, Fluffy Penguin Snow Cone Truck and possibly a tie-dye station. SGA funded $3,000 for the event, to pay for extra snow cones if needed since it will be open to all students and not just student leadership.

The men’s volleyball club requested funding for travel expenses for their trip to Phoenix to compete in a national tournament. The club had already purchased the plane tickets for nine people and was looking to be at least partially reimbursed for the cost. SGA partially funded $1752.40 to cover part of the travel costs for the club team.

The Muslim Student Association (MSA) requested funding for Muslim student support initiatives for the month of Ramadan in order to cater a community iftar – breaking fast after sundown – from a halal restaurant and provide HEB gift cards to help students afford groceries so that they have food for suhur – the prefast meal eaten before sunrise – since Mabee is not open that early. SGA fully funded MSA $3,500 dollars for their Muslim student support initiatives.

TigerThon requested $1,500 in funding to purchase 250 t-shirts to give away as a part of their registration incentive for their fundraising efforts for the San Antonio Children’s Hospital. $1,500 was not the full cost of the t-shirts, however TigerThon has funding outside of SGA. After some lively discussion about SGA’s policy on funding t-shirts, SGA unanimously voted to fund the full $1,500.

The Partners in Health Engage (PIHE) requested a total in funding for their Pie as a Kite event and a documentary showing – two events from their slate of World Health Week Events to celebrate World Health Day (April 7). They requested a total of $1,598 for supplies including pie trays, whipped cream, trash bags, cleaning wipes, 30 kites, a table banner, decorating supplies, Pizza Classics, popcorn, beverages, advertising materials from the Digital Print Center, gloves and personalized tent with the organization’s name on it. SGA opted to partially fund $693.43 for the World Health Week Events.

Trinity Halal was scheduled to make a funding request but did not appear at the meeting.

Officer Updates

Adviser Thompson gave an update on behalf of Dean Brown about Tigers Against Aramark. According to a feasibility study done by consultants from B&B Consulting, the self-opt model is not economically viable on campus given current conditions, including staff shortages. The second option to replace Aramark would be to go through a screening process, and it would be up to Aramark whether or not they would want to participate. The process would include a student committee that would review business plans for potential food service vendors. Trinity’s current contract with Aramak runs through spring 2022, so the request for proposals would have to go on through next school year in order to have a vendor lined up for the 2023-24 school year.

President Chapin-Eiserloh gave an update on the new name change policy for Tiger Network and TigerCards. According to President Chapin-Eiserloh, there have been issues on the technology side as names are pulled from multiple places and multiple fields (nickname, preferred name, etc.), so it isn’t as simple as changing one thing. Currently the hope is to fix the system to make it a simple one-form process for students to change their name starting in the summer.

Sophomore senator Danny Nguyen gave an update of the Inclusive Excellence Advisory Council and their first four and a half hour Action Summit on March 18. Some ideas pitched at the meeting were a community kitchen for organizations to host multi-cultural food nights, a conflict resolution center to provide an alternative to Title IX, compassion and integrity training and a Tiger Cubs mentor program that would pair juniors with incoming first-generation first-years. According to senator Nguyen, subcommittees are beginning to develop initiative independently.

President Chapin-Eiserloh closed out the meeting with a reminder to fill out the SGA application form if senators were seeking re-election. He mentioned that first-year senator Harrison Tinker and senator Charbonnet are the only two to have filled out the form.