Climate Check
President Danny Nguyen opened climate check by rehashing the City Vista water debacle from this past weekend, in which the building lost water for a number of hours. The amount of delay and miscommunication between students and different departments left a lot of students upset. Junior Senator Joy Areola added that she was emailing Dylan Pflum, residential life coordinator for CityVista, to work on better communication regarding CityVista issues, including pool bleaching.
Sophomore Senator Odi Aneji brought up some issues she’s had with TUPD, specifically regarding their service of bringing students back to their dorms at night. She’s had two instances where TUPD was not able to send an officer to take her home in the early hours of the morning. Senator Areola mentioned that was just a matter of staffing, and President Nguyen said it wouldn’t hurt to email TUPD.
Senator Areola asked why so many songs and genres had been banned from Mabee’s Rockbot, and Junior Senator Harrison Tinker said that problem was on the Student Dining Advisory Committee’s immediate to-do list. Junior Senator Andrew Phillips voiced concerns about one of the items on the ballot of items to be removed from the SGA constitution — the part of the constitution requiring senators’ votes to be publicly available. President Nguyen said that he would take a look and deal with it.
Senator Aneji inquired about where to go with sustainability concerns, which President Nguyen used to lead into the staff chat for the meeting.
Staff Chats: , university architect and director of sustainability
Scherding began his first staff chat by giving some of his background as an architect. He had been working for Trinity for about a year and a half in the joint role of architect and sustainability director. He gave some background on Trinity’s move across different campuses in different parts of Texas, praising the quality of the work of architect O’Neil Ford on the Skyline campus as being ahead of his time when it came to sustainability and designing buildings that responded to the environment.
Environmentally sustainable architecture has long been a passion of Scherding’s, and he’s been working with the university to outline steps to take toward improving sustainability. Trinity had taken strides toward sustainability in the 2000s and early 2010s, but with some changes in administration, some of the initiatives fell by the wayside. For example, Trinity no longer pays for LEED certifications of the buildings. Right now, Scherding and Head Treasurer Conrad Jarvis are working to determine Trinity’s carbon footprint and assess opportunities for carbon reduction.
Some other first steps outlined by Scherding included determining sustainability priorities, creating a Climate Action Plan, re-engaging with LEED, establishing a stronger digital presence and more. In terms of long-term goals, Scherding held up 100% renewable energy as the ideal, with a good system of energy storage and campus microgrid.
Scherding wrapped up his staff chat by fielding questions from SGA, stating that he did not have a clear timeline on when solar panels would be implemented, clarifying how the recycled water on campus works and getting into the history of Trinity’s red bricks.
Class of 2024 Senator Special Election
Three candidates for the vacant senior senator spot presented their case to SGA on Wednesday, since two candidates did not show up at their given times and one withdrew before the speeches. SGA heard the speeches before going into a closed executive session to make their decision.
Rafael Serrano, marketing and psychology double-major, presented first. Serrano talked about wanting to get more involved in the community, and with the leadership positions he’s held in clubs and his marketing experience, he thought SGA would be a good way to get involved. He was primarily interested in helping with SGA’s PR, communicating a friendlier, more accessible image to students.
Tucker Craft, Spanish major, spoke on the need for new energy in SGA. Craft also brought experience from executive positions in clubs, especially from his positions as Mock Trial’s competition coordinator and Iota Chi Rho’s treasurer, which have given him experience with the SGA funding process and creating more budget transparency. Craft spoke about wanting a dashboard page that displays important budget information for students to find easily.
Lucy Orosco, finance major, is an international student whose interest in SGA comes from a desire to be a familiar face on campus. Her involvement with clubs on campus made her interested in where the funding comes from, and she stated her interest in working closely with the DEI Chair from her perspective as an international student.
After the executive session in which they needed a simple majority vote to pick the new senator, the senate ultimately elected Orosco as the new senator.
Officer Reports
President Nguyen spoke about Fall 2023 Maverick Lecture speaker Ret. Admiral James Stavridis and the new deliberate dialogue program, which Advisor Bernadette Buchanan expanded upon. The deliberate dialogue program, which is still in early stages, aims to help prepare students for conversations surrounding controversial issues like the upcoming national elections.
Vice President Caterina Mora Adrover announced that she and Senator Areola had met with Pflum about the City Vista gym, and it would now be opening at 7:00 a.m. President Nguyen concluded officer reports by saying that the Spurs night date had been finalized (for the same day as Bid Day) and that the choir would be performing the national anthem.
