UPDATE: Dr. Trauth Addresses Sanctuary Campus Petition

block-quote-verticle-purple-bar-7x100Dr. Trauth Addresses The Future Of Texas State University — Below is a copy of the “petition,” that was delivered to Dr. Trauth, signed by students, faculty, and staff to become a “Sanctuary Campus.” Additionally, we have included an email addressed to the campus community from Dr. Trauth concerning the petition and campus security.

 

By Ashley LeBlanc 

On Monday, November 28, Texas State University President, Denise Trauth, sent out an email to all faculty, staff, and students at Texas State.

In it, she addressed the feedback she “received during the last three weeks pertaining to the presidential election and the events that have transpired in its wake, both on and off our campuses.”

President Trauth strongly expressed that she wants Texas State University to be a safe place where students feel safe. She listed the precautions being taken on campus to help ensure that the campus continues to embrace their diversity and that they are going to continue to stress campus security.

She listed some things the school is doing to address the current issues, such as, “Increasing the presence on campus of the University police by adding bike and walking patrols, encouraging students to add the free Bobcat Guardian mobile safety app to mobile devices” and “use the Bobcat Bobbies service to ensure safe movement on campus, and asking students to immediately contact UPD to report any threat, intimidation, act of violence, or unusual activity that they have witnessed or have experienced.”

Less than an hour after the email was sent, President Trauth, along with many other administrators at Texas State University, attended Texas State’s Student Government Semi-Annual Roundtable.

The Roundtable event was set up with 8 different tables that gave students the opportunity to move around to each and ask administrators questions.

President Trauth was seated at a table with Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Eugene Bourgeois. At the table of eight passionate students, Ben Salinas had something to say that they all agreed on, “since the election I know we’ve all been talking about the problems we’ve seen on campus, and I feel like the administration could do more in saying that racism is not okay” expressing that, as a university, “we should do more in, I wouldn’t say punishing, but more like educating the students about what their comments do to affect others.”

President Trauth agreed with the student and said that she feels like “a lot of our students choose Texas State because of the diversity [of the campus]” she said that as a community, “racist comments hurt all of us.” She then welcomed ideas from students. They suggested starting a campus-wide movement that encourages students to be kind to one another.

Bourgeois said, “it’s up to the students to spread the love” and that it is largely the student body’s responsibility to treat each other with respect. He reminded students of an organization that was also attending the Roundtable called Bobcats United that focuses on embracing diversity.

President Trauth continuously expressed that she’s doing everything she can to make everyone on campus feel respected and that she is welcoming any ideas.

At a neighboring table sat administrators from the athletics department and Head Coach Everett Withers. They were welcoming comments about student’s experiences at Texas State games.

When asked how he felt about the football team this year, Head Coach Everett Withers said, “On the field obviously not what we want as far as wins and losses but as far as coaching I feel like were right where we want it.” He says next year they are hoping for “improvement in our talent level and improvement in the knowledge of the players” and he encouraged support from the Texas State University and San Marcos communities. Looking forward to next year Coach Withers is positive about the recruiting process, “recruiting is the life and blood of the program; it can’t be good unless you recruit.”

Associate Athletics Director, Don Coryell welcomed suggestions of how to increase the attendance numbers at games and acknowledged that a lot of students attend the tailgate and not the game.

At another table, Associate Director of Parking Services, Steve Prentice, wasn’t as busy with students as you would expect, for a number of complaints students often voice about parking. Prentice said that the campus’ master plan is recommending 3 new parking garages, but things still need to be approved and worked out with funding, locations, etc. In his many years at Texas State, he has noticed that the percentage of residents that own a parking permit has decreased despite new complaints about limited parking. When asked where the money for parking passes goes, he said, “parking services is 100% self-funded” and that the money goes to paying off more than 100 million bonds for garages, and other things that parking services may need to run smoothly.

Many other administrators were in in attendance at the Semi-Annual Roundtable such as Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Joanne Smith, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Dr. Margarita Arellano, Mr. Chun-Hong Chua with Chartwells, Associate Director of Housing and Residential Life Kyle Estes, LBJ Student Center Director Jack Rahmann, Steve Herrera with Transportation & Parking, and Dr. Emilio Carranco from the Student Health Center. 



 

[gview file=”https://smcorridornews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Petition-to-Make-Texas-State-University-a-Sanctuary-Campus.pdf”] 



 

[gview file=”https://smcorridornews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/A-Letter-From-Texas-State-University-President-Denise-M.pdf”] 


 

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