Student groups ask for advisory panel selection reforms

Leaders from several minority student groups, such as the Latino Leadership Council, the Asian Pacific American Coalition and Queer Students Alliance, organized a letter-writing campaign on Monday, asking for UT administrators to increase student diversity by reforming the selection process for the Presidential Student Advisory Committee.

One hundred eleven students signed pre-written letters addressed to four officials in the UT administration - President William Powers, Jr.; Juan Gonzalez, vice president for student affairs; Soncia Reagins-Lilly, dean of students; and Gregory Vincent, vice president for diversity and community engagement. The letter calls for the creation of two required positions for the Multicultural Information Center and the Gender and Sexuality Center on the advisory committee. The letters also opposed the appointment of Matt Stolhandske, a business honors senior and member of the committee, said Mary Gonzalez, co-director of Latino Leadership Council.

"He has historically been unsupportive of underrepresented communities at UT," said Gonzalez, "His appointment would not be so much of an issue if the MIC and GSC had a voice on the PSAC."

Student Government went through an application process to select the two representatives, who are eventually appointed to the advisory committee by the SG president and vice president, both of whom are automatically on the committee, said SG Vice President Marcus Ceniceros. Stolhandske was selected for the committee from around 10 to 15 applicants. He received 20 votes out of 28.

SG is working to make sure that students are heard and that the committee is an appropriate voice to the president and the University, Ceniceros said.

"We're there to voice the concerns and give an update of the student body to President Powers," he said.

Stolhandske declined to comment at this time. Angelica Mata, a former UT student and member of the Mexican Students' Association said that accusing Stolhandske of being hostile toward minority communities is wrong.

"Matt was always an active member for our group for a couple of years," said Mata, "Even when he was working with the International Student Association or with Student Government, he was ready to be there for us and be vocal."

Jean Sun, a member of the Asian Pacific American Coalition, said that the idea for the letter-writing campaign came last fall after the coalition released a report saying Asian-Americans were underrepresented on the committee. There were meetings between former UT President Larry Faulkner, the advisory commission and APAC to address the issue last year, Sun said, but Faulkner left it up for the students to decide whether additional spots should be created. That trend continued with Powers, she said.

"As of now the administration has had a neutral position," said Sun. "We want the administration to actively participate, otherwise it would just end up in a stalemate between students. We don't want students to end up in this same situation five years down the road."

The Presidential Student Advisory Committee is comprised of automatically-appointed student leaders and appointed members, and there are eight undergraduate positions available. Since 1995, only 23 of the 72 students who have sat on the committee have been minorities, and only six of the 23 actively participate in their individual communities, according to the submitted letters.

"President Powers has the potential to change the system," said Gonzalez. "This would be a good step towards making this campus more diverse."

Additional reporting by Stephanie Matlock.

Comments

Be the first to comment on this article!

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out