Athletic Director Phil Esten answered questions and three clubs were funded at the Nov. 21 Undergraduate Student Government general council meeting.
Esten gave an update on where St. Thomas stands on the move to Division I athletics, stating that the NCAA will decide on legislature in January, and will possibly make a decision regarding our status as soon as April.
He also put out an invitation for student government to collaborate with the athletic department to increase attendance at sporting events.
“I hope we can be partners in how we address that, whether that means a future subcommittee from this group looking at student attendance or if there’s some other ways to encourage students to attend, I’d be very open to that,” Esten said.
Vice President of Diversity Viridiana Arevalo-Martinez encouraged general council members to speak to their constituents about filling out the campus climate survey sent out by Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion Kha Yang last week.
“It’s a great way to quantify the data, see how our environment has changed and see what our areas of improvement are,” Arevalo-Martinez said.
The survey is available until Dec. 6, and the unique link to complete the survey can be found in an email from Yang.
USG approved funding for three clubs and conference requests of $112.50 and $281.25 for Pre-Law Society to attend two different tournaments, and $609.75 for Health and Exercise Science Club to attend a fall conference. The sole campus wide request approved this week was $1,150 for Delta Sigma Pi to host an etiquette dinner.
Abby Sliva can be reached at sliv7912@stthomas.edu.
Division 1 is a horrible idea. UST has neither the facilities or the money to build the facilities necessary for such a move.
There is a rumor that very wealthy alumni will fund the move. If so, revoke their degrees immediately as they clearly failed to grasp the role of what was, in their time, a liberal sets college.
On further reflection I may have been mistaken. Perhaps these rich alums had a premonition that UST would morph into a business, engineering, and health university, one in which the liberal arts are much talked about but in practice are on life support. If so, their premonition was spot on. ‘Sic transit Gloria Mundi.”