With campus-wide elections in full swing last week and results expected Monday, TSTV News sat down with current Student Body President Grace Kelly and Vice President Elle Grinnell to reflect on their time in office. 

Kelly and Grinnell spoke about the university’s changing leadership, free feminine hygiene products coming to restrooms across campus, mental health policy and more.

This interview was recorded March 3, during campus-wide elections.

Changing university leadership

Last month, the UT System Chancellor appointed James Davis, previously senior vice president and chief operating officer, as interim president of UT Austin. Davis appointed David Vanden Bout, dean of College of Natural Sciences, as interim provost the next day.

In the wake of these changes, Kelly said she wanted to ensure students’ concerns remained a priority. Davis was receptive to these conversations, she said.

“His point of discussion was how do I be a good president to students and how do I listen to their concerns,” Kelly said.

Cultivating equality

Kelly and Grinnell ran on five different policy platforms: cultivating equality, mental health, food accessibility, career development, and access and autonomy. 

While on the campaign trail, they told TSTV News their priority was their cultivating equality platform. This encompassed their response to Senate Bill 17, which banned diversity, equity and inclusion offices on college campuses, and plans to more directly engage with the student body.

Kelly and Grinnell campaigned on a plan to increase funding for diverse student organizations. Student Government allocates money to student organizations through an application process, and Kelly and Grinnell said they believe they were successful in achieving their goal through this allocation process.

“I think that is also showing through our record breaking applications for the allocations,” Kelly said. “So many orgs are now more aware of that process and where they can get money.”

Within the cultivating equality platform, Kelly and Grinnell had planned to address student groups’ difficulty reserving rooms by creating a form for students to fill out. While they did not end up creating this form, they said they addressed this problem more directly if students reached out to them about issues they were having.

One avenue for direct communication like this is through the input form within the newsletter Kelly and Grinnell launched. The newsletter also contained resources for students and information about events Student Government was holding.

Another direct line students had with Student Government and administration was through the town hall meetings Kelly and Grinnell held town hall meetings. Students were able to voice their concerns at these meetings, and those concerns were written down and delivered to administration. Student Government was also able to connect students with other resources, such as the University Tenants Union.

“The predominant success is that we were able to have this discussion and community,” Kelly said.

Mental health

Kelly and Grinnell developed mental health Canvas modules that will be rolling out across the UT System in the fall. The modules will be tailored to include each system school’s resources and will be similar to the alcohol education and sexual assault Canvas modules students complete their first year.

“We … realize it’s not about the amount of resources, it’s just about putting them in the hands of students,” Kelly said. “That’s what we hope to do through the modules.”

The modules also share other educational material on mental health topics, Kelly said.

Kelly and Grinnell had also campaigned on expanding UT’s mental health services for students in other ways, such as through long term counseling, but those plans did not end up being feasible. Kelly said their current focus is connecting students with already existing resources.

Access and Autonomy

Another initiative that will be rolling out soon, is Kelly and Grinnell’s work to make feminine hygiene products more accessible on campus. Free products will be available in over 50 campus bathrooms after spring break.

“With so much research coming about heavy metals and things within tampons, we really wanted to find a company that is safe for students,” Kelly said. “We were advocating for, even if it might be more expensive, this is what we think students deserve and need. … That’s actually the product that ended up being selected.”

Food accessibility

Student Government’s Food Security Agency spearheaded efforts to distribute food to students. The agency uses their funding to purchase groceries to give to students, Grinnell said.

The agency also runs a shuttle that takes students to a grocery store from West Campus.

“That’s really been a great way to emphasize that students don’t have an accessible grocery store here,” Kelly said.

Career development

As part of Kelly and Grinnell’s career development platform, they held workshops for students on topics such as financial wellness and resumes. One of their policy directors also runs a social media series that shares career development resources with students.

Kelly and Grinnell also ran on creating an app for Texas Career Engagement, and they have been in conversation about how to improve the current MyUT Austin app.

“The UT community doesn’t know about it that much,” Grinnell said. “So we’re trying to find ways to make it useful as well as add in the different things that we want … for the career point and whatnot. So how we can tie in multiple things to this app that more students will actually use it and find it useful (for) their day to day needs.”

Kelly and Grinnell have also been trying to speak with administration about improving academic advising.

Additional action: Texas Athletics

Kelly and Grinnell also re-established Student Government’s relationship with Texas Athletics to voice student’s concerns regarding the student section at football games.

They are also working with Texas Athletics on plans to establish a student athletics committee for students to voice concerns.

TSTV News spoke with Kelly and Grinnell March 3, and at the time they had a meeting approaching with Texas Athletics set for March 7.

“They’ve been very receptive,” Grinnell said ahead of a planned meeting. “I’m going to say yes, changes will be made. Exactly which ones we’re not sure yet.”