Editor\u2019s Note: The Daily Texan sat down with the former Student Government President, Hudson Thomas, and Vice President, Thierry Chu, to reflect on the 119th SG Assembly. Their year-long terms ended on Tuesday when the new executive alliance was officially sworn in. Certain answers were edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n
The Daily Texan: Your term for Student Government President and Vice President ended Tuesday. At this moment, what is on your mind?<\/p>\n
Thomas: The first thing is just immense gratitude. When I contacted Thierry in June of 2024, I could have never imagined that we would have accomplished as much as we did. That\u2019s really a testament about Thierry, (our) team and the culture and camaraderie we created. So just immense gratitude and thankfulness.<\/p>\n
Chu: A lot of gratitude, a lot of pride for our team and all the things that they accomplished this past year. I know that every single person laid everything that they had out on the line. As a leader, getting to see your team do that, \u2026 it\u2019s a really beautiful thing to see.<\/p>\n
DT: It has been a year since you were first elected into office. What legislation or campaign item do you see as being the most important for the student body?<\/p>\n
Thomas: Looking back, I\u2019m really happy \u2026 because I feel we completed everything we set out to do. (There are) three big areas that I take a lot of pride in. The Digital ID initiative is a really big one \u2026We won\u2019t experience the impact of that, but future students and Longhorns will. \u2026 The other thing is our partnership with UTPD and APD to ensure safety in West Campus. \u2026 Last but not least, innovation. We had a successful Builder\u2019s Bullpen event, \u2026 and we\u2019re hoping to continue cementing UT Austin as the preeminent hub of innovation and entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n
Chu: It was really cool to see the impact SG had on things like the Red River Food Fight or \u2026 increasing mental health resource awareness. I had several people come up to me throughout the year saying, \u201cI had no idea these things existed in the (Counseling and Mental Health Center), etc.\u201d That was really rewarding.<\/p>\n
DT: What is a campaign item or piece of legislation that was not completed in your time in office that you wish to see picked up by the next executive alliance?<\/p>\n
Chu: (With) a lot of the campaigns and initiatives, the reality is that they take longer than a year. Our team worked really hard this past year on developing a relationship with Texas Athletics and looking at how we could build transparency and a better experience around the Big Ticket. \u2026 It\u2019s going to take a lot more student input and rallying around what the possible solution is. \u2026 The SG website and the engagement around (its) transparency \u2026 that\u2019s going to have to be maintained and honestly made bigger if we want to make SG a window of transparency and access.<\/p>\n
Thomas: Building a more robust alumni network. We have over 600,000 Texas Exes. How can we integrate those with (the) current 55,000 students here? In a win-win situation, \u2026 how do we build a robust alumni network, while also providing our current students with job pipelines and opportunities?<\/p>\n
DT: Your campaign slogan is \u201cOne herd. One home.\u201d Over the course of your term(s), how did that slogan evolve or change to a different meaning? Or maybe it stayed the same?<\/p>\n
Thomas: The meaning became solidified and cemented. In the campaign, (the slogan) was hollow because we were aspiring to that goal. Once we actually got into the nitty-gritty, we felt the slogan was perfect for our campaign and administration. We really are all in this thing together. The students on this campus really are world changers, and we, as SG, want to elevate and exemplify the incredible students on our campus.<\/p>\n
Chu: During the campaign, it\u2019s confined to \u2026 all the people you can impact in those two weeks. Then, once we stepped into our administration, we got to be a part of SG, where there were elected leaders of people we would\u2019ve never met otherwise. We felt like we were a team with the entire University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor\u2019s Note: The Daily Texan sat down with the former Student Government President, Hudson Thomas, and Vice President,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-243083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}