PURSUE AN ASSERTIVE POSTURE WITH UT ADMINISTRATION
If elected, I will be one of nine votes on the UDems Leadership Council deciding our policies about and responses to actions taken by UT adminstration. Because of that, I believe each UDems member has the right to know where I stand.
I believe UDems should adopt what I call an "assertive posture" towards university administration. It’s true that because we live in a red state with a hostile legislature and a governor who appoints every member of the University Board of Regents, it would be counterproductive to aggressively oppose everything UT does that we happen to disagree with. There are times when we have to pick our battles.
However, this particular moment demands strategic pushback - pushback that does not endanger our organization or the safety of our members, but that holds the administration accountable when it commits wrongful actions against the student body. Article II of the UDems Constitution states that one of our primary missions is "to advocate for issues concerning students." We owe it to ourselves and our fellow students to uphold that promise.
In just this past semester, UT administration has engaged in two unjust and intolerable acts that demanded pushback from UDems:
First, the UT Dean of Students meddled in the Student Government presidential election to help a right-wing executive alliance win. They censored all debate over the campus protests for Palestinian rights and any discussions of the state government's attacks on diversity programs in higher education. Then, the Dean of Students overturned the Student Government Supreme Court's disqualification of the Hudson-Thierry alliance - despite overhwleming evidence that they violated expenditure limits. As a general member, I helped advocate UDLC to publicize a joint letter opposing the Dean of Students' installment of the Hudson-Thierry ticket as President and Vice President.
Secondly, UT System administration, in a total capitulation to Trump, Governor Abbott, and the GOP-controlled legislature, banned drag performances on our campus. There are few violations of the First Amendment that are more clear-cut than this. As the chair of the LGBT caucus, I helped lead UDems' effort to protest this ban by requesting the university to hold a drag show, and pursue legal action if we were not permitted to do so.
Pushing back against university administration isn’t just about taking an ideological stand. It's also a key part of maintaining UDems’ reputation with the broader student community. Nationally, the Democratic Party faces its lowest approval rating in modern times. Voters in the middle dislike us because they're uninformed and have been sold a pack of lies about who we are and what we stand for. And lots of voters on the left dislike us because they think we don't stand for anything at all.
It’s not enough for us at UDems to be 40 years younger than the average Democratic politician to seem different. We have to show it through our actions, too. If our reputation becomes that of a careerist club that stands for nothing, our recruitment will grind to a halt. But if students see that we are fighting for their interests and standing up to the administration’s abuses, they will want to join us - and other progressive organizations on campus will see us as a trusted ally they can work with.
Taking an assertive stand against UT administration’s actions isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s also a key part of our strategy for the 2026 midterm elections. We need to engage as many students in politics and the news to get them informed and encouraged enough to vote.