On Jan. 26, UT Martin’s Student Government Association discussed a new bill that will affect how all students register in the future.
The bill, called Senate Resolution 2211, is a resolution to provide priority registration for student-athletes.
The main issue on why this bill was created is because current athletes aren’t able to register for classes due to time conflicts with practices and team activities. Student-athletes have fixed practice schedules that directly conflict with the majority of their available time classes.
The majority of the time, student-athletes have to miss Friday classes consistently, therefore directly impacting their grades. It is hard to obtain necessary classes since times are filled before student-athletes have the opportunity to register. This bill would help ensure that they are able to pick out the classes that work on their schedule.
The proposal is that UT Martin should provide priority registration to student-athletes to allow them the opportunity to register for classes outside of set practice times. Peer institutions of UT Martin have already made this available to their student-athletes.
The bill was passed unanimously by the Senate members. The university registration committee met on Feb. 23 to review and discuss the bill and vote on it. The committee voted to support the proposal. Student-athletes can now register two days early. Registration opens on March 16-17, 2023. This bill will take effect in the Summer/Fall of 2023 early registration period.
The maker of the bill is Joanna Aguirre, Senator of the College of Education, Health, and Behavioral Sciences. Co-sponsors include Emily Coleman, Senator of the College of Education, Health, and Behavioral Sciences and Kayla Walker, Senator of the College of Agricultural and Applied Sciences.
The condensed version of the bill can be found on the UT Martin SGA Instagram page.
