Texas bills could target international students

ANDRÉ AVERION Mercury Staff

Texas lawmakers in Austin have introduced a series of bills that could affect university funding, minority groups and higher education.

Restrictions on transgender athletes, bans on certain foreign citizens attending college, bans on election polls on campus, improving mental health, ending tenures and improving teacher retirement plans are

Brent Tourangeau sworn in as chief of police

In late February, campus welcomed former assistant police chief Brent Tourangeau as the newest UTD chief of police Tourangeau’s official coronation was held in the McDermott Room on March 30, where UT System Director of Police Michael Heidingsfield came from Austin to officiate the ceremony.

“In Brent Tourangeau, you have somebody with already a successful and storied career at the Richardson Police Depart- ment,” Heidingsfield said. “I can’t imagine a better day, quite frankly. This is a day to lift up the police, to lift up police chief Tourangeau and his family and welcome him as one of our new leaders.”

Tourangeau swore to protect and serve UTD, its students and its faculty. He hopes to enhance the police department’s partnerships with residential life, student affairs and other student groups. Most of all, he wants to ensure UTD is one of the safest campuses in Texas, especially in light of the Nashville Covenant Elementary School shooting.

Tourangeau has led UTD as one of the first universities in the UT system to train its entire officer team of 25 in immersive active shooter training.

“I know our community worries about that, and we want to make sure that our community knows that we will respond in an appropriate manner,” Tourangeau said. “I want to keep up our successful partnerships and build on with residential life, student affairs, their student government, student just a few of the bill topics making headlines.

While UTD does not currently have any transgender student athletes, Senate Bill 15 proposes that all current and future athletes attending public universities must compete in teams aligning with the sex they were assigned at birth. The bill follows new guidelines from the National Collegiate Athletes Association, or NCAA, saying female athletes cannot exceed

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spaces open for non-first-year students

The housing market is already difficult for millions of North Texans, but as summer approaches and enrollment continues to increase, UTD has little availability for on-campus housing.

University Housing announced on March 28 that there were no more spaces available to non-first-year residents for the 2023-24 academic year. As the waitlist reached over 900 names, University Housing was prompted to close the annual nonfirst-year application period.

“Due to the considerable waitlist for fall housing … the new resident application for non-first-year students is temporarily delayed,” the statement read.

As UTD sheds its commuter school designation, housing fills up quickly, leaving Comets with fewer on-campus options.

“It’s certainly difficult to find things close to campus,” Griffin Davis, a computer science graduate student and student government senator, said. “There are houses and some residential single-family areas across from campus, but many of those … are very expensive, and the apartments are a little bit further away.”

Matthew Grief, an associate vice president for student affairs, said that the numbers of housing renewals indicated that this year’s availability would be different.

“[The] numbers were higher this year than they had been in the past, and that’s the first step of our housing process,” Grief said.

About 1,274 students wanted to stay on campus next year or renew their current location, creating a substantial waitlist, according to Grief.

The five residence halls in University Commons are exclusive to first years and house about 2,100 students. Currently, 2,248 beds have been set aside for them, but school policy maintains that after the first year, students must vacate those areas to make room for incoming freshmen.

SEE HOUSING, PAGE 2

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