First-year common reading author Wes Moore was honored by the Student Government Association (SGA) Tuesday when they passed a resolution declaring Wednesday Wes Moore Day at TCU.
The resolution is mostly a symbolic gesture to show appreciation for Moore, resolution co-author Honors Representative Julia Zellers said.
“It’s just a title for the day, it will go down in history as Wednesday Oct. 28 2015 as Wes Moore day,” Zellers said. “We’ll be printing out the SGA resolution and will be framing it and giving to him.”
Zellers said Moore will also receive a TCU blanket and other TCU “goodies” for his children after speaking about his book, The Other Wes Moore.
The idea for the declaration of today came after TCU administration approached Zellers.
“I think that is was important to establish today as Wes Moore day because Dr. Barbara Herman came up with the idea and asked that SGA support the day by giving it a special title and giving us a reason to show him our appreciation for coming to campus,” Zellers said.
“He wrote an amazing book that was given to every freshman student at TCU to learn the importance of individuality and life choices,” she added.
However, not all members of SGA felt that passing a resolution to honor Moore was the best course of action. Of the House members who voted, 53 percent voted yes and 42 percent voted no.
Honors Representative Justin Rubenstein said he thought the resolution set a questionable precedent. He said he wanted to know why all the other speakers and guests who have attended TCU have not received a day, singling out last year’s common reading author Marjane Satrapi who did not have a day declared for her.
“In terms of precedent, SGA may fall into a cycle of doling out notices of gratitude to upstanding people that contribute to TCU’s learning environment,” Rubenstein said. “It would be discriminatory, on our part, to judge people’s worth based on their contributions to TCU.”
Rubenstein also said that part of the problem of this resolution was that it was introduced to the House only a day before the event and that proper surveying of student opinion was not conducted.
“The House Resolution noted that Mr. Moore contributed to the learning environment of TCU,” Rubenstein said. “ Is there any evidence from the students to show that he has contributed to the learning environment?”
This lack of student voice is a problem Rubenstein thinks SGA needs to work on.
“As representatives, our purpose is to serve as a voice for the people, as a liaison between the students and the administration,” Rubenstein said. “It appears that SGA is forgetting its role as a legislative body. We need to reevaluate our purpose, and actually think about how our actions affect the student body and SGA.”
However, Zellers disagrees.
“This is something new that we’re doing so we need to be open-minded and accept that a dean at TCU asked us to dedicate this day and it’s kind of a special thing to do,” Zellers said. “It might be starting a new tradition so even though it may look like a slippery slope to some that there was no criteria to dedicate today Wes Moore day, this could become something really great that TCU does.”
While there are currently no plans to give any other speaker a day at TCU, Zellers said she is interested in creating a criteria for having days dedicated to special visitors.
