Defund Texas State UPD: Redistribute Police Budget to Different Departments on Campus

Texas State University has decided to fund the campus police department $5 million while giving individual departments on campus about $250,000 each. As campus police, their job should be about the protection of the students. As students, we feel that UPD should focus more on de-escalation tactics rather than excessive force when dealing with calls on campus. We are paying this university's tuition to go towards our education, not the armory of the UPD. As well, Texas State University has failed in accurately reporting campus crime statistics for the Clergy Act between 2016-2018 and has not commented on the matter since. We want Texas State to address this instead of hiding it from the public.

All signatures are planned to be shown to Dr. Denise Trauth, President of Texas State University

Link to 2020 Budget for Texas State University: https://gato-docs.its.txstate.edu/jcr:86440252-91b0-4f71-82e4-f408e00efa3c/Fiscal%20Year%202020%20Operating%20Budget%20%20.pdf

Links to articles regarding TXST and Clergy Act: https://universitystar.com/32020/news/texas-legislator-weighs-in-on-clery-report/

https://www.texastribune.org/2019/09/14/texas-state-university-says-it-misreported-campus-crime-numbers-past-y/#:~:text=and%20San%20Marcos.-,At%20issue%20is%20Texas%20State%27s%20compliance%20with%20the%20Clery%20Act,can%20face%20significant%20financial%20penalties.