• Students at University of Texas are represented by four organizations: The Student Government, one of the College Councils, the Senate of College Councils, and the Graduate Student Assembly.
  
  
• The Student Government (SG) serves as the official student voice to the UT administration, the Board of Regents, and the Texas Legislature. Its members are elected annually in a campus wide election. The SG mission is to earnestly represent the interests of students and increase student decision-making power, to improve campus life through the creation and continuation of viable and effective student services, to preserve and protect the traditions and legends of the University, and to support students and student organizations in their academic and community endeavors. Students directly elect members to the assembly each spring in a campus wide election.
  
  
• The College Councils are official, university-sponsored student organizations that work to improve student life in its college. College Councils put on countless programs each year that affect our academic environment, student-faculty interaction, outside community, and much more. College Councils select representatives to the Senate of College Councils and the Graduate Student Assembly. Members of each College Council are selected according to the constitution and bylaws of that council.
  
  
• The Senate of College Councils represents the students of UT colleges and schools in academic affairs. Towards this end, it serves as a forum for communication between the various student councils of the Colleges and Schools of UT and it represent the collective opinion of the councils to UT, primarily on academic issues and secondarily on other issues of importance to the University. Members of the senate are selected by College Councils.
  
  
• The Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) is the principal body for the representation of the interests of graduate students throughout the University. GSA members are of two types:
  
  
  • Members (and alternates) representing graduate students in academic programs and departments of UT. Members are elected by officially sponsored program, department, college, or school student councils representing all their graduate students equally.
    
    
  • Members (and alternates) representing a UT registered student organization centered on a particular disciplinary interest not reflected in the list of programs or on an ethnic or other grouping emblematic of the students' own backgrounds or concerns. Each organization selects its representative to the GSA according to the constitution and bylaws of that council.
    
    
• The GSA meets once a month (and more often if necessary) to discuss items of interest to graduate students. Members represent the students from the program from which they are elected rather than their own personal views.

• The GSA selects graduate student representatives to the committees that govern the university. These members represent the GSA and graduate students as a whole and rather than their own personal views. These representatives are automatically members of GSA.

• The GSA also elects officers who carry on the day-to-day activities of the organization on behalf of UT graduate students. These officers represent the interests of GSA and graduate students as a whole.

• The GSA reports administratively to Vice-Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies, and is considered an official element of the UT structure. Administrative expenses of the GSA are funded through an allocation from the Student Services Fee paid by students each semester.

• More detailed information on the GSA organization is provided in the Constitution and Bylaws.