Last year, the Student Life editorial board called upon Student Union to change their allocation process to account for their mixed priorities in balancing quality—i.e. name recognition—and quantity. However, with a 100 percent budget increase for Trending Topics, we believe Student Union has made respectable strides towards reconciling their two goals.

Three black trans people spoke on issues of racial and trans representation in the media industry and social justice spaces at a PLUS: People Like Us and Student Union-hosted panel Tuesday. The panel, funded as part of Student Union’s Trending Topics series, featured actress and singer Mya Taylor, poet and educator J Mase III and comedian and radio show host Katrina Goodlett and was moderated by sophomore Emi Wyland.

Artist and architect Maya Lin spoke on how her career began, habitat extinction and the connection between art and architecture to around 100 students in Graham Chapel Thursday.

St. Louis poet laureate Michael Castro recited poetry in the Goldberg Formal Lounge Wednesday evening after the event had been postponed in October due to his hospitalization.

Barbara Pierce Bush, CEO and co-founder of Global Health Corps and daughter of former President George W. Bush, spoke about health equity to an audience of over 200 students in Graham Chapel on Sunday evening.

A Trending Topics event scheduled for this past Tuesday has been postponed following the speaker’s hospitalization earlier this week.

Ezra Klein, journalist, co-founder and editor-in-chief of media organization Vox, shared his thoughts on the upcoming presidential election Tuesday night in Graham Chapel.

Student Union is reconsidering how to handle appeals for proposed Trending Topics speakers after Treasury voted to approve funding for GlobeMed, a student-run nonprofit organization that promotes global health equity, to bring Barbara Pierce Bush to campus.

Environmental and human rights activist Van Jones connected racial equity and criminal justice reform to environmental sustainability and the growing green economy in his speech to a crowded Graham Chapel on Monday night.

Student Union has secured contracts for seven of the eight approved Trending Topics speakers, with the eighth and final speaker expected to sign a contract soon.