Since 1948, Better Relations Day has been allowing major organizations from Alabama and Auburn universities to share ideas and promote joint causes together.
"This year Alabama is coming to us for the day, and we match up positions within the SGA, so I'll be with Alabama's vice president all day," said SGA Vice President Vanessa Tarpos. "We take them around Auburn and have a lot of discussion to share resources and ideas."
One of the resolutions they discussed Wednesday with Alabama representatives was a petition to the state legislature to increase higher education funds.
"About two weeks ago the University of Alabama equivalent of our SGA vice president approached me for Better Relations Day about both of our senates passing the same resolution together," Tarpos said. "We'll be sending copies to elected officials in Montgomery. Gov. Bentley will get one. What we're thinking about doing is putting both of the SGA logos on the same sheet."
Austin Gaddis, senate communications director for Alabama's SGA, said they approached Auburn to help promote this deal in hopes that having both of Alabama's major universities support the resolution will make an impression on representatives in Montgomery.
"It is our hope that this display of unity toward a legitimate state policy issue will be able to influence officials in Montgomery to take our concerns and leverage them toward real progress in funding," Gaddis said.
The goal for higher education funding is to have at least one-third of the money from the education trust fund, and at this point there is approximately 28 percent.
"The budget allocations have already occurred this year in the spring," said Kirby Turnage, SGA president. "This is just a general statement of our concern over the decrease in funding over recent years. It has gone up this year ever so slightly, but we'd like to get back to that 33 percent."
Turnage said student representatives from both universities often send delegates to Montgomery, and he hopes they will see how much they both contribute to Alabama's economy.
"We believe strong research universities like Auburn and the University of Alabama are a big part of the state's economy and are a necessary tool for our economy to be healthy statewide," Turnage said.
The universities are collaborating on the sister trees, which have been planned since the poisoning of the Toomer's Oaks.
"We're looking to plant them in the next few weeks," Turnage said. "There will be one tree planted on Auburn's campus and one planted on Alabama's as a testament to our rivalry and that we're bigger than what one crazed fan may have done."
The horticulture department is looking into which trees will be best suited to survive on the grounds of each university.
"It's simply a tree that somewhat symbolizes what happened, but more importantly, because it's located on both campuses it shows that we appreciate each other's traditions," Turnage said.
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