During last Friday’s meeting, kinesiology sophomore Rodrigo Ruiz asked the Student Government Association to review his petition, which requests shuttle transportation from Rio Grande City to Edinburg and Brownsville.
Ruiz is concerned about several students from Rio Grande City he met who struggle to get to and from the university due to lack of transportation.
“I have encountered students in Rio Grande City who have told me it’s hard to find transportation and it’s expensive to be buying gasoline to travel to Edinburg,” he said.
Ruiz said he believes it is unfair since students who are already in Edinburg, Brownsville and Harlingen have those resources readily available to them. He wants students to be able to have access to higher education despite the obstacles they face.
“It is hard for students to achieve an education, to pursue their desires, when transportation isn’t available to them,” he said.
In other news, the SGA announced it plans to post its budget online.
“It is an open record,” SGA President Alondra Galvan said. “If any UTRGV student would like to know how much SGA gets as a budget, or any department, it is open to the public. We did think it was best to show the budget to the students, because sometimes students may not understand why they did not get 100 percent funded.”
Galvan said she hopes this will help students take into consideration the large number of applicants who seek funding.
The senate also approved changes in the Student Travel Funds guidelines. The funds, which is part of the SGA budget, helps provide students with the money needed to travel to competitions and conferences.
Members discussed the details of the process, such as application status protocol, the 2.5 minimum GPA requirement, the improved wording of the document and the first-come-first-serve funding distribution.
After making minor adjustments to the form, such as grammatical corrections, the guidelines received the green light.
The SGA also recapped the outcome of the State of the Student Body Address, which took place Sept. 12 in Brownsville and Sept. 14 in Edinburg. More than 250 people attended, the highest the association has seen in years.
“Hopefully, this was the start of something great and we will continue that momentum throughout the year,” SGA co-adviser Cindy Mata-Vasquez said.
The next SGA meeting will take place at 2 p.m. Friday in Biomedical Research and Health Building 1.207 on the Brownsville campus and in Academic Services Building 1.106 in Edinburg.
