The Student Government Association swore in three new officers last Friday, including a new president, after Denisce Palacios resigned from the post on Jan. 11.
“President Palacios has stepped down,” SGA Senate Chair Alexandra Smith-Macias announced.
In her resignation email, dated Jan. 11, Palacios wrote, “I will be stepping down from this position, effective immediately. I would not be resigning if I did not need to.”
She also addressed SGA members and advisers and thanked them for their help.
“These past four years I have been so blessed to have had mentors who have motivated me, friends who strengthened me, and interns who have inspired me,” Palacios wrote in the email. “Student Government has given me so many opportunities (even when I’ve felt undeserving), memories, and built a work ethic led by humble servitude.”
The Rider tried to contact Palacios via email on Wednesday, but as of Friday morning, she had not responded.
“I did get one person with an intent of stepping up and that was [SGA] Vice President [Alejandro] Saldivar,” Smith-Macias said.
Saldivar, an accounting senior, spoke in front of the members before they voted on whether he should be president.
“My name is Alex, and I have been in SGA for three years now,” he said.
Saldivar said he began in the SGA as an intern, became a senator for the College of Business, and then the financial affairs committee chair.
“Over the years, I have heard criticism that SGA doesn’t really have authority,” he said. “One thing that I’d really like to say to that is, that throughout history, some of the biggest changes have been because people came together as a group and advocated for that change. And what I believe is really big and influential at the university level is this concept of a group of students elected by the student body and having the students’ voice and best interests in mind, coming together, forming well-thought-out proposals and then sending those proposals to administration.”
Saldivar said that is what he thinks the SGA can accomplish.
“And the reason that I have always come back to SGA is because I saw that it has potential, potential to be very productive and supportive environment that can bring people together from different mindsets but with one goal in mind, to improve the university,” he said.
Saldivar asked members to continue already existing projects, including parking and transportation improvements, among others. He also said there were new projects he would like to try.
“Recently, I had met with the School of Medicine SGA officer, and they had mentioned a bit of disconnect from the general university,” he said. “I would like to see some kind of collaboration with the School of Medicine SGA, to reach out to those students.”
Saldivar said he would also like to increase overall transparency with students and administration and within the SGA.
“Right now, I’m asking for your support to be SGA president,” he said.
The SGA also elected international business senior Carlo Flores as vice president and mass communication senior Kathryn Alonso as secretary of communication.
In other business, Luzelma Canales, UTRGV senior associate vice president for Student Success, informed the SGA about new class meeting times that will be implemented in Fall 2019.
Canales said one of her first assignments as the university’s senior associate vice president of Student Success was to develop a communication plan that includes input from students.
Canales said one of the first things she did was reach out to the SGA leadership.
“If we hadn’t done that, we would’ve been in danger of not having transportation be realigned, and all of those things,” Canales said. “So, thank you to your leadership for helping us with this.
“Your SGA leadership, one of the recommendations that they made, is don’t announce [the schedule change] in the fall. Don’t announce it too early in the spring, because we were concerned that students would get confused and maybe not show up on time to class. … The recommendation was that we roll this out in the middle of the term so that students would be aware.”
Canales also discussed late night classes.
“There was only one class being taught late at night, where students were actually enrolled, so that course is going away,” she said. “Because of this change, we are able to add 20 new sections in the … noon hour.”
Canales said it was a response to students saying more course sections are needed.
“Our next step, so that you all are aware, is we’re going to work with [Strategic] Enrollment … and Auxiliary Services to ensure that we have all of this set up for the fall,” she said.
Canales said the new schedule will change the break between classes from 10 minutes to 15 minutes.
For more information about the SGA and its upcoming events, visit facebook.com/utrgvsga.
