The Student Government Association met via Zoom last Friday, where Maggie Hinojosa, vice president for Strategic Enrollment, answered questions regarding university issues amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Hinojosa said the Faculty Senate is exploring the possibility of students having a pass/no pass option for a course they are taking.
“They are working diligently and trying to come up with a process that will ensure, you know, the least amount of harm … to students,” she said.
Hinojosa said the Faculty Senate is looking at what other institutions are doing as well.
She said an option in this pass/no pass would be for all students to choose whether they would like that or the letter grade system.
“Being able to provide students that option, you know, would be beneficial, of course,” Hinojosa said. “The caveat is, is that it’s not beneficial for all students.”
She said a process they are looking into is allowing students to pick particular courses for the pass or no pass system or have it as a letter grade.
Hinojosa also clarified that if a student were to pick the pass or no pass system for a course, this would not increase or decrease their GPA.
“This potentially could impact you know, a meeting, of course, for a grade for getting into graduate school, or getting into the nursing program,” she said.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the SGA decided to postpone its elections to April 6-17.
Voting in the election will still be conducted online via UTRGV email, but the voting period will now be extended to two weeks.
Jodie Dominguez, director of Leadership & Mentoring and a SGA adviser, told The Rider the elections committee extended the original one-week period to vote to two weeks to provide students a longer opportunity to vote.
“We wanted to give students that opportunity to also adjust to online classes, and we wanted to make sure they were set up for success and getting their classes organized, and then we will start the online voting,” Dominguez said.
She said there have been changes to the ballot. There is only one executive ticket running for president and vice presidents of both campuses, and Ruth Cuellar will be on the ballot for senator for The Robert C. Vackar College of Business & Entrepreneurship.
Victoria Lozano, the only individual in the presidential election, said it is important to focus on students making a transition to online classes before voting, because it gives them time to adjust to the change.
SGA Senate Chair James Riojas suggested altering the constitution.
“I think we’ve all kind of said it,” Riojas said. “The constitution was written poorly.”
Alexandra Smith-Macias, SGA vice president for the Edinburg campus, said creating a new constitution is the main thing the SGA has to address.
“We can try to fix little things about the constitution, but the reality of it at this point, is that we’re putting a Band-Aid in a bullet hole,” Smith-Macias said. “But we really need a constitutional convention.”
