SGA’s State of the Student Body Address today

Sol Garcia | THE RIDER

The Student Government Association will present its annual State of the Student Body Address at 5 p.m. today via Facebook Watch Party.

Due to preparations for the address, the executive team could not attend the SGA’s meeting last Wednesday, so Senate Chair Yahia Al-Qudah read SGA President Tori Lozano’s report during the Zoom meeting. 

“Due to possible technical issues and logistics of the event, it was decided to pre-record [the address], but conduct via Facebook Watch party to answer any questions that students may have, as well as have it as a resource for future SGAs to look back on if needed,” the email states. 

The SGA’s Facebook page can be found at https://www.facebook.com/utrgvsga. 

During the meeting Jodie Dominguez, SGA adviser and director of Leadership and Mentoring, discussed stipends for all SGA members, which have never been previously offered. 

“We have proposed to issue out a monthly small stipend to our SGA members,” Dominguez said. “This is something we’ve never done in the past, and we’re excited for the opportunity to be able to do that.”

Each SGA member’s unique financial situation is being checked with the Scholarship Office, so the stipends do not affect their financial aid packages, Dominguez said. 

“That way, we can present it to each student individually, and then you all can determine from there if you’d like to accept the stipend or decline it,” Dominguez told the SGA members.

She said to the Senate there will, hopefully, be more information regarding the stipends within “the next week or so.” 

“I know it’s taken us a little bit longer, but we want to make sure we’re strategic and we’re being thoughtful in the entire process,” Dominguez said. 

In an email to The Rider, Dominguez attached a photo of the possible stipends to be awarded to SGA members based on their positions. Stipends will range from $50 monthly for associate justices, the executive cabinet and senators to $75 for the chief justice and senate officers and $150 for the senate chair and executive officers. 

The SGA also appointed Senator DesiRae Smith as chair of the Academic Affairs Committee. Smith said she has been interim chair for this committee for more than a month.

“I feel I’ve led and helped to further student issues brought forth to the Academic Affairs Committee in just the little time that I have been interim chair,” said Smith, who is a senator for the Graduate College.  

Members of the new First Year Internship cohort introduced themselves to the SGA senators. 

As previously reported by The Rider, FYI is a semesterlong leadership program for entering first-year college students to learn from an SGA mentor and about the association. 

Fifteen new interns spoke about themselves, and another was unavailable to attend the meeting. Jose Rojas, FYI director, said these students showed “passion and dedication in the interview process and the application process.” 

“You are now a part of the SGA family,” Rojas told the new interns. “We would like to think that this is a family; we are advocates for the students.” 

The SGA is looking for new members in all three branches. Vacant positions within the legislative branch include senators for the College of Liberal Arts, the Robert C. Vackar College of Business & Entrepreneurship, the School of Social Work and more, according to the SGA’s Facebook page.

In an email sent to The Rider Sept. 24, Carlo Flores, SGA vice president for Brownsville, said there are 37 open positions. Five of the vacant positions are within the executive team, four are in the judicial branch and the other 28 are within the legislative branch, according to the email. To apply for a position within the association, students can visit its VLink page at https://utrgv.campuslabs.com/engage/organization/sga. There, students can also fill out a Student Concern Form to submit any concern they may have within UTRGV.