Chasse Conque, vice president and director of Athletics and Maggie Hinojosa, senior vice president for Strategic Enrollment and Student Affairs present and answer students questions during a town hall on the athletic fee referendum Thursday in the PlainsCapital Bank El Gran Salón on the Brownsville campus. Valeria Henderson/The Rider Photo
Students expressed opinions for and against the proposed increase in the Athletics Fee during the Student Government Association town hall held last week on the Edinburg and Brownsville campuses.
The first town hall took place last Tuesday in the PlainsCapital Bank Student Union Theater on the Edinburg campus.
Maggie Hinojosa, UTRGV senior vice president for Strategic Enrollment and Student Affairs, presented information on the upcoming referendum alongside Chasse Conque, vice president and director of Athletics.
Members of the SGA and other students attended in person and about 50 viewed the Facebook livestream.
As previously reported by The Rider, the proposed Athletics fee would increase by $11.25 per credit hour and would be capped at 12 hours if students approve the referendum. The fee would affect incoming freshmen in Fall 2022.
If the fee is approved, UTRGV would establish a football team, women’s swimming and diving programs, plus two marching bands and spirit teams planned for the 2024-25 academic year.
Bruno Rosales, a junior philosophy and history major, raised his concerns during the town hall held on the Edinburg campus.
“How would this impact the workers,” Rosales asked Conque and Hinojosa. “That is my main concern, because … I have two jobs here at the university and it is not enough to pay rent. So, I am just wondering, like, how do they want to expand more jobs if they’re going to keep the same $7, $8, $9-per-hour works.”
He wanted to know why UTRGV is having a referendum on the athletic fee and not wages.
“I have a scholarship. If it wasn’t for that, I couldn’t even pay my tuition,” Rosales said. “I have two jobs, and I’m not living any of that student life that they’re speaking of. So, why are they having that student life while we cannot have any kind of life because our wages are so low.”
Hinojosa replied that the university is looking into wages and new student jobs with the referendum.
“On one of the slides, we talked [about] the additional student employment,” she said. “Regardless of the referendum, those conversations we have all the time. … The conversation of wages is something that we, in fact I just had a meeting about this morning.
“And so we continue to always look and I think it’s easy to get lost when you are looking at something like this, right, of the things that go on behind the scenes and how much we really care about you and students and the things we are constantly looking at. And so in addition to looking for, this will definitely help us with employment opportunities and increasing those.”
Conque said with the proposal comes the spirit programs, making sure to Rally the Valley. And on the athletic side, bringing female sports and Division 1 football.
“As you know this proposal includes four particular programs, but it’s much bigger than just these programs,” he said. “This is about transforming our experience. This is about transforming the Rio Grande Valley.”
Football games will take place in Hidalgo and Cameron counties, Conque said.
“Let’s make Saturday the time when we Rally the Valley. We bring all of our communities together,” he said.
“You have the chance to leave a legacy and not even pay the increase in the fee,” Hinojosa said.
Students should start looking into the referendum, what it is going to do, how it will affect them and to vote, said Roy Cantu, senior political science and philosophy major.
Asked what word he would use to describe the referendum, Cantu replied, “Excited. Definitely excited because, I mean, a lot of folks talk about how a lot of folks leave the Valley to go have the college experience, to have the tailgates, to have Friday night. I know A&M just beat Alabama and if you saw that game, it was crazy. It was a crazy game. … Having a football team at a college level is definitely going to be something.”
On the Brownsville campus, current and former students spoke in favor and against increasing the athletics fee.
Jonathan Salinas, who graduated in 2015 and served on the SGA from 2013-2015, asked, “Is it ethical to saddle future generations with increased debt, who currently have no say in the matter? Is it ethical, is it moral, to saddle a future generation of this increase who don’t have a say?”
Yahia Al-Qudah, Student Government Association vice president for Brownsville, replied that the fee will benefit future generations.
“So, as a student, I have five other siblings and I want all of them to come to UTRGV one day,” Al-Qudah said. “I am the oldest, the oldest in the family. And right now I have my younger brother. He’s going to UTRGV. Of course he won’t accumulate this fee, but later siblings once they get older and come to UTRGV, they’ll have to pay this fee and I am conscious of this fact. Actually, I would say, you know this is something that will help them. So, this is a pocket of my own family, so I would say it is morally ethical.”
Hinojosa responded that the proposal could not come to fruition without assistance from students.
“With that said, please, please remember the increase in this fee does not solely go to athletics,” she said. “There are three other, well two other, programs that are going to benefit from this particular fee. … Anytime we set a fee structure and we say that that fee is going towards a particular program, it has to and we make sure that that happens.”
Salinas asked Conque and Hinojosa if it was fair to say that the majority of the athletics fee would be allocated to the football program.
Conque replied, “Yeah, a fair statement. Majority would go to support the athletic departments. Yes, football. If you’re looking at dollars and cents, football would receive the most funding.”
In the Brownsville town hall, Juan Almaguer, a graphic and web design senior, said as a College of Fine Arts student he is concerned “that UTRGV, as an accredited institution, wants to move forward with a costly development of these programs.”
“And they are easily and blindly moving forward with this, not really finding a constructive way to mitigate the issues that are already going on,” Almaguer said in an interview with The Rider.
During the town hall, he asked Conque and Hinojosa: “I’m asking you guys, don’t you think it’s a little bit absurd that you guys want to fund these potential and great programs? Don’t get me wrong.”
Almaguer was unable to finish his statement after College of Health Professions Senator and Elections Committee member Carlos Mata, who was holding the microphone, pulled the microphone back toward himself and asked that Almaguer stick to asking questions.
“Sure, don’t you all think it’s a little bit absurd to fund these programs while a college is pretty much ‘hanging on by a thread,’ poor resources, poor funding. I mean, that’s my education, too,” Almaguer said.
“So, I really can’t comment on that, ‘hanging on by a thread,’ right, because I’m not the expert in that area,” Hinojosa said. “I’m not familiar with those particular budgets. I know what we’re committed to as an institution is ensuring a vibrant program that our students in both Edinburg and Brownsville can experience.”
Students will receive an email with the ballot to vote on the athletic fee referendum. Voting will take place from 8 a.m. Nov. 8 to 11:59 p.m. Nov. 10, according to the information presented at the town hall.
