From the living nightmare that is course registration to the terrible class schedules students manage to hodgepodge together, the pursuit of an art degree at UTRGV is riddled with tragedies.
It is embarrassing that students and staff have to deal with a rodent infestation, droppings and having their work ruined from the conditions of Rusteberg Hall. The School of Art and Design is being overlooked and it is hard to believe that solutions are actually in the works.
Empty promises are all anybody hears at this point. It is also unfortunate to hear about class schedules for students based in Brownsville.
Before the university administration asks where the funding for the School of Art and Design will come from, they should remember how they were willing to ask the University of Texas System Board of Regents for money, consistently request donations and come up with various ways to raise funds for a football team. They sure as hell can figure out where to find the funds to clean the mess that has been ignored for several years now.
Stop acting like any of the art students’ problems brought to your attention at the April 12 town hall are new. On top of that, it doesn’t seem like the same funding is aimed toward the women’s swimming and diving teams or the expansion of the spirit program.
So who is the football team really for?
There is no reason art students should be paying thousands of dollars to a university that doesn’t give enough of a crap about them to try to actually fix problems in the facilities it rents.
Throughout the years, we have seen the university expand and grow, not only in enrollment but in buildings, but sadly this is not the case for the School of Art and Design. Maybe you will see growth on the Edinburg campus, but the Brownsville campus is far from it.
Rusteberg Hall is in horrible condition with rats, broken restrooms, poor plumbing and a shortage of proper equipment. Why should professors and students surround themselves with rat poop and nails jutting from the ceiling?
The university says it cannot make renovations to the building because it’s owned by Texas Southmost College. It is startling to know that these issues prevail, even when both the owner and renter realize the dangers and discomforts they cause.
TSC should be held accountable for the state of the building. As owner, it is its responsibility to ensure that conditions in Rusteberg Hall meet the appropriate safety standards. Art students and faculty are spending long periods of time there.
Does the health and well-being of these individuals stop mattering simply because UTRGV doesn’t own the facility?
It’s still UTRGV’s responsibility to protect its students, faculty and staff, especially if this is the location they have allotted for these individuals. These conditions don’t promote learning and, especially, don’t promote health. Vaqueros deserve their health to be a top priority when it comes to budgeting different departments.
UTRGV will have a $45 million sports facility and will soon have a beer to generate additional revenue for Athletics to spread our “Vaquero Pride.” But art students don’t feel that pride.
The art program in Brownsville deserves a new building, just like music majors received one in 2018. Stop using our student services fee to pay for sports and instead use it to give art students proper facilities and more classes in Brownsville.
It’s not fun traveling to another campus at 7:30 a.m. and not getting home until 10 p.m., all because it was the only way the schedule would work.
Log in to ASSIST, go to course registration for Fall 2023 and input “ARTS” and “Brownsville.” You’ll find 33 classes. Then search for classes in Edinburg, and you’ll find 79.
The Visual Arts Complex in Edinburg has its issues as well. Most of the students in that building are there from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., day in and day out.
There are students taking naps on extremely uncomfortable ottomans in the hallways to catch up on sleep from staying up late to do homework since that is the only time that they can really work on their assignments.
This is a situation that affects all UTRGV students, not just art majors. If they have let this problem go on for literal years, good luck bringing up other concerns that you may have. With no “solution” in sight, it’s as though the university hopes that students forget. Is it too much to ask for transparency?
After countless hours and dollars poured into building the reputation of the school, we are finally able to show everyone just how great the Rio Grande Valley can be. This display of negligence, however, is starting to tarnish the reputation that has been carefully cultivated by members of the community.
It seems like every year, issues are brought up, new students are exposed to the problems, they voice their concerns to university administration and all gets forgotten in the long run.
We only get bandages to fix problems in Rusteberg Hall. Is this what UTRGV is shaping for the future of Texas?
Today it’s the art students rallying and supporting one another for change, but tomorrow, it could be a different college doing the same.
Let’s make it clear we are not trying to sound ungrateful for the recent discussion with top administrators.
We want to thank Ed Pogue, director of the School of Art and Design; Jeffrey Ward, dean of the College of Fine Arts; and Janna Arney, executive vice president and provost, for creating a safe space for art students to voice their concerns and experiences earlier this month.
However, this progress, though slow and small, needs to continue. We ask that in the coming semesters, these issues aren’t forgotten and that every social media post, flyer and voice raised doesn’t go to waste.
To the art students calling for change, we see you, we support you and ask one thing of you: Don’t let them forget.
