The Student Government Association met Feb. 3 and 10 to discuss matters concerning campus safety, shuttle services and the fulfillment of duties of certain officer positions.
Richard Costello, director of Environmental Health, Safety and Risk Management, spoke at the Feb. 10 meeting about the mobile equipment policy, which could restrict the use of bicycles, skateboards and other equipment in certain areas on each campus.
“We have an increased number of individuals using mobile equipment–with that we’ve seen a significant amount of complaints,” Costello said. “Basically, the issue is a lack of respect for pedestrians.”
There have been two reported instances in which students were severely injured while using mobile equipment; one was a bicyclist who was hit by a vehicle while using a crosswalk, and the other was an individual on a skateboard who crashed into a post on the covered walkway while trying to veer away from pedestrians.
“When we look at liability on an institutional campus–the institution is not going to be held responsible for paying for any injuries,” Costello said. “What our issue is, in the event that a pedestrian gets injured, and we don’t have any policy in place to protect them–then, ultimately, the university could be held at risk.”
“The policy will most likely ban skateboards and bicycles on the covered walkway in the Edinburg campus and on the Resaca bridge in the Brownsville campus,” Costello said.
The details of the policy are still being discussed. A completed policy will be announced at a later date.
At the Feb. 3 meeting, Costello and University Police Chief Raul Munguia spoke about the possibility of removing the blue emergency phones and received ideas from the SGA for replacing those services.
Munguia said service provider AT&T ended its 2G systems on Dec. 31, leaving most of the phones located further away from the center of campus out of service.
The university is now faced with the decision of either removing the affected phones, or replacing them, which could cost between $8,500 and $10,000 per phone. Failure to replace or remove them could result in a lawsuit for not maintaining current equipment, Costello said.
“It does not appear that they have ever really been used,” Munguia said. “We looked back at the records to see how many true emergency calls we had taken, and we had zero–we had one call in Brownsville that was a carjacking, which actually turned out to be a false report.”
Costello said the biggest issue associated with maintaining the emergency phones is that unlike other campuses with similar phones, the Wi-Fi connection at UTRGV is not capable of providing service to all of the phones, forcing most of them to function through a cable that ties them directly to the police department.
In order for those cables to comply with safety standards, they need to pass routine inspections, which they often had trouble with due to the humidity in the area obstructing the underground cables.
“In terms of the amount of people who have actually used them, the cost it took to install them, and the cost associated with maintaining them, the numbers don’t add up,” Costello said.
With the removal of the emergency phones, the funds once used to maintain them could be transferred to other projects that could improve safety around campus.
“The phones can give students a sense of security, but it’s interesting that at the state that they are now, covered in caution tape, they seem to have the opposite effect, whereas if they weren’t there at all,” said SGA Senator Kanea Macdonald. “I think it would be a better investment to focus on security cameras and additional lighting.”
A final decision is pending.
Kristina Cantu, chair of the SGA’s campus life and community affairs standing committee, brought up concerns about persistent noncompliance with the “no-smoking” policy on campus and provided an update on the status of the new Vaquero Express Connector shuttles.
“There was some issues with the paperwork at Valley Metro, and we are now about five months behind schedule,” Cantu said. “We probably will not be seeing the shuttles this semester, but hopefully in the fall.”
During the comments and announcements portion of the meeting, SGA Associate Justice Marcelina Gutierrez brought up a concern about Alondra Galvan, the SGA vice president in Brownsville, not being able to fulfill her constitutional duties due to her current internship in Austin.
“Although the internship is a great opportunity for her, it does come with dire consequences,” Gutierrez said. “Although many of her duties may be done via teleconference–we have had to make several accommodations for her absences already.”
Galvan told The Rider that although her internship has caused her to be absent from some meetings, she was able to file absence slips when necessary and have it approved since her internship counts as academic credit hours.
“My internship is a class, it is not an extracurricular activity–there are several members who do not attend the senate meetings, but are also excused because they have class,” Galvan said. “There’s been previous vice presidents, as well as other members, who have been in the same position as I’m in. There is nothing in our governing documents that states that someone should be removed because of an internship so long as they fulfill their duties.”
The next SGA meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday in Education Complex 1.102 on the Edinburg campus and Biomedical Research Building 1.222 on the Brownsville campus. Meetings are open to the campus community.
