During Tuesday’s State of the Student Body Address, Student Government Association President Alondra Galvan delivered a presentation outlining the association’s ongoing projects and elaborated on an issue that is important to her–campus inclusion.
“Creating that community, that environment, to make all our Vaqueros feel included, that is something that we are continuing to strive for,” Galvan told an audience in the PlainsCapital Bank El Gran Salón.
The goal of campus inclusion is to make any student who is new to the university feel welcome and ensure that all students are aware of the services that are available to them. SGA is doing this by creating opportunities to showcase the services being offered.
SGA is the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s official student representation and provides students with various resources to better their college experience.
Some of these resources include the Special Travel Fund, which allows SGA the ability to provide funding for students who will travel to conferences and competitions.
“We are actually drafting new guidelines to make sure that the services extend to the entire student body,” Galvan said.
She updated the campus community about several ongoing projects, including enhancing online student experience by helping them get access to the same resources that traditional students have.
“[As an online student] UTRGV was able to send me to Austin for a legislative internship and I was able to see the areas we should focus on to make sure that our online students are able to get all the resources and all the opportunities that physical students can obtain,” Galvan said.
Another subject discussed during the address was improving security across campus and making sure that the Edinburg and Brownsville campuses have equal resources available to them.
SGA plans to get the funding to license an app that will be available for students to use in order to ensure safety on campus.
“I did a letter of support to get the funding for it, but I am waiting for a response from them and the University Police Department to see if we’ll get it or not,” she said.
UTRGV President Guy Bailey said he thoroughly enjoyed the event and “really appreciates the SGA’s presentation, because it’s important that the students know what they’re doing and that the entire student body provides input.”
Galvan also swore in four new students into the First Year Internship Program. The program’s freshmen intern and learn about SGA, for a possible run for office the following year. The interns are Roy Cantu, Cesar Torres, Rosa Sanchez and Luis Gerardo Gonzalez.
The SGA will host another State of the Student Body Address at 12:15 p.m. Thursday in the University Ballroom on the Edinburg campus.
