After presenting his concerns to the Student Government Association, kinesiology sophomore Rodrigo Ruiz’s transportation request for students from Rio Grande City to UTRGV has been granted.
“There are a lot of students who take classes in the Rio Grande City campus, but they did not have any transportation,” SGA President Alondra Galvan said. “We did have a student go to the senate meeting and present [his concerns]. … I did receive a lot of emails from students and a lot of SGA V Link concern forms filled out regarding students wanting transportation from Rio Grande City.”
During a Sept. 15 meeting, Ruiz asked the SGA to review his petition, which requests shuttle transportation from Rio Grande City to Edinburg and Brownsville.
Galvan told The Rider she and some members of the SGA met with UTRGV President Guy Bailey, Finance and Administration Vice President Rick Anderson, Campus Auxiliary Services Assistant Vice President Letty Benavides, Auxiliary Business Services Executive Director Roberto Cantu and Parking and Transportation Services Director Rodney Gomez to discuss the issue.
The SGA presented emails it had received from Rio Grande City students, V Link concern forms and previously-published transportation articles from The Rider to Bailey and his team, Galvan said.
“We did recommend to the department, ‘Can you please go to Rio Grande City? Talk to the students. There, you’ll be able to know how many students need it,” she said. “The department did do that. … They did go to Rio Grande City. They did an open house.”
The SGA president said after gathering information from its visit to Rio Grande City, the university reached out to Valley Metro to discuss a solution.
“There is a current bus called Jag Express Green Line and that line, actually, goes already from [South Texas College], which is right next to the Rio Grande City campus for UTRGV. That route already exists. However, it just doesn’t arrive [to] the UTRGV Edinburg campus.”
University officials spoke with Valley Metro representatives to see if the Jag Express shuttle can make a stop on the Edinburg campus.
The service will be available Monday.
Galvan said the service will have two routes available in the morning and afternoon.
“The Jag Express is going to go to the Rio Grande [City] campus,” she said. “At 6 a.m., it’s going to leave. Then, it’ll arrive at 7:30 a.m. at the McAllen STC Pecan campus and it’ll arrive at the UTRGV campus at 8 a.m.”
The other route will leave the Rio Grande City campus at 6:40 a.m. and arrive at 8:10 a.m. in McAllen. The shuttle is expected to arrive at UTRGV at 8:40 a.m.
In the afternoon, the shuttle will depart from the UTRGV Edinburg campus at 4:45 p.m. It is scheduled to arrive in McAllen at 5:35 p.m. and in Rio Grande City at 7:05 p.m.
Another shuttle will leave at 5:50 p.m. from Edinburg and at 6:30 p.m. from McAllen. The shuttle is scheduled to arrive in Rio Grande City at 8 p.m.
Galvan told The Rider students needed the most help getting to Edinburg from Rio Grande City, according to the information gathered at the open house.
Asked if the new service would make a stop on the Brownsville campus, the SGA president replied, “[The Parking and Transportation Department] said no one requested [the service] from Brownsville.”
Gomez confirmed this to The Rider. The parking and transportation director said the new service would cost his department about $8,000 in labor and maintenance for the remainder of the fall semester.
To view the new transportation guide, click here.
In other transportation concerns, the SGA requested the placement of tents by the shuttle stop on each campus.
“That way, [the tents] can act like a little shelter,” Galvan said. “That won’t only help us with rain, but also with the heat. In Brownsville, there’s no trees that help us. In Edinburg, there is but you’re far from the line.”
The SGA also recommended a staff member to be present during shuttle arrivals to help organize a line and maintain safety, even though no safety concerns have been raised.
Another recommendation made to the Parking and Transportation department was adding stanchions to keep the line organized, said Gabriela Castorena, the SGA vice president for the Brownsville campus.
Galvan and Castorena said the SGA will continue to do its best to identify student concerns in effort to resolve them.
“We’re already in mid-semester but we’re very excited [for] what’s coming up,” Castorena said. “We’re working very hard with [several] departments and we’re trying to improve for students to have the best services that they can. … Whatever concerns [students] have, [they] can always come to us so we can have another approach toward it and to work with them.”
The SGA office is located in Student Union 1.28 on the Brownsville campus and in University Center 218 on the Edinburg campus.
For more information, call 665-2514 in Edinburg and 882-5111 in Brownsville or email at sga@utrgv.edu.
