‘Are we Vaqueros or rats?’

Town hall discusses growing frustrations about UTRGV art facilities

A town hall forum was held at the Rusteberg Hall in Brownsville Wednesday where UTRGV art students and alumni voiced their questions, concerns and complaints to university officials amidst growing frustration over the quality of conditions.

With the room full of about 70 people, Executive Vice President and Provost Janna Arney, College of Fine Art Dean James Ward and School of  Art and Design Director Ed Pogue were in attendance. 

“We needed an opportunity to present [the issues] and that gives us the opportunity to respond and then open up the floor for comments and questions and a dialogue,” Ward said at the beginning of the town hall. “… You’re upset, and we know and agree. We’re upset, too. And this is a dialogue to help us find solutions.”

 A group of students wearing T-shirts that read “Are we Vaqueros or rats?” started the meeting with a presentation.  

The presentation featured information about the College of Fine Arts, the major concerns art students have with the Rusteberg Hall, safety, lack of materials, faculty, class availability, transportation between campuses and student testimonials.  

Rusteberg Hall, which is currently leased by UTRGV from Texas Southmost College, is a major concern for the students. 

Issues students brought up were: outdated furniture, not enough classroom space, water leaks, plumbing, pest infestations and problems with ventilation, especially when working with hazardous materials. 

Arney said a short-term solution would be moving students to an adequate space until they achieve a long-term solution, such as constructing a new building on the Brownsville campus. 

“Our No. 1 ask in [the Texas Legislative Session] is a building on this campus,” she said. “The [Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics] building, which will be an integrated building that will, hopefully, once and for all, allow us to move out into new space from our lease space. … That’s our No. 1 priority … for our legislature and our No. 1 priority for the [University of Texas] System and those are our two funding sources for new space.” 

During the meeting, Arney said a short-term solution is space replacement, which has been an ongoing process. She added that two spaces have fallen through and they are currently looking for a third. 

“We have not given up. We’ve continued to look,” she said. “We were given a tip on a different solution earlier this year and that did not work, and now we’re on the third [space replacement] just in this calendar year.” 

Arney said “nothing is on a timeline” as to when solutions will, or ever, be put into place. 

She said every issue brought up to UTRGV is taken to TSC. The university then advocates for what students want, the lease permitting.

UTRGV is not allowed to legally renovate the building to better handle the students’ needs but what they can do is hold them accountable, Arney said. 

Some short-term goals the presenters want for next semester are supplying students with art supplies, better furniture, safety equipment, improving the ventilation in the building and getting rid of the pest problem. 

“We wanted to try to do an extermination for the pests, that also includes possums and mice, not just rats,” said studio art senior Yantel Márquez during the meeting. “So, rodents in general. I know that one professor said that there is mice feces on his office desk and it’s hard for him to work there and he has to clean it every single day. … It’s extremely saddening to see that the staff has to put up with all of these problems.” 

Arney said the short-term goal for the rodent infestation will have to follow the terms of the lease UTRGV has with TSC, but “we will continue to put pressure to make sure that it’s taken care of adequately.” 

With frustrations growing during the meeting, students spoke passionately about their comments, complaints and questions toward the university officials, some even asking about suing TSC over tenant rights due to issues with the building. 

“I just want to be really clear, you don’t need to convince me of what I see and what I’ve experienced,” Arney said. “I’m not the enemy here. I am here to listen. I’m here to understand, and I’m here to advocate for you. And, so, it is easy to say ‘just sue.’ Nothing is quite that easy. And I’m not going to comment on that because it would be inappropriate.” 

Sean Hughes, a studio art sophomore who attended the forum, brought up concerns about the number of art faculty and class availability offered on the Brownsville campus. 

“My question was to bring up if [the Edinburg and Brownsville campuses art programs are] equal, and that’s what I was questioning as far as asking for the number of faculty and the amount of classes being offered here compared to Edinburg,” Hughes said. “We’re almost treated like a satellite campus and, so, I think the question was more about equity. Are we equal to that?” 

He said he understands changes might not go into effect until next semester but hopes the town halls and students advocating for more will reflect in years to come for the future generation of art students. 

“Majority of students in [the town hall] are going to be graduated by the time they decide to even build a building,” he said. “So, those long-term projects mean very little but, hopefully, when they become alumni though, they’ll appreciate it and what they did by getting a little more momentum for the cause.” 

The College of Fine Arts will host its next town hall meeting from 1 to 2 p.m. April 26 at the Albert L. Jeffers Theatre in Liberal Arts Building South on the Edinburg campus. 

“I just want to be happy to be [in Rusteberg Hall] … because sometimes I feel like, sometimes, I avoid being here because of the state it’s in,” Márquez told The Rider after the meeting. “… I’m also kind of worried about what’s going to happen in the future. It sounded like they kind of said the same things beforehand, like other town hall meetings. So, I hope this was, like, an eye-opener for future references because I’m not [going to] stop posting on social media.”