Changes on campus

The opening of new buildings on the UTRGV Brownsville and Edinburg campuses has led to the relocation of some departments and offices.

Marta Salinas-Hovar, Facilities Planning and Operations associate vice president,said the reason for the changes on the Brownsville campus was to move out of the Texas Southmost College lease spaces and save the university money.

“The departments that have moved recently [on] the Brownsville campus include the music department and some faculty,” Salinas-Hovar said. “Mainly, I believe from the Liberal Arts college and these were people that were in the music, in some of the TSC lease spaces that involved the Music Building, Eidman Hall and the [SET-B MO] building.”

In Brownsville:

–Student Media moved to the second floor of the Student Union (BSTUN 2.16)

–the UTRGV Chess program also moved to the second floor of the Student Union (BSTUN 2.28)

–Veterans Upward Bound moved to  Cortez Hall 220

–the Counseling Center moved to the Student Union 2.10

–the Learning Center moved to Music, Science and Learning Center 2.107

–Engaged Scholarship and Learning moved to Student Union 1.20B

–Culture for Diversity & Inclusion is a new office that will be located in Student Union  1.20A

–the Game Room reopened in Student Union 1.10

–the Student Union office reopened in Student Union 1.16

–Student Organizations moved to Cavalry 100

–IT moved to Casa Bella Building 6

When contacted about the changes on the Edinburg campus, the Facilities office told The Rider that the relocations in Edinburg were not as impactful as the ones in Brownsville.

According to an article published by The Rider on Feb. 19, UTRGV is also expanding its main campuses with two more projects: the Brownsville Interdisciplinary Academic Building (BINAB) and the Edinburg Interdisciplinary Engineering and Academics Studies Building (IEASB). Both are under construction.

University Police changed its emergency phone number and is integrating a new mobile app.

The department changed its emergency numbers to accommodate students on both campuses.

“The reason is that the numbers we had were from the previous institutions, UT Brownsville and UT Pan American … so we need to consolidate them,” Police Chief Raul Munguia said. “The thing is, if our students are coming across the Rio Grande Valley to the different sites and we didn’t want them having to think, ‘Where am I right now? [How do I] get a hold of the UTRGV Police Department?’ So, that’s why we consolidated to one number, so it’s not confusing for them.”

The University Police new numbers are 882-7777 for its directory and 882-4911 for campus emergencies.

Additionally, the department introduced CampusShield, a free app that aims to increase and ensure student and staff safety.

“It’s an opt-in and basically [has] several features on the app,” Munguia said.

According to the University Police website, CampuShield’s  key features include an emergency button, anonymous report option, FriendWatch, Safe Walk and shuttle schedule.

For a more information about CampusShield and its functions, visit the UTRGV Police website.

The UTRGV Career Center also transitioned its Career Connection application on the university’s website to Handshake during the summer.

In an interview with The Rider, Career Center Associate Director Lourdes Servantes said Handshake is the newest job and event management system that allows students to look for jobs, network with fellow peers and request appointments with the department’s staff. 

Asked why it changed to Handshake, Servantes replied, “Sometimes you are given systems and they don’t always meet the needs of our student body and the system [Career Connection] that we had previously, although it was a good system and it had its purpose, it necessarily didn’t have some of the features that this system [Handshake] has. It increased functionality [and] improved services for our students.”

Handshake is more user-friendly, offers a mobile platform and makes job recommendations based on students’ interests, majors and skill, according to the Career Center’s website.

“It is much more user-friendly, now that it also comes with an online mobile app, which at this point in time is only available only for iOS users, Apple users, but now there is a mobile app,” Servantes said.

For more information about Handshake, call the Career Center at 665-2243 in Edinburg or 882-5627 in Brownsville.