UTRGV departments and organizations will present their funding requests for Fiscal Year 2019 to the Student Fee Advisory Committee beginning Feb. 9.
SFAC meetings will be conducted simultaneously on both campuses through video chat.
“We will be meeting to discuss how to distribute the funds collected from the student service fees,” said Nick Weimer, assistant vice president for Student Success and SFAC chair. “We do it in accordance to the Texas Education Code, Section 54.503.”
The SFAC was also scheduled to meet last Friday to review current-year (FY 2018) one-time requests.
UTRGV Student Success Vice President Kristin Croyle told The Rider SFAC meetings are important assemblies that allow the university to “transparently allocate student fees so the fees students are paying are allocated to the programs that [students value and benefit from].”
The meetings are open to the campus community.
Weimer, along with five student representatives and four university representatives, will vote on where to allocate the funds received from student fees across the university.
Members are
–Peter Averack, student representative
–Ian Sumega, student representative
–Oscar Trujillo, student representative
–Alejandro Saldivar, student representative
–Denisce Palacios, student representative
–Karla Loya, university representative
–Marcela De León, university representative
–Douglas Stoves, university representative
–Hilda Silva, university representative
–Frances Rivera, ex officio
–Emilia Saqui, staff support
Last Friday, the committee was also going to review the process, timeline, available funds and distribute FY 2018 SFAC budget requests.
This coming Friday, the committee will meet to select which departments will present.
“We are inviting members who come and submit requests to come and present publicly at our meetings to give more information about what they’re requesting and how it serves the students,” Weimer said.
SFAC meetings will continue throughout February and March from 1:30-5 p.m in Life and Health Sciences Building 2.604 on the Brownsville campus and in Mathematics and Science Academy building 1.102 on the Edinburg campus.
The Texas Education Code, Section 54.503, requires that the SFAC “conduct meetings at which a quorum is present in a manner that is open to the public and in accordance with procedures prescribed by the president of the institution.”
Moreover, the code section also states the procedures prescribed by the president must provide for notice of the date, hour, place and subject of the meeting at least 72 hours before the meeting is convened, according to the law.
Other requirements are
–posting notice of the meeting on the internet
–publishing a notice in a student newspaper of the institution, if an issue of the newspaper is published between the time of the internet posting and the time of the meeting
–the final recommendations made by a student fee advisory committee must be recorded and made public
Weimer said this is his first time chairing the committee.
“I am excited to be a part of it,” he said. “I think we have a great group of committee members this year who are all very dedicated to the university, because this is a very time-consuming process and they’re all doing it on a volunteer basis. We greatly appreciate their service to the university and everything they’re doing for our students.”
To view the upcoming SFAC meetings, visit utrgv.edu/sfac.
